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Assignment Methodology

This topic is part of Assignment Methodology and Examples for Creating Assignment Rules.

Before Siebel Assignment Manager starts to assign candidates to assignment objects, it checks the ASGN_DT column to determine if a row should be assigned or not. This check on the ASDN_DT column is performed for interactive, dynamic, and batch assignment. Each time Assignment Manager assigns candidates to a record, the record's ASGN_DT column is populated with the date and time of the assignment.

Assignment Manager checks the value in the ASGN_DT column against the assignment request's time. Depending on the mode of assignment used, the request time may be defined in one of the following ways:

• For dynamic assignment, a row is inserted into the S_ESCL_REQ table, and the CREATED column in the S_ESCL_REQ table denotes the time when the record triggered the policy. The timestamp in the CREATED column is considered to be the request time.
• For batch assignment and interactive assignment, the request time is the time when the request is submitted to the server component, either Assignment Manager (AsgnSrvr) or Batch Assignment (AsgnBatch). That is, the request time represents when the tasks for the server component evaluates the assignment request.
• Assignment Manager then checks the ASGN_DT column, as follows:
  • If ASGN_DT is greater than the request time for the request being assigned, then the assignment is not performed on the row.
  • If ASGN_DT is less than the request time for the request being assigned, then the assignment is performed on the row.

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

1. Assignment Manager finds assignment rules for an object. Assignment Manager finds active assignment rules for evaluation for the object being assigned. 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:  The Default Employee, Default Position, and Default Organization properties for each assignment object are defined in Siebel Tools. For more information about these properties, see Choosing a Candidate as the Primary Assignee.

2. Assignment Manager evaluates assignment criteria for the object. After Assignment Manager determines the rules for processing, it 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. Assignment Manager determines 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 a similar method.

4. Assignment Manager evaluates each candidate against assignment rule criteria. Assignment Manager evaluates each candidate against the criteria using the selected comparison method as described in Assignment Criteria Comparison 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. Assignment Manager scores each qualified candidate for each assignment rule. Assignment Manager scores each candidate for an assignment rule based on the sum of:
   • Assignment rule score of each assignment criterion that is satisfied.
   • Each assignment criterion value that is satisfied depending on the inclusion method as explained in Assignment Criteria Inclusion Methods.

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

     • To rank expertise codes, Assignment Manager uses the Order field in the List of Values view in the Administration - Data screen.
     • To define expertise weight, Assignment Manager uses the Weighting Factor field in the List of Values view in the Administration - Data screen.
   • 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.

     This value is the score based on the current workload of candidates compared to the maximum workload allowed.

     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.

6. Assignment Manager applies the assignee filter to scored candidates to generate a list of potential assignees. Assignment Manager uses 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
7. Assignment Manager evaluates exclusive assignment rules and determines 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 the AddScores property 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 excluded.

   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 on the object, then the manually assigned primary position is retained and the default position is added to the team as a nonprimary.

8. Assignment Manager determines the primary assignees. Assignment Manager determines 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 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 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 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 About Some of the Assignment Rule Fields.

9. Assignment Manager filters out certain assignees based on multitiered mode. By default, the assignment mode is set to independently assign qualifying people and organizations.

   If you set one of the other assignment modes (Person-Oriented, Organization-Oriented, Person and Organization-Oriented) Assignment Manager filters out unwanted, but qualifying, people and organizations based on the relationship between them. Assignment Manager recalculates the primaries, if necessary; for example, if primaries were filtered out by multitiered filtering.

   For more information, see Configuring Assignment Objects for Multitiered Assignment.

10. Assignment Manager generates assignments. Assignment Manager writes assignees to the database to finalize the assignment, as follows:
    • Writes the primary assignment rule and primary assignees to the object's primary table.
    • For team-based objects, writes assignees to the object's team table.

      NOTE:  For interactive assignments, assignees appear in the appropriate list after calculation. The candidate that Assignment Manager determines as the primary appears highlighted. 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.