Tracking the total time spent by queues

administrators can configure calculation of total time spent by queues on incidents or service requests. This calculation can be configured by using either Incident Time Tracking or Queue Time Tracking.

administrators must enable the Queue Time Tracking feature to calculate the total time spent by multiple queues on incidents or service requests. The default business hours of the organization will also be taken into consideration. This feature is available in the 20.20.02 release. From this version onward, you are not provided with the Incident Time Tracking feature. For more information about Queue Time Tracking, see Tracking the total time spent by each queue on an incident.

Likewise, the Incident Time Tracking feature is available in versions prior to 20.20.02. However, once you upgrade to 20.20.02, you are provided with the Queue Time Tracking feature, which is an opt-in feature. If you do not opt-in, you continue to use Incident Time Tracking. For more information about Incident Time Tracking, see To track the total work time spent on incidents.

Note

To enable the Queue Time Tracking feature, note the following:

New users on 20.20.02 version must go to Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Queue Time Tracking.
Users upgrading to 20.20.02 must go to Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Incident Time Tracking.
Just below the Queue Time Tracking feature, you will also see the Incident Time Tracking feature here.

Tracking the total time spent by each queue on an incident

You can track the total work time and wait time spent by each queue (owner) on an incident or service request that is served by multiple queues. The new custom object called Queue Time Tracking creates a new record for every queue assignment, thereby calculating the time spent by each queue. Note that, the same queue can have multiple records in the Queue Time Tracking object if the record gets assigned to that queue multiple times.

Additionally, the Generate Historical Data feature enables you to generate data for older queue time tracking records.

To understand the need for this feature, consider the following personas and a scenario in the application.

Harry is the administrator. He wants to track the total time that the staff members are actively working on an incident.
Frank is a client who uses the Self Service portal to report issues and request services.
Linda is a staff member who works on resolving issues that are reported and completing requests that are submitted.

Now, Frank logs on to the Self Service portal and submits a ticket saying he needs a new laptop. Linda assigns the incident to herself and starts working on it, as she is the member of the first queue. However, in this case, not all tasks can be performed by her and she needs to pass it on to other queues (owners). Thus, the incident then gets worked upon by multiple queues (owners) as per the process.

Then, Harry would now want to see how much work time was spent in each queue, apart from the incident as a whole. This would also mean barring the non-work time that includes switching or wait time for the incident. Also lastly, the total work time for the incident by adding the respective work status values of each queue. Hence, to view the work time spent by each queue, he then creates a custom report on the Queue Time Tracking object.

Guidelines for using the Queue Time Tracking feature

For tracking time based on queues, consider the following:

You must enable the Queue and User Assignment setting from Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Record Assignment.
You must set the queue as the owner.
You must enable the Enable Queue Time Tracking toggle from Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Queue Time Tracking.
The total work time is calculated based on Work Status of the incident. For more information, see Creating-status-records.
The Field History Tracking for Status and Owner fields on the incident must be turned ON while using the feature. This will help generate the Queue Time Tracking data through History Tracking in case you lose data.
This feature will work only for the new records created after installing the 20.20.02 version. If you are using older versions of or have older records, you need to use the Generate Historical Data feature. For more information about this feature, see Guidelines for generating historical data.
This feature consumes storage when Queue Time Tracking records are created and stored. Hence, you have the option to archive records to free up space for data which you might not use in the future.
For more information, see Archiving data from Queue Time Tracking object.

Guidelines for generating historical data

For generating historical data, consider the following:

The Enable Queue Time Tracking feature must be enabled for the Generate Historical Data feature to work.
The Field History Tracking for Status and Owner fields on the incident must be turned ON during the selected time period.
The administrator cannot select any date older than a year (365 days).
When you click the Generate button in the Generate Historical Data feature, the Queue Time Tracking records are generated in the background. These records are generated for all incidents that are created after the selected date. Subsequently, the administrators will be notified through an email when records are generated.
While generating historical data for more than 10,000 records, if you click the Generate button twice, there might be duplicate data generation. Hence, we recommend you use this button only once.
However, if you still need to regenerate data, you will need to archive the old data manually by using the Data Loader before regeneration.
The historical data calculation might give incorrect results if the field history records are not generated for change in Owner and Status fields.
For example, Salesforce does not generate field history records for Owner and Status during record creation, leading to issues while calculating the Time Spent or Wait Time.
If the Field History Tracking is enabled/disabled multiple times during calculation, the historical data calculation might give incorrect results.
The Work and Non-Work statuses during data generation are considered for historical data calculation. If these statuses are changed constantly, the historical data calculation might give incorrect results.
If the queues used during calculation are discontinued or deleted, these will be replaced by the name Unknown Queue in the report.
If a status used in past is deleted and not available during data generation, the time for that status is calculated in the Wait time in minutes field.

Archiving data from Queue Time Tracking object

To free up your storage space, you can export and then delete historical queue time tracking data by using data loader.
Use the following query during export. (This query exports Queue Time Tracking records of closed incidents.)
Select BMCServiceDesk__FKIncident__r.Name, BMCServiceDesk__FKIncident__r.CreatedDate, Name, BMCServiceDesk__Assigned_Date__c, BMCServiceDesk__Unassigned_Date__c, BMCServiceDesk__Work_Duration__c, BMCServiceDesk__Non_Work_Duration__c, BMCServiceDesk__Total_time__c, CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, Id, BMCServiceDesk__FKIncident__r.BMCServiceDesk__state__c FROM BMCServiceDesk__QueueTimeTracking__c WHERE BMCServiceDesk__FKIncident__r.BMCServiceDesk__state__c=false
Once you complete the export and proceed with delete, use the same exported csv file that got exported. Then, select Create or Edit Map and Auto Match Field to Columns to complete the process.
For more information on exporting using the data loader, see Export Data.

To track the total work time spent on incidents

Select the Work Status check box for the appropriate status records.
For more information, see Creating-status-records.
Ensure that the default business hours of your organization are configured.
The total work time is calculated based on the business hours for which the Default check box is selected. For more information, see Configuring-the-default-business-hours-and-holidays-of-your-organization.
To create the report, go to Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Incident Time Tracking.

For more information about creating this report, see To create a report on the time spent on each incident.
(Optional)Create a custom report that uses the Total Work Time field.
For more information, see Creating-reports.
The report is sent to the email address of the logged in user.
(Optional) To enable staff members to view the total work time for their incidents, add the Total Work Time field to the Incident list view in Remedyforce Console.
For more information about adding fields, see Configuring-columns-in-a-list-view-in-the-Remedyforce-Console.

Fields used to calculate the total work time spent on incidents

The following table describes the fields that are used to calculate the total work time spent on open incidents. These fields are available in the Incident object.

Use case scenario: Tracking the total work time spent on incidents

Consider the following personas in the application.

Charlotte is a administrator who wants to track the total time that staff members are actively working on an incident.
Jackson is the Client who uses the Self Service portal to report issues and request services.
Emma is a ServiceDesk Staff member who works on resolving issues that are reported and completing requests that are submitted.

The following scenario describes how the total work time for open incidents is calculated.

Charlotte has configured the default business hours as 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday, and selected the Work Status check box for the Assigned and In Progress status records.
Jackson logs on to Self Service at 4:50 PM and submits a ticket that the printer on his floor is not working.
Emma sees the incident submitted by Jackson and assigns it to herself at 5 PM by changing the incident status to Assigned.
Because the Work Status check box is selected for the Assigned status record, the work clock starts running and calculates the time spent in the current status and the total work time.
Emma reviews the incident details and creates a task for the vendor to fix the printer. She changes the status of the incident to Waiting on Vendor at 5:30 PM.
Because the Work Status check box is not selected for the Waiting on Vendor status record, the work clock is paused and the Total Work Time field value is set to 30 minutes. Also, because the status is changed, the Time Spent in Current Status field value is reset to 0.
The vendor fixes the printer and marks his task as complete at 9:30 PM.
The Time Spent in Current Status field does not consider the default business hours of an organization. Therefore, this field continues to be incremented even though the default business hours are 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday.
Emma logs on to the next day and sees that the vendor’s task is completed. She changes the status of the incident to In Progress at 9:00 AM and completes the required fields in the incident record.
Because the Work Status check box is selected for the In Progress status record, the work clock starts running again. The Time Spent in Current Status field value is once again reset to 0. Also, because the previous status, Waiting on Vendor, is not a work status, the time spent in that status is not added to the Total Work Time field value.
Emma confirms with Jackson that the printer is working and changes the status of the incident to Resolved at 10:00 AM.
Because the Resolved status is assigned to the Closed state, the work clock is stopped. The Total Work Time field value is set to 90 minutes (30 minutes spent in the Assigned status and 60 minutes spent in the In Progress status).
Now, Charlotte clicks the Create Report button from Remedyforce Administration > Create Reports and Dashboards > Incident Time Tracking.
The report containing details on total time spent on the incident is sent to her email address.