This introduction article will help TDAdmin users to use the choice step within ticketing workflows using TDAdmin. The user must have either environment wide admin access or ticketing application admin access in TDAdmin.
Overview
The choice step presents multiple choices in order to progress through a workflow.
When defining a choice step, the administrator will create one or more choices, each of which will appear as an option for the workflow step. Each option can be connected to the next steps relevant to that choice in the workflow.
When a choice step is active on a ticket's workflow, the options will show in the ticket's Current Activities sidebar, similar to an Approval step.
In addition, when a Choice step becomes active on a ticket workflow, the responsible resource is notified, and the step appears in the My Approvals section of the My Work application in TDNext for the resource assigned to the step. The step also appears in the My Approvals section of the Services area of the Client Portal for the resource assigned to the step.
Where to Find This
This feature appears in the TDAdmin, TDNext, and TDClient interfaces.
TDAdmin is where the workflow is created and configured, TDNext is where techs can see the status of the workflow and the steps, and TDClient is where TDClient users can interact with this workflow step.
Navigate to choice steps following these paths:
- TDAdmin > Applications > [Name of the ticketing app] > Workflows > New workflow > Open the the workflow up and click new step
- TDNext > Applications menu > [Name of the ticketing app] > Find ticket with a workflow on it and open it > Examine the workflow for the choice step
- TDClient > Ticket requests > Find a ticket with a workflow on it and open it > Examine the workflow for the choice step, or click on the link that is sent to the step owner to evaluate the choice step
Using the Choice Step
Creating a Choice Step
To create a choice step:
- In TDAdmin, click Applications in the left navigation.
- Click the Name of the Ticketing application you want to add a workflow to.
- In the left navigation, click Workflows.
- On the Ticket Workflows list, click the Name of the desired workflow.
- Click the View Builder button.
- In the Workflow Builder, click File in the toolbar.
- Select Check Out from the dropdown.
- Click the New Step button in the toolbar.
- In the New Workflow Step window, enter a Name that indicates what the step will do.
- Select the Choice Step Type from the dropdown.
- Assign ownership of the choice step as needed
Responsibility Options
There are two ways to assign responsibility for a choice step- by client user or group, or by role.
By choosing the Responsibility option Assign to a specific resource, the administrator can choose a specific responsible user or group. If assigned to a group, all resources in that group who have access to the associated ticketing application may act on the step.
A client user must be individually assigned to the workflow step for them to act on it, they cannot act on choice steps on behalf of an assigned group.
The administrator can also choose Assign to a role. This requires also choosing a fallback responsible user or group, who will be assigned when the role-based assignment cannot be evaluated to a valid user or group assignment.
The following roles are supported for choice steps:
- Requestor
- Requestor's Manager
- Requestor's Resource Pool Primary Manager
- Requestor's Primary Group Manager
- Creator
- Creator's Manager
- Creator's Resource Pool Primary Manager
- Creator's Primary Group Manager
- Responsible
- Responsible's Manager
- Responsible's Resource Pool Primary Manager
- Responsible's Primary Group Manager
- Reviewer
- Reviewer's Manager
- Reviewer's Resource Pool Primary Manager
- Reviewer's Primary Group Manager
- Service Owner
- Service Owner's Manager
- Service Owner's Resource Pool Primary Manager
- Service Owner's Primary Group Manager
- Department Manager
- Any person-type custom attribute
To be valid, a variable assignment role on a Choice step must evaluate to at least one of the following:
- An active user with TeamDynamix access (not a Customer)
- An active group containing at least one active user with access to the ticketing application (as the group restriction mentioned above still applies)
Furthermore, certain roles can result in an assignment scoped only to a group's managers:
- Any relative Primary Group Manager role
- Responsible's Manager (when Responsible is a group)
- Reviewer's Manager (when Reviewer is a group)
- Service Owner's Manager (when Service Owner is a group)
When this is the case, the group's managers still must have access to the ticketing application to be able to act on the step on behalf of the group.
Gotchas & Pitfalls
- Client users can only own the step if they are assigned individually to the step. Client users cannot belong to a group, and then have that group own the step.
Examples
This 2 minute video quickly demonstrates how a multiple choice step appears to a user processing a service request and shows where this is configured in the Workflow Builder.