Bookshelf v7.7: About Assignment Criteria and Criteria Methods

Assignment criteria are the fundamental building blocks for assignment rules. The assignment business logic you determined is translated into assignment criteria. Criteria are the conditions that the candidates must satisfy in order to qualify for assignment to a particular work item. For example, if you want an assignment requirement that employees speak German before a service request is assigned, then you should use the Language criterion. Assignment criteria are usually defined along with criteria values. Language is the assignment criterion and German (or DEU, which is the language code for German) is the criterion value. There may be several criteria values for the same criteria (1:M relationship). For example, if you want activities of type Repair or Break-fix handled by a certain employee, create a criterion called Activity Type with two criteria values, Repair and Break-fix. An assignment rule can include none, one, or many criteria.

Assignment Criteria Comparison Methods

Table 6 provides the types of comparison methods each criteria uses to determine if candidates meet the criteria.

Table 6. Assignment Criteria Comparison Methods
Comparison Method	Description1
Compare to Object	Compares criteria values to object attributes. The criterion passes if the objects possess the criteria values. For example, Account Zip Code = 94040.
Compare to Person	Compares criteria values to attributes of person candidates (employees or positions). Person candidates that possess the attributes required by the criterion qualify for this criterion. For example, language = ENU.
Compare Object to Person	Compares object attributes to attributes of person candidates (employees or positions). Person candidates that possess the attributes required by the object qualify for this criterion. For example, product means compare the product of the opportunity and the product skills of the person or position.
Compare to Organization	Compares criteria values to organization attributes. Organizations that possess the attributes required by the criterion qualify for this criterion. For example, type = gold-level partner.
Compare Object to Organization	Compares object attributes to organization attributes. Organizations that possess the attributes required by the object qualify for this criterion. For example, zipcode means compare the zipcode of the service request and the zipcode of the organization.

1Attributes (object or candidate) can be either attributes or skills depending on the criterion value.

Depending on the comparison method, candidates that meet the criteria have the criteria score added to their total score as follows:

NOTE: Assignment rules can be created with no criteria. A rule of this nature functions to make sure all data items of a particular object type are assigned, that is, all objects of the defined type pass. Use these rules carefully as a rule defined with no criteria can make assignments that are not required.

You should be especially careful creating rules with no criteria using batch assignment. This mode can produce a very large number of assignments, because all objects in the database that have rules with no criteria pass and are assigned in this mode. This can result in a backlog of requests that may cause the whole environment to stop working if the database or file system runs out of space. Therefore, assignment rules with no criteria should be used sparingly with batch assignment.

Assignment Criteria Inclusion Methods

Table 7. Assignment Criteria Inclusion Methods
Inclusion Method	Comments
Include	At least one value needs to match: For Compare to Object, the object attribute must match at least one listed criteria value. For Compare to Person, the person attribute must match at least one listed criteria value. For Compare Object to Person, at least one value of the person attribute must match one value of the object attributes. For Compare to Organization, the organization attribute must match at least one listed criteria value. For Compare Object to Organization, at least one value of the organization attribute must match one value of the object attributes. Assignment Manager stops processing criteria when one value is matched and the score of the matching criterion value is added to the candidate's score.
Include All	All values must match: For Compare to Object, the object attribute must match all listed criteria values. For Compare to Person, the person attribute must match all listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Person, all values of the person attribute must match all values of the object attribute. For Compare to Organization, the organization attribute must match all listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Organization, all values of the object attribute must match all values of the organization attribute. If the criterion is met, all the criteria value scores are added to the candidate's score. However, if just one of the criteria are not met, then Assignment Manager stops processing the rule.
Include All Matching	This inclusion method matches in the same manner as the Include inclusion method, that is, at least one value needs to match. However, unlike the Include method, Assignment Manager continues to process this criterion until all criterion values are exhausted. As a result, the scores from all passing criterion values are added to the candidate's score. TIP: The Include All Matching inclusion method matches like the Include inclusion method but scores like the Include All inclusion method.
Exclude	None of the values must match: For Compare to Object, the object attribute must not match any of the listed criteria values. For Compare to Person, the person attribute must not match any of the listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Person, no values of the person attribute can match any values of the object attribute. For Compare to Organization, the organization attribute must not match any of the listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Organization, no values of the organization attribute can match any values of the object attribute. Note that for this inclusion method, criterion value scores are ignored. If the criterion is met, only the criterion score is added to the candidate's score.