Temporary Task Assignment

Temporary task assignments are intended to help businesses remain operational during periods when the parties responsible for performing tasks (Task Owners, Supervisors, or Task Teams) are unable to complete their assignments. For example, assume that several daily Recurring Tasks are in production with John Doe as the Task Owner. John will be on vacation from 3/01/2011 through 3/07/2011 (returning to work on 3/08/2011); therefore, his responsibilities need to be shifted to another employee, Jane Smith, during his absence. The Temporary Task Assignment functionality allows Jane to be assigned as the Task Owner for John's tasks during his vacation period. Then when John returns to work, he is reassigned as the Task Owner on all of his tasks with an Open state on 3/08/2011.

Note:  Tasks that have been temporarily assigned to alternate responsible parties will be otherwise unchanged; they will function in the same manner as task records that have not been temporarily assigned.

For instruction on temporary task assignments, click the following links or use the scroll bar to scan the page.

Overview of Temporary Task Assignments

 

To Set up a Temporary Task Assignment

 

To Update a Temporary Task Assignment

 

To Manually Reassign Tasks

 

Overview of Temporary Task Assignments

Temporary Task Assignments are set up via the Bulk Update feature on the Task List. Select one or more tasks to be assigned, the temporary owner/supervisor/team/supervisor team, and an assignment start and return date. Just tasks with an existing owner, supervisor, team, or supervisor team are eligible for temporary task assignments; i.e., unassigned tasks cannot be temporarily assigned. In addition, the type of temporary responsible party assigned must match an existing type of responsible party designated for the task. For example, a temporary supervisor can only be assigned if there is an existing supervisor designated for the task.  

If the Assignment Start Date is the current date, the Temporary Task Assignment is effective when the record is saved. Otherwise, the Task Management Supervisor tool handles the assignment automatically. The PWTaskUpdate component must be running on an appropriate schedule so that temporary assignments can take place as planned.

Tip:  The Bulk Update feature is also used to modify specific details for multiple tasks. Refer to Bulk Update for additional information.

When a task has been temporarily assigned, a Temporary Task Assignment icon is displayed next to the task statement in the Task List and next to the Task ID field on the Task Setup and Results form. Move your mouse over the icon to view details about the temporary assignment such as the assignment start and return dates. The involved parties are displayed as follow:

A Temporary Task Assignment can be updated at any time. For instance, circumstances may arise where the Assignment End Date needs to be extended or another owner/supervisor/team/supervisor team must be designated as the temporary responsible party. It is important to note that the original responsible party(ies) never changes during the time when a task has been temporarily assigned, regardless of the number of times ownership may change. For example, assume the tasks where John is an owner have been temporarily assigned to Task Owner Jane for his two-week vacation. During his absence Jane was hospitalized, so John's tasks were temporarily assigned to Task Owner Mary. When the tasks are reassigned, John (as the original responsible party) will once again be the Task Owner.

Tasks can be reassigned to the original party automatically or manually. If the PWTaskUpdate component of the Task Management Supervisor tool is running on an appropriate schedule, the original responsible party will automatically be reassigned on the Assignment Return Date (or on the Task Management Supervisor's next scheduled run thereafter). Alternatively, any Task Administrator with Temporary Task Assignment functionality privileges can manually reassign the original party prior to the scheduled reassignment date. To ensure the temporary responsible party's ownership for closed tasks is maintained in the database, just the tasks with an Open state will be reassigned to the original responsible party regardless of how the reassignment occurs (automatically or manually). Accordingly, the latest instance within a series of Recurring Tasks will once again show the original responsible party while the instance(s) Completed and/or Closed during the temporary assignment will show the temporary responsible party.

The Task Audit Log tracks temporary task assignments.

Note:  No contact and personnel record or contact and personnel team record can be deleted as long as the contact/team is part of a Temporary Task Assignment. For example, the original owner of a task cannot be deleted while a temporary owner is assigned. The original owner must exist for task reassignment.

To set up a temporary task assignment

  1. Display a Task List that includes the tasks that are to be temporarily assigned to another owner, supervisor, and/or team.

  2. Click the check box adjacent to each task that is to be part of the temporary task assignment and click the Bulk Update button.

  3. Expand the Temporary Task Assignment section, when necessary, and select a temporary Task Owner, Supervisor, Team, and/or Supervisor Team from the list for each field.

  4. Use the following guidelines and enter the Assignment Start Date and Assignment Return Date.

  1. Click Create Temporary Assignments.

    Tip:      If the tasks selected to be temporarily assigned also included one or more tasks that were already temporarily assigned (or already scheduled to be temporarily assigned), just the tasks that are not involved in any temporary assignment will be assigned after clicking the Create Temporary Assignments button. An informational message is displayed in such cases.

To update a temporary task assignment

Tip:  The steps below describe how to edit the start/return dates. To change the current temporarily assigned owner/supervisor/team, reset the task to the original owner/supervisor/team and establish a new temporary assignment. See To Manually Reassign Tasks and To Set up a Temporary Task Assignment for additional information.

  1. Display a Task List that includes the temporarily assigned tasks.

  2. Click the check box adjacent to each applicable task and click the Bulk Update button. All of the tasks selected must be part of a temporary task assignment.

  3. Expand the Temporary Task Assignment section, when necessary, and make the appropriate changes.

  1. Click Update Temporary Assignments. If the button is not displayed, one or more of the tasks selected does not belong to a temporary task assignment.

To manually reassign tasks

  1. Display a Task List that includes the temporarily assigned tasks.

  2. Click the check box adjacent to each applicable task and click the Bulk Update button.

  3. Expand the Temporary Task Assignment section, when necessary, and click Reset Original Owner/Supervisor/Team Assignments.

    The original responsible party(ies) will be reassigned to each task with an Open state and the TTA icon will no longer be displayed for the task in the Task List and on the Task Setup and Results form.

Tip:  If the Reset Original Owner/Supervisor/Team Assignments button is not displayed, one or more of the tasks selected to be reassigned is not part of a temporary task assignment.