Creating and Maintaining Policy Specifications - (Policies Tab) (Performset)

Rename an Existing Policy

The name of each Policy is displayed in the Performset Assistant in your ticket forms.

To change a name, choose the corresponding Policy from the drop-down list (4) and select the Rename button (5).

Add a new Policy

A new Policy can be introduced to your performance measurement solution by selecting the Add button (6).

This will create a new Policy that can be assigned to your tickets, with default or empty values in all configuration settings.

Clone an Existing Policy

It will often be the case that a new Policy will share many of the specifications associated with one of your existing Policies.

Choose an existing Policy from the drop-down list (4) and select the Clone button (7) to take a copy as the baseline for a new Policy.

Delete an Existing Policy

If no longer required an existing Policy can deleted (7).

However, please be mindful that deleting an existing Policy will remove the option value from the corresponding custom ticket field and thus the historical references will be lost in your reporting data.

Reorder Existing Policies

Policies can be reordered in the order of precedence (8), see section Specify the Precedence of Policy Selection Rules. 

Policy Description

For each of your Policies it is possible to enter a description to be displayed in the Performset Assistant.

Choose an Policy from the drop-down list (1) and type a description in the placeholder (2).

Event Labels and Descriptions

For each of the events in your implemented model it is possible to set a label and description to be displayed in the Performset Assistant and these values can be different for each of your Policies.

Choose an Policy from the drop-down list (1) and type the Event Label (3) and Event Description (4) in the corresponding placeholder.

Generic Event Names

Please note the reference to the generic event name that corresponds to the equivalent in the Metrics tab.

• Click on the drop-down list to chose a policy (1).
• Select the System Priority radio button (2).
• Under the Events section (4), a list of Priorities should be visible (5), if not, click on Show details (3).
• Enter the required setting in the Hours and Mins fields (6).
• Enter the required setting in the Warn field (7).

By default when an new Policy is created it is assumed that there will be a different set of timing specifications for each System Priority value.

If this isn't the case for the chosen Policy (1), select the System Priority radio button (2) to allow capture of Event timing specifications per System Priority value (4).

*Note: when SLA's are specified based on System Priority it will be necessary to set a Priority for a ticket before the event completion due dates/times can be calculated and Event timers can be started.

Enter Event Duration in Hours and Minutes

For each event in your implemented model, it is possible to set the amount of time allowed to complete the event as a number Hours and Minutes.

Enter the required settings in the Hours and Mins cells (6) for each of the Priority values.

*Note: if there is not a requirement to start a timer for a Priority value then set the Hours and Mins to 0 and 00 respectively.

Enter a Warning Time in Minutes

If required it is possible to make use of an additional timer to trigger a warning a specified minutes before the event is due to complete.

Enter the required setting in the Warn cell (7) for each of the Priority values (e.g. 120 mins/2 hrs before the calculated due date/time).  

*Note: if there is not a requirement to start a warning timer for a Priority value then set the Warn to 0.

• Select the Metric Label "Solve by" (1). This is the time by which we need to solve the ticket by.
• Click on the Type drop-down list (2).
• Select End of Day icon (3).
• Enter an Offset value (4).
• Enter a Leeway value (5).

As an alternative to setting the event duration as a specified number of hours and minutes, it is possible to specify the due date/time for completion of the event as the end of a Business day.

This might be the end of the day the ticket arrives, or the end of day that is a specified number of days into the future.

• Select the Type icon (3) to change switch from duration based times to end of day based times
• Enter an Offset value (4) representing the number of days in the future to be used in the end of day calculation
• Enter a Leeway value (5) to indicate a number of minutes before the end of day the ticket must have arrived to meet the end of day event completion

For example:

If the working day is Monday to Friday, 9am through 5pm:

• If the Offset is set to 0 (zero) and the Leeway is set to 60 and the ticket arrives before 4pm Monday, the due date/time calculation for event completion will be 5pm Monday
• If the Offset is set to 0 (zero) and the Leeway is set to 60 and the ticket arrives after 4pm Monday, the due date/time calculation for event completion will be 5pm Tuesday
• However, if the Offset is set to 0 (zero) and the Leeway is set to 0 (zero) and the ticket arrives after 4pm Monday, the due date/time calculation for event completion will be 5pm Monday
• If the Offset is set to 2 and the Leeway is set to 60 and the ticket arrives before 4pm Monday, the due date/time calculation for event completion will be 5pm Wednesday
• If the Offset is set to 2 and the Leeway is set to 60 and the ticket arrives after 4pm Monday, the due date/time calculation for event completion will be 5pm Thursday

• Click on the Custom Priority radio button (1).
• Select the Custom Priority Field from the drop-down list (2).
• Apply your performance measurement specifications against each of the Priorities (3).

It is often the case that there is a need or requirement to make use of an alternative set of Priority values for the purposes of your performance measurement solution.

This is most often the case when the levels of Priority or Severity to be measured exceed the four levels of Zendesk System Priority.

However, this dimension could be based on any custom ticket field drop down used to categorize or classify your tickets.

Specify your SLA's based on a Custom Priority

• Select the Custom Priority radio button (1)
• Choose a Custom Priority Field from the presented drop-down (2)
• Apply your performance measurement specifications against each of the Custom Priority values provisioned in the matrix (3)

*Note: when SLA's are specified based on Custom Priority it will be necessary to set a value in the corresponding custom ticket field before the event completion due dates/times can be calculated and Event timers can be started fro the ticket.

• Click on the Singular radio button (1).
• Apply required Performance Measurements to the Singular Priority (2).

It is also possible that the Priority or classification of your tickets will have no bearing on one or more of your Policies, in which case it is only necessary to capture a single set of performance measurement specifications.

Specify your SLA's without consideration for Priority

• Select the Singular radio button (1)
• Apply your performance measurement specifications in the single row provisioned in the matrix (2)

*Note: when SLA's are specified on a Singular basis the event completion due dates/times can be calculated for a ticket and Event timers can be started without the need to set a Priority .

• Overriding the default Business Hours and Holidays (1).
• Choose the appropriate Business Hours from the drop-down list (2).
• Chose the appropriate Holidays from the drop-down list (3).
• If not visible, select the Region Default from the drop-down list if the default is satisfactory (4). 

When calculating the due date/time for completion of an event, the calculation will take account of the business operating hours and any non-working days.

When a ticket is created a Region is assigned (see Apply performance measurement to your Tickets) and by default the Business Hours and Holidays associated with the Region will be applied during the calculation of due dates/times for all events.

However, it is possible that there are certain circumstances in which the default must be overridden (1) (see Define Business Hours and Define Non-Working Days for examples).

Override the Region Default

• If there is a need to override the default business hours, choose the appropriate set of Business Hours from the drop-down (2)
• If there is a need to override the default non-working days, choose the appropriate set of Holidays from the drop-down (3)
• If there is a need to use the business hours and/or non-working days associated with the assigned Region, choose Region Default from the drop-downs (4)

*Note: the list of values in the drop-downs are populated by creating new sets of Business Hours and Holidays (see Creating and Maintaining Working Hours and Creating and Maintaining Non-Working Days).

• Select a Policy from the drop-down list (1).
• Check the Use as a Default box (2).

If your Performset setup has been scoped to allow the setting of a default it is possible to do this from within the Policies tab (see Adjusting the Scope of your SLA Setup).

This Policy will then be used if none of your Policy selection rules apply (see below) and a Policy hasn't been inherited from the corresponding Organization (see Organization or Customer based SLA Assignments).

Select a Policy from the drop-down (1) and check the box to indicate the use of the Policy as the default (2).

• Policy selection rules can be configured by selecting the exposed Add button (1).

• Select All of the values that must be set in each field for the Policy assignment to apply (2).
• Select the conditions under which any value in a field can be set for the Policy assignment to apply (3). 
  Note: Click on the small icon to bring up a pop-up window (7) and select "Is" (8).  
• Enter an appropriate label to describe the selection rule (4).
• Click on OK to save (5).

If your Performset setup has been scoped to allow the policy selection to be determined by ticket data it is possible to do this from within the Policies tab (see Adjusting the Scope of your SLA Setup).

One or more rules can be configured for each Policy to specify the conditions under which the Policy should be assigned to a ticket (see below).

Select the Add button for the corresponding Policy to create a new selection rule (1).

• Add a new Policy Selection Rule or Edit and existing one (1).

• Apply any necessary rule changes and press OK to save (2).
• If required, rules can be deleted (3).

It is possible to create multiple rules with different combinations of field and value selections to ensure all conditions are covered.

If necessary an existing rule can be updated by selecting the corresponding Edit button (1).

• Policy Exception Rules can be configured by selecting the Add button (1).

• Enter an appropriate label to describe the exception rule (2).
• Select All of the values that must be set in each field to prevent the Policy assignment (3).
• Select the conditions under which any value in a field can be set to prevent the Policy assignment (4).
• Click on OK to save the exception rule (5).

If your Performset setup has been scoped to allow the configuration exceptions at the policy level to prevent selection under specific circumstances it is possible to do this from within the Policies tab (see  Adjusting the Scope of your SLA Setup).

One or more rules can be configured for each Policy to specify the conditions under which the Policy should not be assigned to a ticket (see below).

Select the Add button for the corresponding Policy to create a new exception rule (1).

• Click on the Policy Names drop-down list (1). 
• Click on the Reorder button (2).
• Set the order of your SLA Policies to control which set of selection criteria should take precedence (3) and (4).
• Once the SLA Policies have been reordered, click on the OK button to save (5).

The Policy selection and exception rules are applied according to the order for your Policies in the drop down list (1).

The Performset service will walk through the selection and exception rules for each Policy in this order and if the criteria matches, the Policy will be applied to the ticket and no attempt is made to apply the rules for any subsequent Polices in the list.

This helps to reduce the complexity and number of selection and exception rules by avoiding the need to include conditions that don't apply, simply to avoid a situation in which more than one Policy selection would otherwise apply.

The order in which your Policy selection and exception rules are applied can be adjusted by selected the Reorder button (2).

A dialogue is presented within which it is possible to select each Policy (3) and drag & drop to the appropriate position in the list (4), to ensure that selection and exception rules are applied in the correct sequence.

Policy Selection Fallback Rule

• Locate the Policy Fallback Rule (1). 
• Click on Add button to add a Policy Fallback Rule (2).

• Add a description appropriate to the Policy Fallback Rule (3).
• Select All of the field value conditions to be satisfied (4).
• Select Any of the field value conditions to be satisfied (5).

Add a fallback selection rule that determines whether this Policy should be applied to a ticket. If the Fallback condition matches, it will only be applied when no standard Policy Selection Rules match for any policy.