Chapter 08. Work Item Utilization Administration

About Work Item Utilization Administration

Utilization is the measure of how a work item affects a user's workload. A work item that requires all of user’s time and attention has a utilization of 100%--the user cannot work on any new assignments while resolving the work item. A user whose current assignments equal only 50% utilization could receive a new work item assignment with a 40% utilization cost.

You use the Work Item Utilization Administration area of the Management Console to define the valid work item types for your organization. Then you assign organization-level utilization settings to each work item type.

The system uses the following variables to determine utilization levels for each work item type:

• Percent Utilization
• Max Assigned

Percent Utilization

The Percent Utilization value is a relative value, expressed as a percentage, which indicates how many work items of a given type the system will route to a user. This percentage is subtracted from a user's capacity when a work item of this type is assigned.

For example, if the Percent Utilization for work item "X" is set at 25%, a user could receive up to four "X" work items before the system recognized the user as fully utilized. If the Percent Utilization for work item "Y" is set at 10%, the user could receive up to ten "Y" work items before the system recognized the user as fully utilized.

This percentage applies to all work items routed to the user, not just the total percentage within a single work item type. For example, if the user received 2 "X" work items and 5 "Y" work items, the system would recognize the user as fully utilized.

Max Assigned

The Max Assigned value is a number, expressed as an integer, which indicates the maximum number of work items of a given type that the system will route to a user. For example, if the Max Assigned setting for work item "A" is "3," the user can receive no more than three "A" work items.

However, unlike Percent Utilization, the Max Assigned values for a given work item type do not accrue against other work item types. For example, if the Max Assigned setting for work item "A" is "3" and the Max Assigned for work item "B" is "4," the system does not recognize the user as fully utilized when the user receives three "A" work items, since the same user may also receive up to four "B" work items.

Utilization Hierarchy

You can assign utilization levels based on:

• Utilization assignment made directly to the user
• Inheriting utilization based on team utilization values
• Inheriting utilization based on role utilization values
• Individual user modification of the utilization - role assignment
• Inheriting utilization based on organization utilization values

If utilization values differ between organization, role, team, and individual user assignments, users inherit utilization levels based on the following order of precedence:

• Utilization settings assigned directly to the user override all other settings.
• If utilization settings are not assigned directly to a user, team utilization settings override all other settings.
• If utilization settings are not assigned to a user or a team, utilization settings based on the utilization - role modifier override all other settings.
• If utilization settings are not assigned to a user, team, or utilization - role modifier, role utilization settings override the other setting.
• If all of the above utilization settings are null, the system uses utilization settings associated with the organization.

The following diagram summarizes the relationships between work items and utilization settings:

Procedure: Administering Utilization Levels

To access utilization administration functions, click the Work Item Utilization Administration link on the Administration Home page. Clicking the Work Item Utilization Administration link launches the Utilization Administration page.

The Utilization Administration page allows you to:

• Add new work item types
• Set the Percent Utilization for each work item type at the organization level
• Set the Max Assigned value for each work item type at the organization level

Work Item Utilization Administration Page

This section provides definitions for fields on the Work Item Utilization Administration page:

Fields

Work Item Type Name

Percent Utilization

Max Assigned