Incident categories help users classify requests consistently and help your team route them efficiently. This guide walks you through adding new category or subcategory values to the classification system.
Why incident categories exist
Without structured categories, users type whatever they want in description fields — 'email broken', 'outlook not working', 'can't get mail' all describe the same issue. Your assignment groups spend time reading incident descriptions to figure out what's actually wrong, and reporting becomes a nightmare because there's no consistent way to group similar issues. IT managers need clean data to spot trends and measure team performance, and support agents need predictable routing so incidents reach the right resolver quickly.
How incident categorization works
ServiceNow stores categories and subcategories as choice lists, not separate tables — this keeps the data lightweight but means you manage values differently than you would reference records. Category and subcategory have a dependent relationship: each subcategory belongs to exactly one parent category, and changing the category filters which subcategories appear. The sequence field controls display order within each group. Start with broad categories that match your major service areas, then add subcategories that distinguish between the types of issues each team handles.
Expanding your categorization scheme
Once basic categories work, consider adding business rules that auto-populate category based on configuration item type or assignment group. Many teams also create category-based assignment rules so incidents route automatically without manual triage. Advanced implementations sync category values with external tools like monitoring systems or use transform maps to standardize categories when importing incidents from email or APIs.
Before you start
- •admin role or incident_admin role
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Step by step
Navigate to category administration
Go to Incident > Administration > Categories. You'll see a list view showing existing categories with their labels, values, and sequence numbers. The Value field is what gets stored in the database — keep it short and avoid spaces or special characters.
Use the search box to check if a similar category already exists before creating a new one.
Create the parent category
Click New to create a category record. Set Table to 'Incident [incident]' and Element to 'category'. Enter your category name in the Label field (what users see) and a corresponding code in the Value field (what gets stored). Set Language to 'en' for English. Set Sequence to a round number like 100 — this controls display order and leaves room for insertions later.
Start sequence numbers at 100 and increment by 10 so you can insert categories between existing ones without renumbering.
Configure category properties
Leave Dependent value blank since this is a parent category. Check Active to make it available for selection. The Hint field is optional but useful for explaining what belongs in this category. Click Submit to save the category record.
Write hints that help users choose between similar categories — 'Hardware problems with physical devices' vs 'Software application issues'.
Add the first subcategory
Click New again to create a subcategory. Set Table to 'Incident [incident]' but change Element to 'subcategory'. Enter the subcategory name in Label and corresponding code in Value. In the Dependent value field, select the parent category you just created — this creates the parent-child relationship.
Keep subcategory values short and descriptive — they often appear in reports and dashboards where space is limited.
Set subcategory sequence and properties
Set Sequence to control the order this subcategory appears within its parent category. Use the same increment pattern (100, 110, 120). Ensure Active is checked and add a descriptive Hint if needed. Click Submit to save the subcategory record.
Order subcategories by frequency of use — put the most common ones first to reduce clicking for agents.
Test the category relationship
Open any incident record and navigate to the Classification tab. Select your new category from the Category dropdown — the Subcategory dropdown should automatically populate with only the subcategories that belong to your category. This confirms the dependent value relationship is working correctly.
If subcategories don't appear, check that you selected the correct parent in the Dependent value field and that both records are Active.
Add remaining subcategories
Repeat steps 4-5 for each additional subcategory under this parent. Maintain consistent sequence numbering and ensure all Dependent value fields point to the correct parent category. Consider grouping related subcategories with sequential numbers to keep them together in the dropdown.
Plan for 3-7 subcategories per parent — more than that usually means your parent category is too broad.
Best practices
Keep category values short and alphanumeric — they're stored in the database and appear in integrations where special characters cause problems.
Never reuse a Value that was previously deleted — old incidents still reference the deleted value and reports can break if you reassign it.
Use consistent naming patterns across categories — if you abbreviate 'Hardware' as 'HW' in one category, do it everywhere.
Don't create single-subcategory parents — if a category only has one subcategory, just use the parent category alone.
Test category changes on a sub-prod instance first — modifying choice lists affects every incident form and can break assignment rules or business rules that reference specific values.
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