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Assignment Urgency

In Pega Platform™ applications, Urgency is a numeric value ranging from 0 to 100 that brings visibility to unresolved work in your application. Case Urgency represents the Case priority, while Assignment Urgency represents the Assignment priority. For example, a bank representative working in the fraud department is assigned an Assignment with the highest Assignment Urgency, which indicates it is the highest priority fraud Task.

The GetNextWork selection algorithm uses Assignment Urgency to identify the next Assignment that a user should work on. 

The Urgency value cannot exceed 100. The system ignores adjustments to Urgency values that are more than 100.

Note: To learn more about the GetNextWork algorithm, see Get Next Work customization.

Assignment Urgency calculation

The .pxUrgencyAssign property represents Assignment Urgency. The system calculates Assignment Urgency from three properties: .pxUrgencyWork, .pxUrgencyAssignSLA, and .pyUrgencyAssignAdjust. The value of .pxUrgencyWork is the sum of the following properties: .pxUrgencyWorkClass, .pyUrgencyWorkAdjust, .pxUrgencyWorkSLA, .pxUrgencyPartyTotal, .pxUrgencyWorkStageSLA, and .pxUrgencyWorkStepSLA.

The following figure shows the relationship among these properties:

Diagram of the properties used to calculate assignment urgency

At runtime, the system updates the Urgency when the value of a standard property changes or when a user saves a Case. 

Note: Understanding property prefixes helps you identify how properties function in Pega. The .px prefix indicates system-managed properties that users cannot directly modify, while .py properties can be changed through user input. For a comprehensive explanation of property naming conventions, see Standard property names.

.pxUrgencyWork

The .pxUrgencyWork property represents Case Urgency. The system uses the .pxUrgencyWork value when an Assignment is created to calculate the .pxUrgencyAssign value. Typically, .pxUrgencyWork equals the Case Type initial Urgency, but you can use the .pyUrgencyWorkAdjust property to manually adjust the Case Urgency. Other properties can influence .pxUrgencyWork, but developers use these properties rarely.

.pxUrgencyWorkClass

The .pxUrgencyWorkClass property represents Case Type initial Urgency. By default, the initial Urgency for a Case Type is 10. However, you can change the default Urgency to indicate that Assignments for a specific Case Type are more important than other Case Types.

For example, all Case Types have a default initial Urgency value of 10, but credit card dispute Cases have a higher priority than other Case Types. You set the Initial Urgency value for credit card dispute Cases to 30. Assignments for credit card dispute Cases then default to a greater Urgency than Assignments for other Case Types.

.pyUrgencyWorkAdjust

You can adjust the .pyUrgencyWorkAdjust property to increase or decrease the Case Urgency. UrgencyUpdate is a local Action that references .pyUrgencyWorkAdjust. ​The system adds the integer that you provide to the current Urgency value of the Case.

Note: Case Urgency (.pxUrgencyWork) represents the overall priority of a case, while Assignment Urgency (.pxUrgencyAssign) indicates the priority of completing a specific task within that case. To learn more about how these values interact and affect work prioritization, see Urgency.
Caution: .pxUrgencyAssign reflects manual adjustments to Case Urgency if a user adjusts the Case Urgency before the Assignment is created, but not after.

Rarely used properties for calculating .pxUrgencyWork

The following properties are used rarely but can influence .pxUrgencyWork:

  • .pxUrgencyWorkSLA is the Urgency from the Case SLA, if the Case has an SLA.
  • .pxUrgencyPartyTotal is the sum of the work party Urgency. Although rarely used, a work party can have an associated Urgency.
  • .pxUrgencyWorkStageSLA is the Urgency from the current Stage SLA, if the Stage has an SLA.
  • .pxUrgencyWorkStepSLA is the sum of the Urgency from all Process SLAs in the current Stage, if an SLA is configured on any Processes in the current Stage.

Match the numbers to the following image to learn more about how the system uses .pxUrgencyWork to calculate .pxUrgencyAssign using the following Roadside Assistance example:

  1. Roadside assistance Case: For Roadside assistance Case Types, the .pxUrgencyWorkClass value is 10. A driver creates a roadside assistance Case. The .pxUrgencyWork value for this Case instance is 10.
  2. Assign service provider Assignment: The system creates the Assign service provider Assignment automatically. To calculate the Assignment Urgency, the system uses the Case Urgency value at the time it creates the Assignment. Assuming no other Urgency adjustments, the .pxUrgencyAssign value for this Assignment is 10.
  3. UrgencyUpdate local Action: The CSR uses the UrgencyUpdate local Action to increase the value of .pyUrgencyWorkAdjust to 30. This change increases .pxUrgencyWork to 40. This does not affect .pxUrgencyAssign, which remains at 10.
SLA for Roadside Assistance Case

.pxUrgencyAssignSLA

The .pxUrgencyAssignSLA property represents the Urgency from the Assignment SLA Rule. The value is the sum of the Assignment SLA initial Urgency and the Urgency increments for the goal, deadline, and passed deadline intervals.

As an Assignment ages and exceeds each interval, the value of .pxUrgencyAssignSLA increases according to the configuration of the SLA.

Match the numbers to the steps in following image to learn more about how the .pxUrgencyAssignSLA value increases as Assignments progress toward the goal and deadline:

  1. Work item creation: When the system creates the Assignment, the initial Case Urgency is 10, so .pxUrgencyWork is 10.
  2. Assignment ready: The Assignment SLA has an inital Urgency of 10, so when the Assignment is ready, .pxUrgencyAssignSLA is 10. Accounting for .pxUrgencyWork, the total Assignment Urgency value is 20.
  3. Goal interval: The Assignment SLA has a goal Urgency of 15, so when the goal interval elapses, .pxUrgencyAssignSLA is 25. Accounting for .pxUrgencyWork, the total Assignment Urgency value is 35.
  4. Deadline interval: The Assignment SLA has a deadline Urgency of 20, so when the deadline interval elapses, .pxUrgencyAssignSLA is 45. Accounting for .pxUrgencyWork, the total Assignment Urgency value is 55.
  5. Passed deadline interval: The Assignment SLA has a passed deadline Urgency of 25, so when the passed deadline interval elapses, .pxUrgencyAssignSLA is 70. Accounting for .pxUrgencyWork, the total Assignment Urgency value is 80.
The .pxUrgencyAssignSLA value progress.

.pyUrgencyAssignAdjust

You can adjust the .pyUrgencyAssignAdjust property to increase or decrease the Assignment Urgency. ChangeAssignmentSLA is a local Action that references .pyUrgencyAssignAdjust. ​The system adds the integer that you provide to the current Urgency value of the Assignment.

For example, a CSR runs the ChangeAssignmentSLA local Action to increase the Urgency of an Assignment if a customer reports their credit card was stolen. The local Action increases the value of .pyUrgencyAssignAdjust. The overall Assignment Urgency .pxUrgencyAssign increases, which increases the likelihood that a user completes the Assignment before other Assignments.

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