Escalation workflow best practice

Recommendation

Design the escalation workflow to support the successful completion of workflows.

Impact

  • Ensures User Tasks are addressed in a timely matter.
  • Keeps the right groups and people involved and aware of the workflow progression.

Best practices

  • Fully configure the escalation workflow in your environment before activating it.
    • Determine the users who should receive a notification in the case of an escalation and the users who will be responsible for reassigning an escalation task. Use role(), group() or user() when assigning certain people in your organization to handle escalations.
    • Set the Escalation Type to mail or reassign to determine the behavior of your escalation workflow.
    • Configure the time duration for your workflow. Escalation workflows use the ISO Standard where the [n] is replaced by the value for reach of the date and time elements. The duration is represented in either of the following formats:
      • P[n]Y[n]M[n]DT[n]H[n]M[n]S
      • P[n]W
        • P is the period duration designator placed at the start of the duration representation.
          • Use B instead of P to represent business day duration. When B is used, weekends are not counted in the time duration. For example, B5Mrepresents 5 business months.
          • Y is the year designator that follows the value for the number of calendar years. For example, 5Y represents 5 years.
          • M is the month designator that follows the value for the number of calendar months. For example, 6M represents 6 months.
          • W is the week designator that follows the value for the number of weeks. For example, 3W represents 3 weeks.
          • D is the day designator that follows the value for the number of calendar days. For example. 45D represents 45 days.
        • T is the time designator that precedes the time components of the representation.
          • H is the hour designator that follows the value for the number of hours. For example, 7H represents 7 hours.
          • M is the minute designator that follows the value for the number of minutes, when placed after the T time designator. For example, T1H12M represents 1 hour and 12 minutes.
          • S is the second designator that follows the value for the number of seconds. For example, 34S represents 34 seconds.
        • Additional examples:
          • PT1H means a task that is escalated in 1 hour.
          • P1MT12H means a task that is escalated in 1 month and 12 hours.
          • B3WT6H30M means a task that is escalated in 3 business weeks 6 hours and 30 minutes. Using B instead of P, weekends are excluded from the calculation.
    • If a specific escalation behavior is required for certain workflows, consider creating a unique role, for example Escalation Resource, to handle these special workflows. For example, Business Stewards are notified for escalations for one type of workflow, and Stakeholders are notified for a different type of workflow.
    • If escalations are to be handled within the workflow itself, add a boundary timer to a User Task. The EscalationDuration and EscalationType variables do not appear, as it is assumed the escalation is already being handled.
    • Anytime support is required to set up the escalation workflow, consider booking a coaching session for out-of-the-box workflows and customizations.

Additional Information

For more information, go to the following resources: