Task Classification and Substitution Profiles

Wed Feb 25 10:08:03 EST 2015

Ramki,

Thanks for the link to the KBA.  We actually did some poking around in the UWL Portal settings yesterday and discovered the configuration option to turn off the default "ALL" profile:

[cid:image001.png at 01D050E0.BC167870]

So I think we are going to try turning this off in the Portal, and then we will create a new custom profile named "ALL_TASKS".  That new profile will be just like the existing ALL profile but will not have the new task classification in it.  We will then convert all the existing rules that have either "ALL" or a blank profile to have the new profile "ALL_TASKS".  Hopefully that will achieve what we want to do here.

Reading that KBA also reminded me of something I have asked here on the WUG before and I think it might be a good thing to bring up to the Workflow Customer Connection.  The first bullet point in that article reads:

·         If you are using the Universal Worklist to maintain substitution, then only the Universal Worklist should be used.  By switching to the backend system to change a substitution rule, then switching back to the portal, inconsistencies can be caused.  General rule of thumb: If you are using the Universal Worklist and substitution, maintain the substitution through the Manage Substitution Rules UI on the Universal Worklist.

We get requests all the time to create substitution rules for people who are out on medical leave or just go on vacation and forget to create a rule.  So we always use the backend utility to create the rule because there is no utility in the UWL to maintain rules for other users.  The backend utility updates the tables in the backend but it does not keep the Portal side tables in sync.  There really needs to be an admin tool in the Portal/UWL to allow for substitution maintenance.

Loren Bratzler
Norfolk Southern Corporation

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Ramki Maley
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 9:34 PM
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Task Classification and Substitution Profiles

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":

[cid:image002.png at 01D050E0.BC167870]

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:

[cid:image003.png at 01D050E0.BC167870]

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:

[cid:image004.png at 01D050E0.BC167870]

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> [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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--

Kjetil Kilhavn / Vettug AS (http://www.vettug.no)

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