Task Classification and Substitution Profiles

[Kjetil Kilhavn]

Tirsdag 24. februar 2015 09.19.05 skrev Dart, Jocelyn:
> Hi Kjetil
> No not harsh just grimly realistic.
> 
> Biggest problem with task profiles to me is you can only assign 1 task
> classification per substitute.  So if you want to assign eg travel tasks &
> budget tasks to the same substitute that's not permitted.

I assume you mean profiles here - because a profile with both travel tasks and 
budget tasks can be created so the substitute would only have to be defined 
once to get both types of tasks.

But I agree that this can be a problem, as an organization using a wide 
variety of workflow tasks may end up with an unmanageable number of 
substitution profiles since you have to create a substitution profile for 
every combination of classfication someone will want to assign. Thorough 
analysis is necessary to reduce the number of profiles as much as possible.

Combined with good assignment of possible agents it should be manageable with 
quite a few task classes I would think, but perhaps not when you exceed 10-15. 
I don't have any experience with a high number of task classes, but with five 
classes it is at least not a problem. We actually ended up with fewer profiles 
than task classes there - but it will depend on policies and a lot of factors.


> I have seen some sites create wrappers for task launch to recheck the
> executing users authority before launching the application itself.

There are as always many roads leading to Rome.

> Others have created their own substitution checks. Eg in BADIs that only
> permit users to assign a substitute of equal or greater authority or limit
> substitutes to managers in the same reporting line
> 
> I'm still hoping for better answers

It would be an improvement if the substitute could be assigned to selected 
substitution profiles instead of just one. One could probably remove the 
entire profile concept, and let the substitute be assigned directly to 
selected task classes. Not a minor change though...

> Rgds
> Jocelyn
> 
> Sent from my iPhone with many apologies for the spelling, grammar and any
> other deficiencies
> > On 23 Feb 2015, at 10:40 pm, Kjetil Kilhavn <list.sap-wug at vettug.no>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > Don't be so harsh on SAP Jocelyn - they try their best ;-)
> > 
> > The main problem is that task classification is not obligatory, and that
> > it is not mandatory to select a substitution profile (in GUI the lack of
> > a profile is accompanied by the description “General substitution”, I
> > guess this is equivalent to the “All tasks” selection in the UWL although
> > it appears as if you select a profile in the UWL).
> > 
> > 
> > You *can* solve your problem by doing the following:
> > 1) Implement a measure (I don't know if there are any explicit enhancement
> > possibilities) to ensure that “All tasks”/“General substitution” is not an
> > accepted choice of substitution profile.
> > 
> > 2) Assign classification to all tasks in use, and create the substitution
> > profiles for all required combinations of task classes.
> > Even if you don't have to assign task classification to a task for which
> > substitution should not be possible I would recommend creating a class
> > that
> > makes it obvious that it is excluded from substitution.
> > 
> > The “General substitution” profile is the only profile that allows a
> > substitute to see tasks without classification, so both steps are
> > required.
> > 
> > I have not implemented such solutions (customer did not want to), but it
> > would be a permanent and proper solution to the problem which could be
> > applied to any number of tasks without requiring further development. It
> > would also (and I would argue this is equally important) force users to
> > actively make a choice of substitution profile. They often don't, even if
> > the substitute should only handle e.g. approval of purchases and
> > invoices.
> > 
> > Lørdag 21. februar 2015 08.17.11 skrev Dart, Jocelyn:
> >> Hi Loren
> >> Unfortunately I suspect what you are missing is the reality check on task
> >> classification capabilities or lack thereof - perhaps try work item exit
> >> or
> >> a wrapper function or the Substitution BADIs instead Rgds
> >> Jocelyn
> >> 
> >> Sent from my iPhone with many apologies for the spelling, grammar and any
> >> other deficiencies
> >> 
> >> On 21 Feb 2015, at 8:08 am, Bratzler, Loren
> >> <Loren.Bratzler at nscorp.com<mailto:Loren.Bratzler at nscorp.com>> wrote:
> >> 
> >> Hello Wuggers!
> >> 
> >> We have a situation here where the business realized that Annual
> >> Performance Reviews can be opened and read by UWL Substitutes.  They
> >> want us to exclude tasks related to the Annual Appraisal process from a
> >> UWL Substitute’s view when they are working on items on behalf of
> >> someone else.
> >> 
> >> I found this very good article on SCN that explains the process for
> >> creating task classifications and assigning those classifications to
> >> substitution profiles:
> >> 
> >> http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/HOME/Link+Substitution,+Classificati
> >> on+ and+Profiles
> >> 
> >> However, I am struggling to make this work.
> >> 
> >> Our situation is that we basically have two Substitution profiles.  One
> >> is
> >> named “ALL” (for all tasks) and the other is named “TRAVEL_APPRO” (for
> >> only
> >> approving travel related tasks).  What I tried to do was define a new
> >> Classification for performance reviews named “PDR” (Personal Development
> >> Review).  We use the standard appraisal workflow, WS12300110, which has
> >> standard task TS12300115 for the employee to read and respond to their
> >> performance review.  I assigned task TS12300115 to the new “PDR”
> >> classification.  But then I did not assign “PDR” as a classification for
> >> the “ALL” substitution profile.  PDR is not assigned to any profile.
> >> 
> >> My thinking was that if the new classification is not included in any
> >> profile, then the tasks assigned to that classification would not show up
> >> in the substitutes’ queue, regardless of which profile they were using.
> >> 
> >> Am I missing something here?
> >> 
> >> Any help is greatly appreciated!
> >> 
> >> Loren Bratzler
> >> Norfolk Southern Corporation
> 
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-- 
Kjetil Kilhavn / Vettug AS (http://www.vettug.no)