Automation Rules vs Workflows

Hi!

Can some one assist me in understanding when to use Automation Rules vs Workflows and vice versa? Thank you!

Asked by Michael Rodriguez on Mon 7/10/23 8:34 PM
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Answers (2)

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David Tod Tue 7/11/23 9:11 AM

Automation Rules can change or trigger the following - they are listed as Automation Actions:

  • Assignment
  • Impact
  • Urgency
  • Priority
  • SLA
  • Task Template
  • Workflow
  • Notifications

So, an automation rule by itself cannot change the ticket classification.

Workflows can change the classification of a ticket but only once. This is called the Promotion Classification, and is accessible under Workflow Details when a workflow is checked out for editing. 

Another way would be using a specific kind of workflow step (a webservice call or an iPaaS call), and those can call back to TDX and do anything the API allows, including changing the classification.

Note that a ticket can only automatically be assigned one workflow by automation rules, so that can be quite limiting for both the above options.

We have this actual scenario where we have a radio button on a service that asks "Is this a request or is something wrong?" and if something is wrong, then we reclassify as an incident, and we do have a workflow that uses the Promotion Classification to do that, but if another workflow is assigned through automation, that doesn't work.

We could (probably should) use something else, a webhook, which is the most flexible option. A webhook is a call out to an external service (iPaaS in our case) on every ticket update (and/or creation/deletion), and our iPaaS configuration could check for that radio button option and change classification that way. I asked about this in a general sense in a question a while ago.

NB: I'm just a customer. TDX employees probably have more cogent answers!

1 of 1 users found this helpful.
Do you think incidents could be left out and treat everything as a service request? Would that pose a problem? - Michael Rodriguez Tue 7/11/23 10:17 AM
Hi Michael, you *can* deactivate the other ticket classifications and just have Service Requests active so nothing else is used, sure. - Mark Sayers Tue 7/11/23 10:29 AM
There are more mature organizations than ours who might have a view on this, but my recollection is that we copied someone else in creating a "Report a problem" service that creates an Incident, but otherwise, yes, almost everything else is a service request. As we've reflected on this and used it, we have gravitated toward the radio button option, or (not done yet) a separate service officering on each service that is for incidents, but I'd be curious about what others do.

Having incidents identified as such by clients helps because we do assign different SLAs to incidents through automation. - David Tod Tue 7/11/23 10:34 AM
David Tod Tue 7/11/23 8:07 AM

The TDX KB isn't bad on this.

My non-official description is that Automation Rules only run when a ticket is created, and have a limited set of things they can change. You can have multiple different automation rules run against a particular ticket creation based on the evaluation order and the stop on match attribute. You might create an automation rule based on particular ticket attribute, e.g. to reroute a ticket to a different group from the service default based on a particular choice chosen in the ticket. Another example might be to add a specific workflow based on a choice in a ticket.

A workflow is a (branchable) sequence of assignable tasks, actions, and approvals, for example, we have a workflow for onboarding consultants, that has the various steps that need to happen (documents signed, approvals, etc.). Another example workflow we have is for third-party integrations to our LMS, with all the various checkpoints and sign offs, e.g. are they approved, and if not, take the request through a compliance process.

So, putting the two together, when someone indicates in an LMS ticket (using a radio button option) that they are requesting a third-party tool, then the third-party workflow is assigned by an automation rule, and we follow the steps in the workflow to complete the work on the ticket.

HTH

1 of 1 users found this helpful.
Thank you David! That helped a lot. Can either one change a ticket from a service request to incident and vice versa based on a specific selection in the service catalog? - Michael Rodriguez Tue 7/11/23 8:27 AM