Bookshelf v7.5: Assignment Criteria

Assignment rules use criteria to determine which candidates qualify as potential assignees. Criteria also determine which assignment rule should be evaluated in assigning an object. An assignment rule can include none, one, or many criteria. Criteria are sets of conditions describing the attributes of objects or candidates, or both, that are evaluated to determine optimal assignment.

Each criteria uses five types of comparison methods to determine if candidates meet the criteria. Table 6 shows the available types of assignment criteria.

Table 6. Assignment Criteria Comparison Methods
Comparison Method	Description
Compare to Object	Compares criteria values to object attributes. Objects that possess the required criteria values qualify for this criteria.
Compare Object to Person	Compares object attributes to candidate attributes. Candidates that possess the attributes required by the object qualify for this criteria.
Compare to Person	Compares criteria values to candidate attributes. Candidates that possess the attributes required by the criteria qualify for this criteria.
Compare to Organization	Compares criteria values to organization attributes. Organizations that possess the attributes required by the criteria qualify for this criteria.
Compare Object to Organization	Compares object attributes to organization attributes. Organizations that possess the attributes required by the object qualify for this criteria.

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

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. Assignment rules with no criteria and no assignment object specified are ignored by Assignment Manager.

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.

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 candidate attribute must match at least one listed criteria value. For Compare Object to Person, at least one value of the object attribute must match one value of the candidate attribute. For Compare to Organization, the organization attribute must match at least one listed criteria value. Note: For Compare Object to Organization, at least one value of the object attribute must match one value of the organization attribute. Assignment Manager stops processing this method when one value is matched.
Include All	All values must match: For Compare to Object, the object attribute must match all listed criteria values. For Compare to Person, the candidate attribute must match all listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Person, all values of the object attribute must match all values of the candidate 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.
Include All Matching	This method only works with objects that have skills defined. If an object has a skill with a number of skill items, then all the items do not need to match for the skill to pass, as long as at least one item matches. The more items of the skill that match, the higher the score of the passing skill: For Compare to Object, the object skill item must match at least one listed criteria value. For Compare Object to Person, at least one of the object skill items must match one of the candidate skill items. For Compare Object to Organization, at least one of the object skill items must match one of the organization skill items.
Exclude	All values must not match: For Compare to Object, the object attribute must not match any of the listed criteria values. For Compare to Person, the candidate attribute must not match any of the listed criteria values. For Compare Object to Person, no values of the object attribute can match any values of the candidate 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 object attribute can match any values of the organization attribute.

Figure 2 shows a Service Request Priority assignment criteria that uses the Compare to Object comparison method. In this case, candidates for this assignment rule have 50 points added to their total score if the object has a Service Request Priority value of High.

Siebel Assignment Manager provides predefined criteria that are related to sales and service organizations. If your organization requires other criteria, you can create new criteria using Siebel Tools. For more details, see Assignment Criteria Configuration.

Assignment criteria can be enabled for multilingual list of values (MLOV) capabilities. MLOV allows assignment criteria to be stored in a form that can be retrieved and displayed in a variety of supported client languages. For more details on this feature, see Siebel Tools Reference. For configuration details, see Configuring MLOV for Assignment Attributes.

Required Assignment Criteria

Use required assignment criteria to match related objects and candidates to assignment rules. You can make criteria required by selecting Always from the picklist in the Required field. Depending on the criteria's comparison method, the object or the candidate (or both) must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule. Table 8 shows the different requirements for each comparison method.

Table 8. Required Criteria Requirements
Criteria Comparison Method	Requirement
Compare to Object	The object must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule.
Compare Object to Person	Both the object and the candidate must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule.
Compare to Person	The candidate must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule.
Compare to Organization	The organization must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule.
Compare Object to Organization	Both the object and the organization must meet the required criteria to qualify for the assignment rule.

For example, an assignment rule can have a required Service Request Severity assignment criteria with a Compare to Object comparison method and a criteria value of 1-Critical. In this case, if the object to be assigned has a service request severity of 1-Critical, the object qualifies for the assignment rule. An object without a service request severity value or one that has a lower service request severity value does not qualify for the assignment rule.

Required When Available Assignment Criteria

Use required when available assignment criteria to match related objects and candidates to assignment rules only when the assignment criteria is available for the object or candidate. You can make criteria required when available by selecting When Available from the picklist in the Required field.

An assignment criteria is not available for an object or candidate if the assignment criteria does not include criteria values or corresponding skills that match the object or candidate. Required when available assignment criteria allow you to create assignment criteria that are required only when the object or candidate is defined with matching criteria values or skills.

For example, an assignment rule can have a required when available Service Request Severity assignment criteria with a Compare to Object comparison method and a criteria value of 1-Critical. In this case, if the object assigned has a service request severity of 1-Critical, the object qualifies for the assignment rule. An object that has a lower service request severity value does not qualify for the assignment rule. However, an object without a service request severity value qualifies for the assignment rule (because the criteria value is null, or not available).

NOTE: If an assignment criteria uses a Compare Object to Person comparison method, and criteria value is not found on a person, the criteria fails because availability applies only to the object.

Nonrequired Assignment Criteria

Use nonrequired assignment criteria to further determine a suitable match between candidates and assignment rules. You can make criteria nonrequired by selecting Never from the picklist in the Required field. Use nonrequired criteria that include scores to apply scores to candidates. These scores are added to the total scores of the candidates for this assignment rule. By using nonrequired criteria with scores, you can add a higher score to candidates that satisfy this criteria, while keeping candidates that do not satisfy the criteria.

If an assignment rule does not include any required criteria and an object has not been selected for the rule, you must define the assignment rule with nonrequired criteria that apply to objects that you want to assign. If an assignment object has not been defined for an assignment rule, Assignment Manager determines whether the assignment criteria can be applied to the object before the criteria is qualified.

For example, you should use service-related criteria (such as Service Request Priority) for an assignment rule that are applied to service-related objects (such as Service Request). If you create an assignment rule with Server Request Priority as nonrequired criteria, Assignment Manager does not qualify any accounts for the criteria because Service Request Priority does not apply to accounts.

If an assignment rule uses only nonrequired assignment criteria, then the assignment rule passes even if the minimum score for the rule is not satisfied, because the assignment criteria are not required. To avoid this behavior, you can alter Assignment Manager so that assignment rules pass only when the minimum score for the rule is satisfied, even if the assignment criteria are not required.

To require that an assignment rule satisfies the minimum score for the rule for the rule to pass, set the environment variable SIEBEL_AM_MINRULESCORE to TRUE. By default, this parameter is set to FALSE. You also need to define this variable as a system variable, not a user-defined variable.

NOTE: This variable must be set on Siebel Servers that execute Assignment Manager.

Figure 3 shows an example of setting the SIEBEL_AM_MINRULESCORE system variable.

NOTE: If the Assignee from Rule type is All, Must Assign, then the assignment rule passes even if the minimum score is not satisfied in this case.

Criteria Values

For assignment criteria that use the Compare to Object, Compare to Person, or Compare to Organization comparison method, each criteria also includes one or more values. Criteria values are details associated with criteria that are compared to an object or candidate. Depending on the Inclusion value, candidates that meet the criteria value have the criteria value score added to their total score. Criteria values can be defined as constants or can use wildcard characters to include a wider selection of potential matches between assignment rule and object. For more information, see Creating Criteria Values.

NOTE: Criteria value scores are only calculated for criteria that use the Include inclusion method.

Figure 4 shows a Language Code criteria that uses four languages as criteria values (German, Spanish, Italian, and French). Assuming this assignment rule's minimum score is 10 points, and each language is worth 5 points, candidates for this assignment rule that possess expertise in at least two of these languages qualify for the assignment rule.

Assignment Attributes

Each criteria value can include one or more assignment attributes. Assignment attributes define how the criteria value matches with the following:

Figure 5 shows a Product Line Wildcard assignment criteria that uses the Compare to Person comparison method. The assignment criteria also uses the Include All inclusion method and includes two criteria values. Each criteria value includes two assignment attributes. In this case, only candidates that possess an Expert expertise in monitors and graphic cards qualify for the assignment criteria.