ICE Scoring Guide
ICE scoring helps you prioritize issues by rating them on three dimensions: Impact, Confidence, and Ease. ISO Mate calculates a weighted score that accounts for issue type and source, giving you a data-driven way to order your backlog.
What is ICE?
ICE is a prioritization framework where each issue is rated on three factors from 1.0 to 10.0:
- Impact: How much value or improvement will this issue deliver?
- Confidence: How certain are you about the impact and effort estimates?
- Ease: How easy is this issue to implement?
All three scores must be provided together. You cannot set just one or two.
The Formula
The ICE score is calculated as:
((Impact + Confidence + Ease) / 3) × Type Weight × Source Multiplier
Type Weights
Different issue types carry different weights to reflect their typical urgency:
- Bug: 1.3× (defects are prioritized higher)
- Task: 1.1×
- Story, Epic, Subtask: 1.0× (baseline)
This means a Bug and a Story with identical Impact, Confidence, and Ease scores will produce different ICE scores, with the Bug scoring 30% higher.
Source Multiplier
Each issue can be tagged with a source to indicate where the request originated:
- Internal: 1.0× multiplier (default)
- External: 1.25× multiplier
External issues, such as customer-reported bugs or partner feature requests, receive a 25% boost to reflect their business impact.
Setting ICE Scores
- Open an issue from the backlog, sprint view, or release view.
- Click the ICE score badge or the ICE Scoring button.
- Use the sliders to set Impact, Confidence, and Ease (1.0 to 10.0 in 0.1 increments).
- Select the source: Internal or External.
- The dialog shows a live preview of the computed score, the type weight, and the source multiplier.
- Click Save to apply the scores.
Score Colors
ICE scores are color-coded for quick visual scanning:
- Green: Score above 7 (high priority)
- Amber: Score between 4 and 7 (medium priority)
- Red: Score below 4 (lower priority)
Sorting and Filtering
Sort the backlog, sprint view, or release view by ICE score (descending) to surface the highest-value work. Filter issues by source (Internal or External) to focus on specific request origins. Use bulk operations to update the source for multiple issues at once.
Calculation Examples
- Bug with Impact 8, Confidence 7, Ease 6, Internal: ((8+7+6)/3) × 1.3 × 1.0 = 9.10
- Story with Impact 5, Confidence 5, Ease 5, External: ((5+5+5)/3) × 1.0 × 1.25 = 6.25
- Task with Impact 9, Confidence 8, Ease 4, Internal: ((9+8+4)/3) × 1.1 × 1.0 = 7.70
Export
ICE fields (Impact, Confidence, Ease, ICE Score, and Source) are included in CSV and PDF exports with localized column headers