Agents for Deadline Processing

[Trant, David]

Can anyone confirm whether my interpretation of deadline processing using o=
rganizational objects is correct?  We are on 4.6C and here is the scenario:
 
Before responsibility rules were either available or understood (before my =
time in workflow, anyway), we created workflow A that uses a role with an o=
rganizational object that has plant and division as keys.  Org unit A was c=
reated for this workflow and has everyone associated with the process defin=
ed within that structure.  Then, another relatively inexperienced person cr=
eated workflow B based on the same design principles.  Workflow B uses the =
same org object, and a different org unit, call it B, containing the people=
 associated with process B.  After org unit B was populated, we started not=
icing sporadic deadline messages from process A showing up in the inboxes o=
f people associated with process B.  Note that workflow B is not yet active=
; just having org unit B populated in production is sufficient for the role=
 resolution from A to start finding the new people defined for B.
 
My analysis indicates that when a step in workflow A determines agents, it =
applies the role to find all people (A or B) associated with a given plant =
and division, and then restricts the list according to possible agents, whi=
ch has been assigned to be org unit A.  Likewise, a similar step from workf=
low B would also resolve to the same list of people from the role, but then=
 restrict the results to just those listed in org unit B.  This seems to wo=
rk fine.
 
The problem occurs the deadline is reached for this step.  The latest end t=
ab has the same role defined for the recipients of the deadline message (th=
e process is to simply remind someone that there is work to do rather than =
escalate to someone else).  At this point, the message is going to everyone=
 associated with that plant and division from both org units A and B.  My g=
uess is that SAP's mindset is that while the original activity is intended =
to go to a select group of people as defined in agent assignment, that in g=
eneral it might be desirable to send escalation messages outside that origi=
nal group.  The system therefore seems to ignore the possible agent restric=
tion and simply send the deadline message to everyone identified by the rol=
e resolution.  The online help for deadline maintenance doesn't go into thi=
s level of detail.
 
Can anyone verify whether my interpretation is correct or not?
 
Does anyone have a quick fix suggestion?  Our anticipated solution is to co=
nvert to responsibility rules, which we've decided to do anyway long term f=
or these workflows, but this is likely to take a while.
 
Thanks for your help,
David
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