Use impact ratings to decide which changes deserve attention first. Read the admin and user ratings separately: a change can require substantial administrator work while barely changing the user experience, or the reverse.
Admin impact
Admin impact helps you assess the operational work a change may create for IT. Review the summary and Microsoft message for configuration, policy, security, retirement, testing or service-management implications. The beta shows High, Medium and Low ratings.
User impact
User impact helps adoption, communications and service-desk teams identify changes to people's everyday experience. A change with Low admin impact can still have High user impact if people need guidance or a different way of working.
Microsoft change category
Microsoft change categories describe the type of announcement. Actionable includes Prevent or fix issue and Plan for change. Plan for action is not a supported category. Read the actual item to understand the work required.
Use the ratings in a review
Choose High Admin Impact for an IT operations review, or High User Impact for an adoption review.
Filter to the products you support.
Open each relevant item and read the actions and dates in the Microsoft message.
Check your own licences, configuration and usage before deciding whether to act.
An impact rating is not a tenant-specific risk assessment, a severity guarantee or a completion status. Low impact does not mean “ignore”; a narrow change may still matter greatly to your organisation.
When a rating seems unexpected
Check both ratings and the complete announcement, including any updates. If you believe the rating or summary is misleading, contact the team through in-app help with the item ID and the part that needs review.