Enabling concurrent Operational Targets on a record during queue change

Starting with 20.19.02, you can enable concurrent Operational Level Targets (OLT) to configure whether to keep the OLTs attached to a record running or paused when a record’s qualification criteria fails and a queue change is detected. The earlier behavior of cancelling the target is also available. If you keep the OLTs running, the clock for that OLT continues to run even when the record changes a queue.

This feature is helpful when users from multiple internal queues work on the same record. In such a scenario, you can use this feature as follows:

Keep the clock running: When you do not want to stop the time calculation for the queue until the record is closed.
Pause the clock: When you want to pause the time calculation for the queue until the qualification criteria is satisfied.
Cancel the target: When you want to stop the time calculation on failure of the qualification criteria.

For more information about creating an Operational Level Agreement and configuring Operational Level Targets, see Creating service or operational level agreements and Creating service or operational level targets.

The following image displays the Target Status settings for an OLT.

The following topics provide more information about enabling Concurrent Operational Level Targets :

Prerequisites

To use the Concurrent Operational Level Targets feature, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

Navigate to Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > General Application Settings.
Enable the setting Enable concurrent Operational Targets when a queue change for a record is detected. (Only for upgrade users)
Click Save.
Navigate to Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Record Assignment.
Enable the setting Enable Queue and User Assignment.
Click Save.

Note

When you enable the Concurrent Operational Level Targets feature, the OLTs created for Resolution Targets are not used to set a record’s due date. However, the due date calculation based on Priority or other Service Level Targets attached to the record will continue to work. This feature is applicable for incidents, service requests, change requests, problems, and tasks.

For more information about the setting, see General settings for Remedyforce.

General guidelines

To use the Concurrent Operational Level Targets feature, following are the guidelines:

You must add a Queue or Owner ID field in the qualification criteria. Likewise, if the Add Advance Rule Logic is used, then it must also have at least one Queue.
The Concurrent Operational Level Targets feature will be applicable to a record only when the qualification criteria fails and there is a queue change detected.
Once a target status (Keep the clock running or Pause the clock) is applied to an OLT, the OLT will not get cancelled on further qualification criteria change.
The OLT will get cancelled irrespective of the Target Status values, in the following cases:
- When the Service or Account do not qualify for an OLA.
- When the Target Status is not applied and the qualification fails.
Based on the measurement criteria and Target Status values, OLTs have the following characteristics :
- An OLT set to Keep the clock running state can be moved only to Paused or Stopped state.
- An OLT set to Pause the clock state can be moved only to Stopped state.
- An OLT set to Pause the clock state can be resumed only when the complete qualification criteria and measurement status are satisfied.
- An OLT set to Keep the clock running state when paused due to measurement criteria, can be resumed when the Measurement status is satisfied.
It is recommended to not change the agreement type if it is attached to an open record.

When you create a record and update the queue, the applied OLT for that queue goes into Running state. Further, when you keep updating the queue, the state of the applied OLTs get updated based on the precedence order of combinations of Measurement criteria and Target Status configurations.

The following table lists the precedence results for different actions performed on a record during queue update.

Action	Qualification (Target status)	Measurement (When record status satisfies a criteria)	OLT clock status	Action result
1	Keep the clock running	Start clock when: Open	Running	The OLT goes into Running state since the Target Status takes precedence over Measurement Criteria.
2	Pause the clock	Start clock when: Open	Paused	The OLT goes into Paused state since the Target Status takes precedence over Measurement Criteria.
3	Keep the clock running	Pause clock when: Pending	Paused	The OLT goes into Paused state since the Measurement criteria takes precedence over the Target Status.
4	Pause the clock	Pause clock when: Pending	Paused	The OLT goes into Paused state since the Measurement Criteria takes precedence over the Target Status.
5	Keep the clock running	Stop clock when: Stopped	Completed	The OLT goes into Completed state since the Measurement Criteria takes precedence over the Target Status.
6	Pause the clock	Stop clock when: Stopped	Completed	The OLT goes into Completed state since the Measurement Criteria takes precedence over the Target Status.

To understand the precedence order concept, consider Action 2 from the table and perform the following steps:

Create an OLT as per the given Measurement and Qualification specifications. For example, OLT 1.
Create an incident record and assign it to the queue that satisfies the conditions for OLT 1.
OLT 1 gets applied.
Further, update the queue for the incident record.
Note that, here the OLT 1 goes into Paused state even when the Measurement criteria is set to Open. This is seen since the Target Status takes precedence over the Measurement criteria.

Sample scenario to understand how concurrent OLTs work

Consider the following scenario:

Qualification Criteria	OLT 1	OLT 2	OLT 3
Category	Laptop	Laptop	Software
Owner ID / Queue	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Measurement clock status	Start Clock When: Open Pause Clock When: Pending Stop Clock When: Closed	Start Clock When: Open Pause Clock When: Pending Stop Clock When: Closed	Start Clock When: Open Pause Clock When: Pending Stop Clock When: Closed
Target status	Keep the clock running	Pause the clock	Cancel the target

Perform the following steps based on the preceding scenario:

Create an Operational Level Agreement for tracking an incident object. Name the OLA as Laptop Issue.
In the Operational Targets tab, create three OLTs as follows:
1. OLT 1 (Category: Laptop; Owner ID: Level 1; Target Status: Keep the clock running)
2. OLT 2 (Category: Laptop; Owner ID: Level 2; Target Status: Pause the clock)
3. OLT 3 (Category: Software; Owner ID: Level 3; Target Status: Cancel the target)
In the Measurement tab, set the conditions as Start Clock When = Open, Pause Clock When = Pending, and Stop Clock When = Closed. (For all three OLTs).
Perform the tasks as given in the following table.
The table demonstrates working and statuses of OLT 1, OLT 2 and OLT 3 with respect to the actions performed on the incident record. Once you perform the tasks in the table, the Target window of the record will display the Elapsed Time calculated by OLT 1, OLT 2, and OLT 3 by the queues Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 respectively.

Action	Incident record transactions	Category	Queue	Status (Incident record)	OLT 1 Target	OLT 2 Target	OLT 3 Target	Action result
Create an incident record with the IT Department.	Create	Laptop	Level 1	Opened	State: In-process Clock: Running			OLT 1 gets applied as the Qualification criteria are met and the clock for OLT 1 goes into Running state.
Switch the queue from Level 1 to Level 2.	Update	Laptop	Level 2	Opened	State: In-process Clock: Running	State: In-process Clock: Running		OLT 2 gets applied as the Qualification criteria are met and the clock for OLT 2 goes into Running state. However, the clock for OLT 1 too remains in Running state since the queue changed from Level 1 to Level 2 and the Target status for OLT 1 was set to Keep the clock running.
Switch the queue from Level 2 to Level 3 and change the category.	Update	Software	Level 3	Opened	State: In-process Clock: Running	State: Pending Clock: *Paused*	State: In-process Clock: Running	OLT 3 gets applied as the Qualification criteria are met and the clock for OLT 3 goes into Running state. However, the clock for OLT 2 remains in Paused state and State changes to Pending since the queue changed from Level 2 to Level 3, and the Target status for OLT 2 was set to Pause the clock.
Switch the queue from Level 3 to Level 1 and change the category.	Update	Laptop	Level 1	Opened	State: In-process Clock: Running	State: Pending Clock: Paused	State: Cancelled Clock: Stopped	OLT 1 gets applied as the Qualification criteria are met and the clock for OLT 1 which has been in Running state, continues to be in the same state. However, the clock for OLT 3 goes into Stopped state and the State changes to Cancelled since the queue changed from Level 3 to Level 1, and the Target status for OLT 3 was set to Cancel the target.
Change the status of the incident record to Pending.	Update	Laptop	Level 1	Pending	State: Pending Clock: Paused	State: Pending Clock: Paused	State: Cancelled Clock: Stopped	Since the Measurement status takes precedence over the Qualification status, the Clock status for OLT 1 goes into Paused state and the State changes to Pending.
Close the incident record to Closed.	Update	Laptop	Level 1	Closed	State: Completed Clock: Stopped	State: Completed Clock: Stopped	State: Cancelled Clock: Stopped	Once the record is closed, the Clock for OLT 1 and OLT 2 will go into Stopped status and State will be Completed.

Enabling concurrent Operational Targets on a record during queue change

Prerequisites

General guidelines

Sample scenario to understand how concurrent OLTs work

Related topics

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