Managing on-call and normal workshifts in Workforce Optimization for ITSM

[robertorobles]

In the Rome release, Agent managers can now manage and view on-call shifts and normal work shifts in Workforce Optimization for ITSM with our latest integration with the On-call application. This allows managers, who manage a team of agents that work across on-call and normal work shifts, to view the team schedule in one, centralized place.

On-call concepts 

A Rotation (cmn_rota) or On-call Shift defines among other configurations the following values: 

• Name – The name of the shift that will be visible for all agents that are part of the rotation. 
• A Group that will use the current shift definition. 
• A Schedule configuration. 

 Each rotation consists of one or more rosters of agents that will be rotated based on the setup of the roster record.  

Among other configurations a Roster (cmn_rota_roster) defines 

• Name – OOTB On-call rosters are created following the ordinal naming convention, meaning that first roster created on a Rotation will be named as Primary, second and third as Secondary and Tertiary respectively, etc. 
• Rotation interval – Options are weekly or daily; this value determines how often the rotation will occur in terms of weeks or days. 
• Rotate every – How often days or weeks the roster needs to rotate its agents to be on call. 
• Rotation start date.  
• Order – An order value used by the On-call application to figure out what roster will be assigned as the first contact that needs to be reached whenever there’s an issue during non-business hours. 

A roster can include as many agents as needed; this relationship is defined as On-call Member (cmn_rota_member). 

On-call API uses the information of these 3 tables and  powers the On-call Calendar used by the platform to supply a continuous coverage of all Shifts defined ensuring Agents that are part of an On-call Shift roster are rotated on a well-defined rotation. 

On-call application ensures this rotation mechanism on a best-effort basis. Meaning that the On-call API will try its best to avoid collisions between an agent defined in different rosters. One common collision scenario is that the same agent can be part of two or more rosters and based on the rotation rules is possible that for the same day the same agent shows as both primary and secondary point of contact for an On-call shift (Rotation). 

As an On-call manager, is important to get familiar with these tables, and the corresponding cardinality: 

 

Integration of On-call application with Workforce Optimization Schedule module.  

As part of the new Rome release, Workforce Optimization and its Shift planning plugin introduced a new event category and event configuration that will allow Managers to view the full On-call coverage of their groups in the Manager Workspace Schedule module as well agents with access to Agent workspace so they can visualize their full work schedule including both regular Work shifts and On-call shifts on a single calendar view. 

The Shift planning plugin allowed administrators to extend the type of events supported in the Schedule module by defining each event on a scriptable Extension point of type EventManager. In Rome we introduced the corresponding configurations so Managers and Agents can display the corresponding spans in the Calendar view available in Workspace. We also enhanced our shift creation process - managers can create both Work-shift and On-call rotations by following a mini-wizard experience. 

OOTB customers won’t need to do anything after they uptake the Rome release as the new event configurations will be available for customers.  

View On-call shifts or Rotations from Manager Workspace Schedule module. 

A revamped Shift tab will now show a new Calendar view where Managers can visualize all work shifts and on-call shifts available grouped by the current status (Active or Inactive). Apart from the Calendar view, users will notice a sidebar component that initially will display all shifts configurations available as list of Card components. 

Depending on the shift type, each card will display the following information: 

• On-call: 

• Name of the rotation 
• A highlighted value on the header that displays On-call as type. 
• Start time – at what time the shift starts 

• End time - at what time the shift ends 
• Group – Name of group that is expected to follow this rotation schedule 
• State – Active if cmn_rota record has active=true. 
• Days of week – Represents the days of the week configured on this rotation. 

• Work shift: 

• Name of the work shift 
• A highlighted value on the header that displays Work shift as type. 
• Start time – at what time the shift starts 
• End time - at what time the shift ends 
• Group – Name of group that is expected to follow this rotation schedule 

• State – Active if cmn_rota record has active=true. 
• Days of week – Represents the days of the week configured on this rotation. 

Example of both cards rendered on the Shift sidebar: 

 

Create new On-call shifts from Shift calendar side panel 

As a manager user with sn_shift_planning.admin role, it is now possible to quickly setup Rotations with their corresponding Rosters and On-call members from the Schedule module in Manager Workspace. The most common On-call rotation configuration is having a Group with fixed rotations on after-hours during weekdays and/or all weekend coverage. These types of Rotations are easy to create with a few steps withing the Shift calendar sidebar. The sidebar allows users to follow a mini-wizard experience where they can setup Rotations for each group: 

1. Click the [ + ] button on the top-right corner, this will display two options Work shift and On-call shift. Clicking in On-call shift will update the sidebar into the ‘Add new On-call Shift’ view: 

2. This next screen contains the inputs Name, Group Start time, End time and Timezone required to setup the Rotation as well as the days of weeks represented as checkbox that needs to be selected prior to submit the form, after clicking Save a few things will happen, first the Form will use the existing On-call API to create the Rotation record (cmn_rota) as well as create the corresponding Schedule configuration using the days of week checkboxes that have checked:

3. After the backend completes the Rotation creation process, the user will be redirected to the On-call shift Detail view, in this view managers can view the current rotation configuration as well as all the available Rosters assigned to the On-call shift: 

  

4. Clicking on ‘+ Create Rotation’ will change the view into the Create Rotation view, in here managers can select on a single view all the Agents that will be part of the Roster as well as select the Rotation interval to either Daily or Weekly, finally managers can select the start date for this current Roster. Clicking on Save will update on a single API call the current On-call shift with the new roster information as well as create the entries for On-call members table

 

5. Finally, managers can publish the On-call Rotation by clicking on the Publish button located in the On-call shift detail view, Managers can publish and unpublish shifts as needed from this view. 

Internally, above sidebar views uses existing On-call API, we just simplified some of the steps on a Scripted REST API that is shipped as part of the sn_shift_planning scoped app. 

Note: For advanced configurations is required that users use to the On-call platform tool located in https://<instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2F$oc_creation_wizard.do. For more information on how to use the advanced On-call application on ServiceNow please visit https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-it-service-management/page/administer/on-call-scheduling/con...