Assignment Rule Inheritance

This topic is part of About Assignment Rule Group Hierarchy.

Rule inheritance allows assignment administrators (AAs) to enforce business logic, while allowing delegated administrators (DAs) to further refine that logic. In addition, inheritors of rules can refine those same rules and specialize them for their unique circumstances.

Criteria templates are special criteria that can be applied to inherited rules. Assignment Manager does not process criteria templates until an inheritor of an assignment rule chooses to apply a template to the inherited rule.

To use criteria templates, administrators (AA or DA) must first create criteria templates for inheritable rules by checking the Template field in the Criteria list for the criteria they want as templates. When an assignment rule is inherited, the inheritor has the option to either apply the criteria templates into an actual criterion (by checking the Create From Templates button in the Criteria view tab) or to create a new criterion for the inherited rule.

Note: Assignment Manager ignores criteria that have the Template field checked on an assignment rule until such time as that rule is inherited and the criteria template is applied to the inherited rule.

Tip: It is recommended that AAs create criteria templates to assist DAs in rule creation. Doing this reduces the need for DAs to fully understand the steps required and implications of creating new logic.