Overview

Dynamic Task Assignment This feature enables you to dynamically assign tasks within a SuccessPlay dynamically based on predefined criteria.
The main use case is to serve low touch flows where there is no association between the customer and the CS team.

This article contains the following topics:

• Use Cases
  
• How To Set Up Dynamic Assignment
  
  • Create a Totango User Pool
    
  • Create a Dynamic Assignment SuccessPlay
    
  • Set Up Dynamic Assignment Criteria
• Fallback User Flow / Exception User Flow
  
  • How to Manage Reassigned Fallback Tasks?
    
• Set Up an Availability Based Dynamic Assignment
  
  • How does the availability mechanism work?
  • Availability-based dynamic assignment prerequisites
    
  • Set Up an Availability Based Dynamic Assignment
    
• FAQ
  

Use Cases

• Define a SuccessPlay that randomly assigns the tasks to a group of Totango Users
  
  These are the steps to set up a SuccessPlay which includes dynamic assignment:

1. Create a Totango User Pool (a Pool is a group of users which is grouped by a Totango user segment). Read more.
2. The SuccessPlay creator defines tasks within the SuccessPlay and assigns them to a Totango User Pool. They are also able to add more criteria and narrow the Totango User Pool by adding more filters (these filters are in the specific SuccessPlay level).
   

• Define a SuccessPlay that assigns the tasks to a Totango User Pool using task assignment criteria.
  
  These are the steps to set up a SuccessPlay which includes dynamic assignment:

1. Perform the 2 steps in the previous use case.
2. Add assignment criteria to the task assignment. For example, the customer region matches the Totango User region.
   

• Define a SuccessPlay that assigns the tasks to a Totango User Pool based on Totango User availability.
  
  These are the steps to set up a SuccessPlay which includes dynamic assignment:

1. Perform all previous steps in the previous use cases.
2. Select “Next Available Person" as the assignment order.
   Please note that availability must be set up as a prerequisite. Read more. 

How To Set Up Dynamic Assignment

Create a Totango User Pool

1. Go to the General Settings -> Dynamic Assignment and create a new Totango User Pool.

Read more about Totango User information here.

Create a Dynamic Assignment SuccessPlay

2. Go to a SuccessBLOC -> SuccessPlay tab, and create a new SuccessPlay.
In the “Activities” step, add a new task and assign it to one of the pre-defined Pools.





Important note, the pool people in the SuccessPlay always intersect with the SuccessTeam, meaning the Totango user pool in the SuccessPlay considers only the Totango user who belongs to the pool AND to the SuccessTeam you are in.

3. You can add filters and narrow and refine the Totango User Pool by adding additional criteria. This criteria is specific to the SuccessPlay and lets you easily reuse Totango Users Pools across SuccessPlays.


Note, the additional criteria is specific to this SuccessPlay and does not influence the Totango User Pool criteria.

Set Up Dynamic Assignment Assignment Criteria

4. When adding tasks to a SuccessPlay (in the “triggers” step), click on the “Assignment” box to set up assignment criteria and assignment order.

5. In order to narrow down the people in the pool to better fit this task, you can add assignment criteria.
For example, to make sure the task is created for a Totango user which is in the same region as the customer, define the account region must match the Totango user timezone.

All assignment criteria behave as a required match, it means that if there is no Totango user found after using these criteria are applied, the task will be assigned to the fallback user.

6. After narrowing down the pool people, you can define the assignment order of all the people match the criteria. The assignment order operated on the people left after applying all the criteria. 

These are the assignment order options:

• Next Person In Line - the people from the pool are randomly selected.  
• Next Available Person - selects randomly from the people who have enough remaining availability to perform the task.
• Most Available Person - selects the person with the highest remaining availability (after reducing the allocated time) from the people who have enough remaining availability to perform the task. In case there are several people with the same remaining availability, one of them will be chosen randomly.  

Fallback User Flow / Exception User Flow

The fallback user flow handles a case where there is no Totango User to assign a task to.
It can happen in these cases:

• In case the SuccessPlay tasks are assigned to an account role where there is no account role person defined for that account
  
  
• In case the SuccessPlay tasks are assigned using dynamic assignment and there is no Totango User that matches the dynamic assignment criteria.
  
  
• In case the SuccessPlay tasks assigned using availability-based dynamic assignment and there is no Totango User with enough availability found.
  
  
  

The immediate fallback is the SuccessPlay owner defined in the SuccessPlay.

Note, if there is no SuccessPlay owner the task will be assigned to the SuccessPlay creator.

How to Manage Reassigned Fallback Tasks?

The fallback tasks appear in the Fallback user agenda and have a unique representation. These tasks cannot be completed by the fallback user and he should reassign the tasks to the right person after understanding the fallback reason.

A fallback user can dynamically or manually reassign these tasks:
Dynamically reassign - Totango will rerun the dynamic assignment process and try to assign this task to the right person based on the dynamic assignment criteria and matching as defined in the SuccessPlay.
For example, if the fallback reason is lack of availability, you can assume that after a few days there will be enough availability to complete the task. As a fallback user, you are able to click the reassign dynamically link or button to perform this action. 


In case this dynamic assignment does not succeed, the task will stay in the fallback user agenda.

Manually reassign- Totango will let you manually assign the task after analyzing the relevant information.
As a fallback user, you are able to open the manual reassignment page when clicking the reassign manually link or button to perform this action. You are able to review the account matching information and pool resources information in order to select the right person to perform this task and reassign this task to this user.

 

 

Set Up an Availability Based Dynamic Assignment

How does the availability mechanism work?

As part of the dynamic assignment of tasks, you can choose to assign tasks to Totango Users based on their available time.
As a prerequisite, the Totango User availability information has to be populated, and the estimated task effort time information must be defined for every open task.

The availability-based Dynamic Assignment calculates the Totango User’s availability based on these 3 attributes:

• Availability - how many hours a Totango user has to spend on tasks in Totango. The availability time has a single attribute in Totango without a timeframe.
  This attribute updates via file integration or manually in the Totango user profile.
• Allocation - a read-only attribute that sums the time allocated (sum of all the estimated task effort time of the Totango user open tasks).
  This attribute is updated by the system every time there is any change in any task (whenever a task is completed, reassigned, or deleted) 
• Remaining Availability - a view-only attribute that is based on this calculation: [Availability] - [Allocation].
  This attribute is only visible in the Totango User Pools UI, you can view it as a column but cannot filter by it.
  
  

This is the system flow for assigning an availability-based dynamic assignment task to a Totango User:

1. Find all Totango users in the pool.
2. Filter the Totango users by the additional criteria defined.
3. Narrow down the Totango users left by the matching criteria.
4. Filter the Totango users who do not have enough availability. 
5. Use the selected assignment order algorithm and pick the most relevant person to assign the task for.
6. Assign the task to the selected Totango user. Add this task estimated effort time to the allocation attribute and recalculate the remaining availability.

Availability-based dynamic assignment prerequisites

1. Availability information - 
   The Totango User availability information is saved on the ‘Availability’ Totango User attribute (since this is a system attribute, there is no need to create it).
   This attribute can be populated via file integration or manually on the Totango user profile.
   
   
   The availability time has a single attribute in Totango and it has no timeframe. The availability timeframe should be aligned with the task due date.
   
   It is advised to change the availability attribute display name to represent the available hour timeframe at your company. For example, if the available hours time frame in your company is a 30 day period, you should change the availability display name to reflect it: “Availability in the next 30 days”.
   Read more about updating Totango user attributes here.
   
   Important note, you should set the dynamic assignment SuccessPlay due dates to be aligned with the availability time frame.
   
   
2. Estimated task effort time information -
   In order to calculate the allocation of a person, the estimated task effort time must be defined for every open task.
   When creating or editing tasks in a SuccessPlay and you chose the task to be assigned to a Totango user pool, it is mandatory to define the estimated task effort.
   
   
    When creating a task manually a user cannot define the estimated task effort.

Set Up an Availability Based Dynamic Assignment

When adding tasks to a SuccessPlay (in the “Activities” step), click on the “Assignment” box to set up assignment criteria and assignment order and choose one of the availability-related algorithms.

FAQ

Q: I created a new pool that includes 10 people and when I try to select it as the task “assigned to” in the SuccessPlay, I see zero people in this pool.
A: The pool people in the SuccessPlay always intersect with the SuccessTeam, meaning Totango user pool in the SuccessPlay considers only the Totango user who belongs to the pool AND to the SuccessTeam you are in. 

Q: I want Totango to dynamically assign an “assigned to” person for ALL the SuccessPlay tasks, is it feasible? 
A:  Currently no, the dynamic assignment is per task (each task individually). 

Q: I want to create tasks for a part of my tech touch bucket of customers. This group of customers does not have any account assignment, therefore I would use random-based dynamic assignment, how should I define it?
A: Go to the SuccessPlay "Activities" step and select your relevant pre-defined Totango user pool, click on the “Assignment” box and choose"Next Person In-line" as the assignment order.

Q: I want to dynamically assign a request information task to a group of Totango users but I cannot find the Pools in the "Assigned to" dropdown, how can it be configured? 
A: Currently you can only dynamically assign tasks and not a request information form.