Completing work on time
Ren is eager to incorporate Pega’s Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) into his application. SLAs establish work completion deadlines that enforce on-time performance, an aspect of Case Management that could greatly benefit the Creative Content team.
Watch the following video for more information about how SLAs work:
Video transcript
An important part of most processes is the timeliness of the work. Use Service Levels - also known as Service Level Agreements or SLAs - to ensure work is completed within the expected time intervals.
Service levels use milestones to indicate the expected turnaround times for the assignment or the overall Case on which they are defined. The first milestone is the "goal." The "goal” defines how long the assignment should take and is typically measured from when the assignment started. The next milestone is the “deadline.” The deadline defines the longest amount of time the assignment may take before it is considered “late”. The deadline is usually measured from when the assignment was started.
For example, consider an assignment in a simple Case where someone submits a request, it gets reviewed, then processed. Managers should be able to review a request within 24 hours of getting it, but the assignment allocates up to 36 hours before it is considered late. The expectation is it can take up to eight hours to process the request, but never more than two days.
At each milestone, you can adjust the assignment’s urgency. The urgency is typically a value from 10 to 100; the higher the value, the higher the assignment’s urgency.
For example, consider the Review assignment and how the urgency changes might appear along a timeline. A new request is available for review. As soon the Review step starts, the assignment begins, and the service level clock starts ticking.
At the start of every assignment, the urgency is set to a default value, typically 10. You could increase the urgency immediately when the service level clock starts, but in this example, the urgency value for the review assignment is ten. Then, time passes. The goal for this assignment is 24 hours. If 24 hours elapse and the assignment is incomplete, the urgency increases by a defined value; in this scenario, the increase is 10, so the assignment’s urgency value for the review assignment is now 20. The deadline arrives and the assignment is still incomplete. The urgency increases again by adding the defined value; in this scenario, the value is ten. The urgency value of the assignment is now thirty.
In addition to changing the urgency value, you can also define an action to take to escalate the assignment if any of the milestones are missed. Common escalation actions might include: Sending notifications to the assignment owner and or their manager or transferring the assignment to another user.
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Service-Level Agreements
Ren's application uses Goal and Deadline intervals as part of his SLA. The Goal defines the length of time it should take to complete an Assignment and is typically measured from the start of the Case, Stage, or Step to which it has been applied. The Deadline defines the length of time at which an Assignment is considered late. The Deadline is also measured from the start of the Case, Stage, or Step.
Ren's application also includes adjustments to the Urgency level of each Case. Urgency is a numeric value that brings visibility to unresolved work in an application. The default value for a Case's urgency level is 10, and it increases by specified values to a maximum of 100. The higher the Urgency level, the higher the Case will be placed near the top of the team Work Queue or User Worklist.
For example, Ana's Worklist, prioritized by both Deadline and Urgency, is seen in the following image:
Finally, Ren's application also incorporates Escalation Actions to take when a Case, Stage, or Step is late. Escalation Actions include:
- Creating notifications
- Reassigning Cases to different users
- Resolving Cases
For example, if Ren misses a Goal, a notification would be sent to his manager, Gab, to inform him of the delay.
Note: To learn more about Service-Level Agreements, see Completing work on time.
Check your knowledge with the following interaction:
Defining an SLA
The Creative Content team has a Goal of completing a project in five days, with a project Deadline of seven days. Gab likes to be notified if a project is going to miss either the Goal or Deadline.
To define these conditions in an SLA, Ren performs the following steps:
- Click the Submit content Step to open the contextual properties pane.
- Click the Goal and Deadline tab.
- In the Use Service-Level Agreement (SLA) list, select Custom SLA.
- In the Goal section:
- In the Days field, enter 5.
- In the Increase Urgency field, enter 10.
- In the Action list, select Notify.
- Select the Manager check box.
- Select the Use default message radio button.
- In the Deadline section:
- In the Days field, enter 7.
- In the Increase Urgency field, enter 20.
- In the Action list, select Notify.
- Select the Manager check box.
- Select the Use default message radio button.
- Click .
Ren is also going to incorporate SLAs into the following steps:
| Step | Category | Goal | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve content |
Time from start |
6 hours | 2 days |
| Increase Urgency | 0 | 10 | |
| Notify | (Nobody) | Assignee | |
| Resubmit content |
Time from start |
2 days | 3 days |
|
Increase Urgency |
10 | 20 | |
| Notify | Manager | Manager |
Ren demonstrates the process of adding SLAs to his application in the following video:
Note: The user interface depicted in the videos associated with this mission might differ slightly from your own due to alternate versions of the Pega Platform. This video has no audio and no closed captions.
In your environment
In your own Pega environment, add at least one SLA to your application. You can duplicate one of the SLA agreements that Ren configured or define an SLA with Goal, Deadline, Urgency Levels, and Escalation Actions that reflect your own process.
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