A hierarchy which categorizes Building Systems Maintenance activities has been developed. This hierarchy represents the relative importance of various maintenance activities. For example, activities that affect the life safety (e.g. fire alarm testing, fume hood certification) of the campus community are considered more important than routine maintenance that only affects aesthetics (e.g. painting).

The categories are:

Fire, Life Safety, Indoor Air Quality, Regulatory
Maintenance of building systems involving life safety and mandated regulatory compliance

Building Preservation
Maintenance required to avoid deterioration of building systems such as roof leaks, plumbing leaks, heating

Occupied Necessities
Lighting, electrical service, lock repair, lavatory plumbing, sewers, classroom seating

Unique Program Support
Specialty systems supporting laboratories, classrooms, lecture halls and auditoriums such as compressed air, compressed gasses, fume hoods, writing boards, seating

Ad Hoc Departmental Requests
Requests from departments that do not fall into one of the above categories such as maintenance of departmentally owned equipment, moveable furniture and specialize systems not part of the building infrastructure

Aesthetic
Interior surface finishes such as ceiling tile, drywall, painting and floor coverings