Mean Time to Resolve, or MTTR, is the average time needed to bring an incident to its defined resolution state.
The exact end point must be agreed in advance. Depending on the workflow, resolution may mean service restoration, containment, recovery, or formal closure after validation. A clean metric should distinguish resolution from later root cause analysis and improvement work.
Teams improve MTTR by reducing avoidable delay in:
- Context gathering
- Ownership and escalation
- Decision-making
- Handoffs
- Containment and recovery
- Closure documentation
MTTR is most useful when read alongside impact, severity, recurrence, and response quality rather than treated as a standalone score.