Task Creation and Assignment
Core Process
About Task Creation and Assignment
Task creation and assignment is the process used to create at least one task for a new request and assign it to a person who performs the work.
About Tasks
Tasks are the smallest unit that can record work. Tasks have the following characteristics:
- Tasks record work that needs to be done of a certain type
- Tasks have a defined duration
- Tasks can be assigned to teams and persons
- Tasks can have associated skills
- Tasks can be scheduled using Schedule Board or dynamic scheduling
- Many tasks can be associated with one request, which records the general information about the customer
- Tasks are normally created using task templates to default information
Task Creation and Assignment Process Description
Task Creation and Assignment Process Details
Tasks are created by one of the following:
- A single task is created manually
- One or more tasks are created automatically
Tasks are assigned by one of the following:
- A single task is manually assigned to a team and person using first available scheduling.
- A single task is manually assigned to a team and person using appointment scheduling.
- One or more tasks are automatically assigned to teams
About Manual Assignment
Manual assignment is creating a task and selecting a person to assign to the task. You set up business rules to create the task and perform work assignment. Clicking the Assign button on the Request screen explicitly calls these rules.
Task Creation
Task templates must be created to default certain information on the task, which are required by the Task Selection rule (process 01). You set up task templates for the types of work your organization usually performs. For unusual work, create a blank task by clicking New on the Task tab of the Request screen or on the Task screen.
Work Assignment
Assignment is the process of assigning a team and optionally a person to a task. The Work Assignment rule (process 04) is used to perform assignment. If the rule is not set up, or no rule matches the rule inputs, WORK_DEL_DEF_TEAM_ID and WORK_DEL_DEF_PERSON_ID application parameter values are used to create a default assignment.
You can specify any information on a task as an input parameter. The output parameter is one or more of person ID, team ID, or person substitution. The following table shows how combinations of team and person or person substitution result in the described work assignment:
Team |
Person |
Assignment |
| Team ID | Person ID | Assign to the specified team and specified person. |
| Team ID | NULL | Assign to the specified team. |
| Team ID | not specified | If appointment booking is enabled, show a Task Assign window with available time slots for qualified people in the specified team; otherwise, assign to the team specified. |
| Team ID | @ | Show a Task Assign window with all team members and their earliest available time. |
| Not specified | person_relationship code | Assign to the person with the code specified person to product relationship. |
| Not specified | place_relationship code | Assign to the person with the specified person to place relationship. |
Skill information assists you in selecting the appropriate person. Skills are specified on the Person record, the Place record, the Model record, and the Task Template record. Skills then appear on the Task screen and you can manually add or remove skills as required.
Skill levels are compared and the percentage match appears as a score on the Task Assign window. Persons appear sorted by score from highest to lowest. If you specify a value for the APPT_MIN_SKILL_SCORE application parameter, a person with a score lower than the specified minimum does not appear.
Appointment Scheduling
The appointment scheduling feature is used to view persons and their available times slots within a specified window. For example, you can specify a window of seven days beginning tomorrow, and each person with available time slots two hours or longer all appear. You then assign the time slot that your customer prefers.
Application parameters determine the length of the window, when it begins, and the size of the time slots.
About Automatic Assignment
You can use automatic assignment to always assign a team and person based on information found on the request or request unit. The Task Set Selection rule (process 09) is used to assign a task set. A task set is a grouping of task templates, and is defined on a code table. Task sets normally contain more than one task template. Using the task set, multiple tasks can be created at once.
When you save a request, using either information on the request or the request unit (product), the Task Set Selection rule (process 09) performs the following:
- Creates tasks using templates specified in a task set.
- Assigns each task using Work Assignment rules (process 04).
About Task Succession
Task succession is the automatic creation of one or more new tasks when a task is complete. For example, based on a task status that includes “complete” as one of its attributes, you can automatically follow a diagnosis task with a repair task. You can create one task or all tasks in a task set when you complete either one task or all tasks in a task set. Business rules are used to automate this process based on parameters you specify.