Indicators
An indicator is a rule of a time counter creation that defines the conditions for starting, pausing, resetting, and stopping this counter. It also determines the time limit for declaring an indication as breached and contains time conditions of a commitment type implementation.
When an indicator starts, the system automatically creates an indication – a time counter that tracks current timings and time points of the target commitment.
Depending on your business needs, you can create different types of indicators:
- Standard – an indicator creates time indications that start and complete when specified conditions are met, or the indication is canceled. For example, the start time is when the task state changes to Assigned.
- Retrospective – an indicator creates indications that define the start and end time of the indication based on the Date/Time field defined manually. Indications are created for the records that meet the specified conditions. For example, the start time is the value of the Opened at field, and the indication is created when the task state changes to Assigned.
Role required: service_level_manager
Create an indicator
To create a new indicator, complete the following steps:
- Navigate to Indication Management → Indicators.
- Click New and fill in the form.
- Click Save or Save and exit to apply the changes.
Indicator form fields
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Y | Specify the indicator name. When creating indicators for the same table, give them different names. |
| Agreement | N | Specify an agreement related to this indicator containing tracking metrics. |
| Commitment type | Y | Specify the commitment type for this indicator. Available options:
|
| Table | Y | Specify a table to apply the indicator conditions to. After saving the form, the Table field becomes read-only. |
| Active | N | Select this checkbox to activate the indicator. |
| Indication start time | Y | Select one of the two options:
|
| Start time field | Y | The field appears if the Defined by field option is selected in the Indication start time field. Define a column of type Date/Time. The column is from the specified Table for which the indications are to be calculated. An indication retrieves the value for the start time from this column.A retrospective indication counts the value relevant at the time of the indicator creation. If the value changes, the indications are not recalculated. |
| Indication breach time | N | Select one of the two options:
|
| Breach time field | Y | The field appears if the Defined by field option is selected in the Indication breach time field. Define a column of type Date/Time. The column is from the specified Table for which indications are to be calculated that is, an indication that retrieves the value for the breach time from this column. After saving the form, this field becomes read-only.
|
| Duration | Y | This field appears if the Defined by duration option is selected in the Indication breach time field. Set up a business time measure for the agreement to run before it is marked as Breached. The duration is counted according to the selected schedule. |
| Minimum duration | N | The Minimum duration field appears if the Defined by field option is selected in the Indication breach time field. Set a minimum duration that restricts the creation of an indication and its existence.Before creating an indication, its future duration from the start time to the breach is checked. If the total duration is less than the Minimum duration, the indication is not created. If the user changes the Breach time field after creating an indication, and the duration is less than the Minimum duration, the indication is canceled.The duration is counted according to the selected schedule. After saving the form, the Minimum duration field becomes read-only. |
| Schedule | Y | Specify a work schedule from the list. It determines the schedule that the system uses when calculating the actual time elapsed on the commitment implementation under certain conditions.To configure this timeline, use the Schedules feature. If the selected schedule is not valid (it consists of elements of the Excluded type), then the 24x7 schedule will be used by default. |
| Timezone | Y | Determine an indicator timezone. Only active timezones are available to choose from. |
| Timezone source | Y | Specify a source of the timezone. Available options:
|
Use the following tabs to specify indicator conditions. If the selected schedule is not valid (it consists of elements of the Excluded type), then the 24x7 calendar will be used by default.
- Start Conditions
- Pause Conditions
- Complete Conditions
- Reset Conditions
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Start conditions | Y | Specify the conditions with the condition builder for the creation of the indication. The system uses the selected Table fields as transactional data to set the conditions. When the transactional data changes, the system verifies these conditions. |
| When to cancel | N | Establish a condition to start cancellation:
|
| Cancel conditions | Y | This option appears when the Cancel conditions are met option is selected in the When to cancel field. Define additional conditions to meet before the indication is canceled. |
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pause conditions | N | Specify conditions with the condition builder to make the indicator pause. The system uses the selected Table fields as transactional data to verify the conditions. When the transactional data changes, the system checks these conditions. |
| When to resume | N | Set a condition to resume the paused indicator:
|
| Resume conditions | Y | This option appears when the Resume conditions are met option is selected in the When to resume field. To resume the indication, define additional conditions to be met. In other words, if the record meets these resume conditions, it ignores the pause conditions. |
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Complete conditions | Y | Establish conditions with the condition builder to make the indication stop. The system uses the selected Table fields as transactional data to verify the conditions. When the transactional data changes, the system checks these conditions. |
To make a condition run only once, use the Changes, Changes from, Changes to operators. When using other operators, there may be cases where the indication is reset each time the target record is changed.
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Reset conditions | N | This field is unavailable for retrospective indications (Defined by field selected in the Indication start time field). Establish conditions with the condition builder to make the indicator reset. The system uses the selected Table fields as transactional data to verify the conditions. When the transactional data changes, the system checks these conditions. |
If an indication is not on pause when the reset conditions are met:
- The pause time and its duration are reset.
- The start time is set to the time reset conditions are triggered.
- The breach time and original breach time are recalculated.
- All specifications are recalculated according to the values defined.
If an indication is on pause when the reset conditions are met:
- The pause time is reset.
- The start time and pause time are set to the time the reset conditions are triggered.
- The breach time and original breach time are recalculated.
- All specifications are recalculated according to the values defined.
Duration calculations
Example 1
Company A uses schedule "24x7", which means 24 working hours, 7 days a week, and around-the-clock shift-work. If you enter "2" into the days field, this value is converted to 48 working hours or 2 working days.
Example 2
Company B uses "8x5" schedule , which means 8 working hours, 5 days a week, one of the most common working schedules. If you enter "2" into the days field, this value is converted to 48 hours (because there are 24 hours in a day), which gives 6 working days.