Task Classification and Substitution Profiles

Tue Feb 24 21:34:00 EST 2015

Loren,

The default 'All' profile comes from the UWL Ad-hoc connector for UWL 
collaboration tasks. It can be hidden with UWL configuration or you can 
disallow the 'ALL' profile in the substitute BAdI implementation. Please 
see SAP KBA/Note *1577579 - Facts and limitations about Substitution in 
the Universal Worklist***and the the two additional notes mentioned in 
the See Also section.

Cheers,
Ramki.

On 2/24/15, 7:49 PM, Bratzler, Loren wrote:
>
> Thank you everyone for the replies.  Thanks to what Kjetil mentioned 
> about "General" substitution, I now see what is happening.
>
> When our users create a substitution rule through the UWL, the screen 
> initially defaults to the profile "ALL":
>
> The user can use the drop-down to select one of the other profiles if 
> they want to, but it will not allow them to leave the profile blank:
>
> The issue occurs when they do choose the "ALL" profile.  The resulting 
> table entry in HRUS_D2 ends up with the profile field being blank:
>
> This then treats the newly created substitution rule as "General" 
> substitution.
>
> If I use a back-end utility to change the profile field from blank to 
> "ALL", then the new task classification does get excluded from the 
> substitute's view.
>
> So does this imply that the default profile of "ALL" that shows up in 
> the Manage Substitution Rules screen is really the "General" profile 
> and not our custom defined profile named "ALL"?  Or is it possible 
> there is some kind of bug in the UWL substitution function that is not 
> passing the "ALL" profile to the backend table?
>
> Loren Bratzler
>
> Norfolk Southern Corporation
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On 
> Behalf Of Kjetil Kilhavn
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 6:01 AM
> To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Task Classification and Substitution Profiles
>
> 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 <mailto: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 
> <mailto:Loren.Bratzler at nscorp.com%3cmailto: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,+Classi
>
> > >> ficati
>
> > >> 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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>
> > SAP-WUG at mit.edu <mailto:SAP-WUG at mit.edu>
>
> > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/sap-wug
>
> --
>
> Kjetil Kilhavn / Vettug AS (http://www.vettug.no)
>
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