Setting goals and deadlines for case resolution

You can set goals and deadlines for a case type to enforce your service level agreements (SLAs) and encourage case workers to resolve cases on time. SLA measurement starts at the time of creating a case and ends when the case is resolved.

You can also use this procedure to set goals and deadlines for stages and processes.

Tip: To configure advanced options for a goal and deadline, use the service-level agreement (SLA) form. See Service-level agreement rule form.
  1. In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Case types, and then click the case type that you want to open.
  2. On the Settings tab, click Goal & deadline.
  3. In the Use Service-level agreement (SLA) list, select how you want to define the SLA criteria:
    • To define custom criteria, select Custom SLA and then go to 4.
    • To reuse criteria from an existing service-level agreement, select Existing SLA, and then go to 11.
  4. For case-level SLAs only, in the Calculate time from the start of section, select a method for calculating your goal and deadline times:
    • To start the calculation when an instance of your case type is created, select This case.
    • To start the calculation when the parent of your case type is created, select Parent case.
    • To start the calculation when the top-level parent of your case type is created, select Top level case.
  5. In the Goal section, define the suggested resolution time for a case using the Days and HH:MM:SS fields.
    For example: To indicate that the goal should be met in less than a day, for example, in 4 hours and 15 minutes, enter 04:15:00.
    For example: To indicate that the goal should be met in a day and 6,5 hours, in the Days field, enter 1 and, in the HH:MM:SS field, enter 06:30:00.
  6. In the Increase urgency by field, enter a value by which you want to increase the current case urgency when the goal elapses.
  7. Optional: To configure a goal notification, perform the following actions:
    1. In the Notify section, select the users to whom you want to send the goal notification.
      For example: Creator or Participants
      The system sends emails to these users when the goal for this task elapses.
    2. For Participants, click Manage participants, select the case participants to whom you want to send the notifications, and then click Done.
    3. In the Message sub-section, select one of the following message types:
      • To send a standard notification, select Use default message.
      • To compose an email message, select Compose a message.
      • To choose an existing correspondence template for notification emails, select Use correspondence.
  8. In the Deadline section, define the required resolution time for a case using the Days and HH:MM:SS fields.
    For example: To indicate that the deadline should be met in less than a day, for example, in 10 hours and 30 minutes, enter 10:30:00.
    For example: To indicate that the deadline should be met in 2 days and 6,5 hours, in the Days field, enter 2 and, in the HH:MM:SS field, enter 06:30:00.
  9. In the Increase urgency by field, enter a value by which you want to increase the current case urgency when the deadline elapses.
  10. Optional: To configure a deadline notification, perform the following actions:
    1. In the Notify section, select the users to whom you want to send the deadline notification.
      For example: Creator or Participants
      The system sends emails to these users when the deadline for this task elapses.
    2. For Participants, click Manage participants, select the case participants to whom you want to send the notifications, and then click Done.
    3. In the Message sub-section, select one of the following message types:
      • To send a standard notification, select Use default message.
      • To compose an email message, select Compose a message.
      • To choose an existing correspondence template for notification emails, select Use correspondence.
  11. Click Save.
Result:  Your settings are stored in the pyCaseTypeDefault service-level agreement rule.
What to do next: At run time, you can review the Case Details section of a case to learn how much time remains to meet the goal or deadline.