Get Started with ESM Automation Rules

Overview

Enterprise Service Management (ESM) ticket automation rules enable the automation of repeatable, consistent actions, such as automatically assigning a ticket to a group, changing its priority, and applying a workflow to a ticket. Automation rules can reduce the amount of time that people spend processing tickets. For example, an employee assigns 20 similar tickets to the same group every week, you can create a rule to automatically assign tickets with those specific criteria to the appropriate group.

Each ticketing application has its own set of automation rules that function as pre-configured series of steps that are triggered when a ticket is created. They are made up of an evaluation order, conditions, and actions. Automation rules are configured to match specific ticket values, such as the ticket's Service, Form, Department, Requestor, etc. If the values in the new ticket match the rule criteria, pre-defined action(s) will be executed against the ticket.

In this article:

• Where to Find Automation Rules
• How Automation Rules are Evaluated
• Creating an Automation Rule
• Automation Rule Best Practices
• Gotchas & Pitfalls

What materials do I need?

• Application Admin access to the UA Enterprise Service Management system
• TDNext access

Where to Find Automation Rules

This feature is located within the ticketing application's TDAdmin interface. Application administrators can access automation rules via the following:

1. Login to ESM TDNext.
2. Open the desired ticketing app.
3. Click Settings.
4. Click Admin.
5. Click Automation Rules

How Automation Rules are Evaluated

When a new ticket is created, the system looks at the field values saved in the ticket and compares them against the automation rules, one by one.

The Evaluation Order determines the sequence that the rules are looked at for a match. No matter how many active automation rules may exist, they are evaluated in sequential order, from lowest to highest.

More than one rule can be configured for the same field, with different actions for different values. This could be the case if one rule applies to tickets where Priority = High, and another where Priority = Medium. The action would execute for whichever of the two rules matched the value in the ticket’s Priority field.

Each rule can include a Stop on Match value, which means if the conditions of this rule are met, none of the rules after this rule will be evaluated.

Here is an example set of rules illustrating some of the evaluation order, criteria and actions:

• Rule 1, evaluation order 10 – If the Priority is equal to High, notify the Dept. Manager and Stop processing further rules.
• Rule 2, evaluation order 20 – If the Service is equal to Purchase, assign to the Procurement group.
• Rule 3, evaluation order 30 – If the Priority is equal to Medium, assign to the Service Desk group.
• Rule 4, evaluation order 40 – If the Service is equal to New Account, assign to workflow Account Provisioning Workflow and notify Identity and Access group.

Two or More Rules with the Same Evaluation Order

If you have two or more rules with the same evaluation order, the rules will be evaluated in alphabetical order. That said, we recommend giving each automation rule its own evaluation order unless you're sure the rules will never both attach to the same ticket.

For example, it would probably be OK for these two automation rules to have the same order:

• Rule #1, evaluation order 10: If Ticket Type = "X"
• Rule #2, evaluation order 10: If Ticket Type = "Y"

It would be OK for these to have the same evaluation order because there's no way for the same ticket to have two different ticket types.

However, it would probably NOT be a good idea for these two automation rules to have the same order:

• Rule #1, evaluation order 10: If Ticket Type = "X"
• Rule #2, evaluation order 10: If Priority = "High"

That's because both these rules could attach to the same ticket. You might then start to be confused about which rule is being evaluated first.

Automation Criteria Use the Ticket's Values at The Time of Ticket Creation

Even if an automation rule changes a value in a ticket, subsequent automation rule criteria will continue to evaluate against the original ticket value.

Consider this scenario:

• Ticket 123 is created with Department set to "Department of Mathematics" and responsible set to "" (i.e. responsible is blank)
• Automation rule #1, evaluation order 10, has criteria "If responsible is not set AND acct/dept = Department of Mathematics," then "set responsible to Group X."
• Automation rule #2, evaluation order 15, has criteria "if responsible is not set", then "set responsible to Group Y"

In the above scenario, ticket 123's responsible value will be set to Group Y, not Group X. Automation rule #1 matches and sets responsible to Group X. Automation rule #2 then matches based on the ticket's initial values at the time of creation and sets responsible to Group Y.

Creating an Automation Rule

Create a New Automation Rule

App Admins can create new automation rules as follows.

1. In [Application Name] > Automation Rules click + New.
2. In the New Automation Rule page do the following:
   1. In the Name field enter a descriptive title for the rule (e.g. Route to Accounting)
   2. Set the Evaluation Order (see Automation Rule Best Practices below for recommendations).
   3. If the ticket matches the automation rule, and you want stop processing any subsequent rules, leave the Stop on Match box checked. Otherwise, unchecking the option will cause subsequent rules to be evaluated.
   4. In the Description field enter a brief explanation of how the automation rule affects tickets.
   5. Click Save.
3. On the newly created Automation Rule Detail page, click Edit button.
4. Click the Active checkbox.
   Tip

   Active automation rules will not take effect until at least one condition is specified. Thus, a rule must both be Active and have at least one configuration rule before it is evaluated upon ticket creation.

Configure Automation Conditions

One, or more, conditions can be specified which must be met for the rule's action(s) to be executed on the ticket. For new Automation Rules five (5) bank automation conditions will exist. These can be removed, or additional ones added as necessary to capture the desire business logic.

1. In the Column dropdown menu select the desired attribute/field (e.g. Acc/tDept).
2. In the Operator dropdown menu select the desired operator (e.g. is one of).
3. In the Value(s) field select the value that must be matched in the new ticket.

Repeat the above steps as necessary to define required conditions.

Configure Automation Actions

One, or more, actions can be specified that will be applied for every ticket that matches the rule's conditions.

1. Select the relevant action.
2. Select the appropriate value from the dropdowns and/or lookup fields.
3. Once all desired actions/values have been selected for the rule, click Save.

Automation Rule Best Practices

• Leave space between Evaluation Order numbers to leave room for adding rules later.
  For example, you could number your existing rules as 10, 20, 30 so you could add 5, 15, 36, and 37 later. You could leave lots of room with intervals like 1000, 2000, 3000.
• Cluster your automation rules by type.
  For example, you might want to have rules 1000 - 1999 be about prioritization, rules 2000 - 2999 be about service level agreements, and rules 3000 - 3999 be about assignment.
• Be judicious about using Stop on Match. While it is okay to use Stop on Match for every rule, if you want more than one automation rule to apply on a ticket, you will need to review all uses of Stop on Match to make sure they're appropriate.
• Consider putting default values such as "if responsible is not set than set to <default group>," early in your evaluation order so that later rules can overwrite the default.

Gotchas & Pitfalls

• The most common issue with the use of automation rules is unintended consequences, whereby some tickets are not processed in the desired/intended way. This is usually the result of conflicts created by a combination of incorrect evaluation order and application Stop on Match.
• Remember that even if an automation rule changes a value on a ticket, subsequent automation rule criteria will continue to evaluate against the original ticket value.
• Some automation rule condition sets can get lengthy and complex - following the best practices listed above will help mitigate this.

Need additional help or have issues

For support, requests may be submitted anytime using the appropriate Enterprise Service Management form. Requests generate a Ticket which will be worked in order received and urgency by IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.

For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for the appropriate support group.