Automated work queue management overview

The automated work queue management feature provides the ability to define rules that can complete a manual activity or change who is assigned the activity.

Based on certain conditions being satisfied, you can do the following:

Complete a manual activity automatically, on behalf of someone or by the system.
Update the resources on manual activity to a more appropriate user or group, on behalf of someone or by the system.

Automatically complete a manual activity

In TotalAgility, an activity can be manual (requiring a user to perform it) or automatic (where the system performs it).

Some manual workflow tasks can be repetitive.

Always approve leave requests that are half days.
Accept loan approvals where the amount is < $1000.
Complete an activity that is just an acknowledgment and does not require any data to be entered.

If each worker must complete one of those tasks daily, and it takes one minute to complete then if they can automate that task, the worker can save 30 minutes monthly (6 hours annually).

If you apply that across a whole organization, then the hours saved increase significantly thus allowing the workers to focus on higher-value tasks and achieve greater overall efficiency and effectiveness.

The work queue automation feature allows users to request automation on the tasks assigned to them. If the automation request is accepted (via the process feedback feature), a work queue automation rule can be configured in the process designer to auto-complete tasks on that user’s behalf under certain conditions.

If on a particular process, users continually request the same automation, then you can redesign the process to perform one of the following:

Partially automate by adding logic into the process to bypass the step under certain conditions.
Completely automate that manual task using the information garnered from end-user requests.
Remove the task completely if it is not adding any value.

Auto-completion is typically configured to complete on behalf of a user; however, auto-completion can also be configured to run regardless of a user, at a system level. For example, you can configure a work queue automation to automatically reject all loan applications where the requester has a low credit score. For this task, you can set up a rule to filter out tasks that do not meet business goals and are considered a wasted effort to manually review and eliminate. Then hold the credit score as business data and update it as and when needed either using the decision table or by calling a process. In this case, the system (TotalAgility) completes the manual activity.

When an activity is completed automatically, auditing and history of the job will indicate this.

Update the resource assigned to a manual activity

A work queue automation rule can determine the resource (user or group) best suited to complete an activity based on some conditions, and update the resources assigned to the activity if a rule match is found.

If a leave request is for more than 20 days, then the HR group is responsible for approving this rather than the requestor’s line manager.

When resourcing is changed via a rule, auditing and history of the job will indicate this.

Benefits

Benefits to automated work queue management include:

Time can be saved by automatically completing repetitive activities based on known inputs and outputs.
Hybrid mode of work completion – activity is typically completed manually but can be completed automatically in an unattended manner using conditional logic.
Work can be automatically routed to more appropriate resources.
Rules can be maintained independently from the process by a process designer or citizen developer.
The logic for completing/routing is decoupled from the process itself.

How to: Create a work queue automation rule