Get Next Work customization
In high-volume processing environments, users need a clear answer to a simple question: What should I work on next? The Get Next Work feature in Pega Platform™ addresses this requirement by supporting a pull-based routing model, in which users request the next available Assignment when they are ready to work.
By default, Get Next Work selects the Assignment with the highest urgency from the user’s available Workbaskets. This out-of-the-box behavior is based on the Assign-.pxUrgencyAssign value and ensures that Assignments approaching their service-level targets are prioritized.
In practice, urgency alone may not always reflect business priorities. Different scenarios require different routing logic. For example:
- A contact center may prioritize work based on customer tier.
- A financial process may require first in, first out (FIFO) processing.
- Specialized work may need to be routed only to users with specific skills.
To support these requirements, Get Next Work can be customized. Customization enables an Application to align Assignment selection with business rules while continuing to use the pull-based routing model. The objective is to ensure that each time a user requests the next Assignment, the system returns the most appropriate work based on defined criteria.
Customizing Get Next Work
The Get Next Work feature is Pega Platform’s standard pull-based routing mechanism. It is designed to identify and assign the most appropriate open Assignment to a user when the user indicates readiness to accept additional work. Customizing Get Next Work typically involves modifying how Assignments are prioritized or filtered.
By default, Get Next Work follows a predefined sequence of Rules. Effective customization requires understanding which Rules to specialize.
Core Rules involved:
- Work-.GetNextWork
The primary Activity that orchestrates the Get Next Work process.
- Work-.FindAssignmentInWorklist and Work-.FindAssignmentInWorkbasket
Activities that identify candidate Assignments from the user’s worklist and associated Workbaskets.
- Assign-Worklist.GetNextWork (List View)
Retrieves and sorts Assignments from the user’s worklist.
- Assign-WorkBasket.GetNextWork (List View)
Retrieves and sorts Assignments from Workbaskets.
- Assign-.GetNextWorkCriteria (Decision Tree)
Applies final eligibility checks to ensure that the user is qualified to perform the work, such as validating skills or preventing reassignment of recently completed work.
Customization
The recommended approach is to specialize behavior for specific user groups without modifying base Rules, because this ensures upgradeability.
To specialize behavior, perform the following steps:
- Identify the customization point
- Use circumstancing for specialization
- Optimize performance by identifying the customization point
Changing the prioritization
The most common customization requirement is to modify the sorting order used by Get Next Work. By default, assignments are sorted by urgency. Depending on business needs, assignments may need to be prioritized based on creation date, SLA deadline, or a custom Case property. This change is best implemented by customizing the Assign-WorkBasket.GetNextWork or Assign-Worklist.GetNextWork List View Rules, which control how assignments are sorted and selected.
Changing the filtering logic
To introduce additional eligibility criteria, such as custom skill validation or business-specific conditions, specialize the Assign-.GetNextWorkCriteria Decision Tree.
2. Use circumstancing for specialization:
Instead of overriding base Rules, create circumstanced version of the relevant rule. Circumstancing enables you to create a specialized version of a Rule that only applies under certain conditions, such as when the user belongs to a specific work group.
For example, circumstance the Assign-WorkBasket.GetNextWork List View based on the user’s work group (OperatorID.pyWorkGroup). The circumstanced version implements custom sorting or filtering logic, while all other work groups continue to use the base Rule.
3. Optimize performance:
Perform primary filtering and sorting within List Views, which generate SQL and run at the database level for optimal performance. Use the Assign-.GetNextWorkCriteria Decision Tree only for complex logic that cannot be evaluated at the database level, as it runs on the application server and processes Assignments individually.
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