Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide > Assignment Methodology, Strategies, and Scenarios >

Assignment Methodology

Siebel Assignment Manager uses the following methodology to assign candidates to assignment objects.

1. Find assignment rules for the object. Find active assignment rules for evaluation for the object being assigned. Assign objects to assignment rules in the Objects to be Assigned field in the Assignment Rules List view. If there are no active rules for the assignment object, default assignees are assigned. In rule group mode, all the active rules for the assignment object belonging to the rule group of the request are processed.

   NOTE:  Assignment Manager evaluates rules in ascending order of the sequence number. For more information about the order in which rules are evaluated, see About Assignment Rule Sequencing.

2. Evaluate assignment criteria for the object. After determining the rules for processing, Assignment Manager processes rules in ascending sequence number order. For each rule, Assignment Manager first evaluates each criterion with the Compare to Object comparison method.

   NOTE:  If criteria marked as Required do not satisfy the object's attributes, then Assignment Manager stops evaluating the assignment rule.

3. Determine a list of candidates from each assignment rule. For each assignment rule that satisfies Step 2, Assignment Manager determines a list of person and organization candidates relevant to the assignment rule, depending on the Person Candidate Source and Organization Candidate Source fields on the assignment rule.
   • Static candidates from rule. If the Person Candidate Source is indicated as From Rule, then:
     • If the assignment object uses position-based assignment, the candidate list includes the positions registered in the Position Candidates view.
     • If the assignment object uses employee-based assignment, the candidate list includes the employees registered in the Employee Candidates view.
   • All People. If the Person Candidate Source is indicated as All People, the candidate list includes all registered employees or positions in the Siebel database.
   • Dynamic candidates. If the Person Candidate Source is the name of a team (such as Activity Account Team or Activity Asset Team), Assignment Manager obtains the candidate list from the team table related to the object row.

     The list of organization candidates for each rule are determined using the same method.

4. Evaluate each candidate against assignment rule criteria. Evaluate each candidate against the criteria using the selected comparison method as described in About Assignment Criteria and Criteria Methods. Workload distribution rules are also processed for each candidate.

   NOTE:  Candidates fail if they do not match any required criterion and are not evaluated further against this rule.

5. Score each qualified candidate for each assignment rule. Scoring of each candidate for an assignment rule is based on the sum of:
   • Assignment rule score
   • Score of each assignment criterion that is satisfied
   • Each assignment criterion value that is satisfied depending on the inclusion method as explained in About Assignment Criteria and Criteria Methods

     Some assignment criteria values (skills) are weighted by expertise.

     • To rank expertise codes, use the Order field in the List of Values view. For procedures, see Creating Expertise Codes.
     • To define expertise weight, use the Weighting Factor field in the List of Values view. For procedures, see Defining Weighting Factors.

       For more information about skills, see About Assignment Skills. For more information about expertise, see Expertise Codes. For more information about weighting factors, see Weighting Factors.

   • Score for the candidate

     For static candidates, this value is specified in the Employees Candidates view, Position Candidates view, or Organization Candidates view. For dynamic candidates, this value is specified in the Score Column property in the Dynamic Candidate object.

   • Criterion that is calculated as the prorated score

     Score based on the current workload of candidates compared to the maximum workload allowed. For more information about workload criteria, see About Assignment Workload Criteria.

     If the Assignment Rule form has the Check Employee Calendar box selected, Assignment Manager uses the availability-based assignment feature to submit employee availability information to the Field Service Appointment Booking System (ABS), which reviews qualified candidates' calendars and work schedules to see who is available to undertake the assignment at the required time. Employees who are not available at the requested time for the specified duration are eliminated.

     At this point, the score for the assignment rule is calculated from either the highest scoring person candidate or organization candidate depending on the value in the Assignment Scoring Mode property for the assignment object.

     For more information about employee availability, see About Availability-Based Assignment. For more information about the Assignment Scoring Mode property, see Object Types Reference.

6. Apply the assignee filter to scored candidates to generate a list of potential assignees. Use the assignee filters to eliminate candidates and determine a final list of assignees. The choices are:
   • All, Above Minimum
   • All, Must Assign
   • One, Best Fit
   • One, Random

     For more information about each of these filters, see Assignee Filter Field.

7. Evaluate exclusive assignment rules and determine the primary assignment rule. If no exclusive assignment rule exists or none of the exclusive rules passed, the assignment rule with the highest score is the primary assignment rule. If all assignment rules do not have a score or more than one rule has the same highest score, then the assignment rule with the lowest row ID is used to break the tie in the process of finding the primary assignment rule. If AddScores is set to TRUE, scores for each candidate are merged across rules and the candidate primaries are calculated based on the total scores.

   If at least one assignment rule marked as exclusive passes, the exclusive assignment rule with the higher score is chosen as the primary rule. Only the assignees in this assignment rule are kept and all the assignees from other assignment rules are ignored.

   If no rules passed or more than one exclusive assignment rule yields the same highest score, Assignment Manager assigns the object to:

   • The default employee for employee-based assignments
   • The default position for position-based assignments
   • The default organization for organization-based assignments

     NOTE:  When two or more exclusive assignment rules have the same score and the Keep Man Asgn Primary Position assignment property is set to TRUE, then the manually assigned primary position is retained and the default position is added to the team as a nonprimary.

8. Determine the primary assignees. Determine the primary assignees from the primary assignment rule:
   • For objects that use employee-based assignments, set the primary assignee to the primary employee selected in the Primary Employee field of the Assignment Rule form applet for the primary assignment rule. If the selected primary employee is not an assignee that satisfies Step 6, or if there is no primary employee specified on the rule, then select the highest-scoring employee for the primary assignment rule that satisfies Step 6.
   • For objects that use position-based assignment, set the primary assignee to the primary position selected in the Primary Position field of the Assignment Rule form applet for the primary assignment rule. If the selected primary position is not an assignee that satisfies Step 6, or if there is no primary position specified on the rule, then select the highest-scoring position for the primary assignment rule that satisfies Step 6.
   • For objects that use organization-based assignments, set the primary organization to the primary organization selected in the Primary Organization field of the Assignment Rule form applet for the primary assignment rule. If the selected primary organization is not an assignee that satisfies Step 6, or if there is no primary organization specified on the rule, then select the highest-scoring organization for the primary assignment rule that satisfies Step 6.

     NOTE:  The primary employee, position, or organization must pass the minimum score required for this assignment rule for assignment as the primary assignee. The only exception is when the Assignee Filter is All, Must Assign, in which case the highest-scoring candidate is a potential assignee if all candidates fail to meet the minimum score. For more information about assignee filters, see Assignee Filter Field.

9. Filter out certain assignees based on multitiered mode. By default, the assignment mode is set to independently assign qualifying people and organizations. Three other assignment modes are available, which allows filtering of unwanted, but qualifying, people and organizations based on the relationship that exists between them. Then recalculate primaries, if necessary; for example, if primaries were filtered out by multitiered filtering. See About Multitiered Assignment for further information.
10. Generate assignments. Write assignees to the database to finalize the assignment.
    • Write the primary assignment rule and primary assignees to the object's primary table.
    • For team-based objects, write assignees to the object's team table.

      NOTE:  For interactive assignments, assignees appear in the appropriate list applet after calculation. The candidate that Assignment Manager determines as the primary appears highlighted in yellow. The user can then choose the candidate or candidates for assignment, or the user can override and assign a different primary by selecting a different record.