The exact meaning of each deadline.

[Dart, Jocelyn]

Hi Jihoon,
Ok yes you do have it a little confused.
 
All deadlines need a period after which the deadline is activated, e.g. 2
days,
and a time from which the deadline is measured, i.e. if your
deadline is 2 days, 2 days after WHAT?
 
Normally workitem creation is fine.
E.g. 2 days after WORKITEM CREATION, means the agent has 2 days from the
time
it hits their inbox to do something about it.
 
Using workflow creation time or some other date/time expression is less
usual.
An example using workflow creation:
Workflow starts with event "Form created".  Workitem must be actioned
within
2 days of form being created.
An example using a date/time expression:
Customer has requested order to be delivered on a certain date.
Workitem must be actioned within 2 days of nominated delivery date.
 
You've worked out when the deadlines work ok, but it might be helpful to
look at this way:
 
REQUESTED START
This one's a little different from the other deadlines in that it's about
slowing things
down rather than speeding them up.
Don't show the workitem to the agent BEFORE this time.   E.g. orders are
created throughout the day, but customers sometimes ring back shortly
afterwards
to change them, we want to give the customers are grace period to make
changes.
So don't process the order further until requested start time.
 
LATEST START
This is a "hard" start. You MUST have started the workitem by this time or
we will
get very cross with you/beat you up/issue pink slip.
 
REQUESTED END
This is a "soft" end.  We would LIKE you to have done it by requested end
time,
but there are no harsh penalties.
 
LATEST END
This is a "hard" end.  You MUST have completed the workitem by this time or
we will
get very cross with you/beat you up/issue pink slip.
 
As a real life example of using more than one deadline on the same workitem:
 
Approval workitem is created.
 
REQUESTED END is set at WORKITEM CREATION DATE + 2 DAYS - at requested end
we issue
an escalation notice to the initiator to chase up the approver.
 
LATEST END is set at WORKITEM CREATION DATE + 5 DAYS - at latest end we use
modeled
deadlining to kill the current workitem, and send a new workitem to their
boss
so that the boss can approve it and is also informed that the normal
approver has
failed to act.
 
I actually implemented something very similar to this in numerous workflows
at one of
my customers.
 
Regards,
        Jocelyn Dart
Consultant (BBP, Ecommerce, Internet Transaction Server, Workflow)
SAP Australia
Email jocelyn.dart at sap.com <mailto:jocelyn.dart at sap.com>
Tel: +61 412 390 267
Fax: +61 2 9935 4880
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: hoonkim0 at naver.com [mailto:hoonkim0 at naver.com]
Sent: Monday, 14 May 2001 6:45 PM
To: SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: The exact meaning of each deadline.
 
 
Hi, experts.
 
Is there anybody can explain the exact meaning and usage exmaple of
deadlines?
 
The training material BC601 said
 
Requested start ;
        Earliest possible time for processing start; Introduced by the
system:
        The work item is not visible in the Business Workplace until this
time.
Requested end ;
        Latest requested time for completion of processing of a workflow
Latest start ;
        Latest deadline for workflow processing start
Latest end ;
        Latest deadline for completion of processing of a workflow
 
It's very confusing for me to understand the meaning and the usage of each
deadline.
 
My understanding is ....
 
requested start means
deadline for the interval between the appearing time of the workitem
in agent's inbox and the workitem creation time.
 
requested end means
deadline for the inverval between the completion time and the workitem
creation time.
 
latest start means
deadline for the interval between the workitem creation time and the
workflow instance start time.
 
latest end means
deadline for the interval between the workitem completion time and the
workflow instance start time.
 
My confusing is ....
 
Each deadline has two options for referencing time. They are workflow
creation and workitem creation.
I guess "requested end for referencing the workflow creation time" is same
as "latest end".
And, "latest end for referencing the workitem creation time" is same as
"requested end". Right?
What does the referencing time (workitem/workflow creation time) stands for?
 
It's very confusing for me. Please let me understand.
 
Any information will be very appreciated.
 
Thank you and best regards,
Jihoon Kim