Workitem Assignment

Work item Assignment

Introduction

A Work item is the pointer to a work task, created within a Process. It can hold an instruction to what shall be done and even direct the user to the actual screen and data in order to execute the task. This can in the process be complemented with constraints to verify that the work actually has been correctly completed, before the process continues.

Assignment explained

Assignment of a Work item is the method to say who shall perform the work. 

A Work item always is connected to a Role. A Role is the definition of what authorities that are required to perform one or more tasks, which then is connected to users or groups of users, which all are called Actors. 

When a process instance is created, the connected roles within the process are initiated and possibly assigned. The assignment can be either via that only one Actor exists for the Role ("Single role") or via custom constraints via rules.

If a user is set as actor for the role in the process instance, the principle is that the user then is automatically assigned to all work items within the process that has that role connected.

Organization Unit

In Work item context, Organization Unit is a "filter" of work items and applied when the number of users in a Role becomes to many to fit purpose. 

For example if you have a company with 3 factories, and you have a process with tasks for the role Production Manager, where you have a number of users that can act in that role per factory. Then if you do not want to assign the Work item to a specific user, rather to a group of users, so they can claim the work when applicable, you end up in trouble. This due to that all actors can see the work items for all factories. If we then apply a Organization Unit per Factory, connect the right actors to it and assign the Organization Unit on each Work item, then the actors only see the Work items for their factory.

Assignment mechanisms

When a work item is created, it is automatically assigned to the actor that is assigned to the current role.

1. If the actor is not set for the role,  the system looks in mapdata for the Role-name, "ProductionManager". If that is found, it is expected to contain the Actor name and the Work item is assigned to that user. This is done regardless if the Actor value is set or blank.
2. If the actor still is not set, the system looks in mapdata for the "ToUser". If that is found, it is expected to contain the Actor name and the Work item is assigned to that user.
3. If the mapdata field "ToUserSET" is found in mapdata, regardless if it has a value or not, then the Work item is assigned to that one. This is a way for programmers to in a rule force an assignment. If this is done, then the field is removed from mapdata, so the function can only be used for one Work item.
4. Finally, if an actor is set, the role assignment on the process is updated to the new role.

Organization Units are managed separately from Actors, since it can be complementary information on an Work item, to support for instance re-assignment.

1. If the mapdata field "ToOrgUnitSET" is found in mapdata, regardless if it has a value or not, then the Work item is assigned to that one. This is a way for programmers to in a rule force an assignment. If this is done, then the field is removed from mapdata, so the function can only be used for one Work item.
2. If the Organization Unit still is not set, the system looks in mapdata for the "ToOrgUnit". If that is found, the Work Item is assigned to that unit.