Workflow Selecting Next Activities

Selecting a next activity and pressing the ticket submit button progresses the workflow to its next stage.

Visualization in the Workflow Assistant

Next activities appear towards the bottom of the workflow assistant, but only when the current activity is complete.

The transition to the Next Activity may have a more detailed description. To read this hover over the Next Activity Name.

Selection

Next activities look and behave similar to standard radio buttons. To select a next activity the agent clicks inside its circle icon. Selections are mutually exclusive. Any current selection is removed before a new one is applied.

Input Requirements

Selecting an activity can place the User Interface into a mode where the following might be required :

1. A transition comment - possibly initially filled out with a template value
2. Group Assignment - required by group restrictions enforced on the Next Activity

In the following example the selected Next Activity transition specifies both of these

After the selection the user interface changes :

A default value will likely have been selected that satisfies the group restrictions (2) of the next activity, but the agent should review the alternative possible options and choose the most appropriate.

Similarly the comment (3) may need editing manually to fill out suggested placeholders in the template value, or if no initial value has been inserted, a comment should be written from scratch.

The workflow assistant will change the label on the Submit button (4) to indicate what will happen when it is pressed.  The app is not able to change the label if the account is using Zendesk Custom Statuses.

Next Activity Availability

To the left of each Next Activity is a colored status tab

    - a green tab indicates the Next Activity is available for selection

    - a grey tab indicates the Next Activity is unavailable for selection 

    - a red tab indicates the Next Activity is inaccessible (because of permission restrictions)

In the above examples all the Next Activities were available and had green tabs

Unavailable Next Activity

In this example, the Implement (CAB Not Required) next activity is not available.  Clicking the chevron will expand this section and show what needs to be done to make it available.  The way this is presented differs between Standard and Advanced models.

Standard models

There may be a condition associated with the transition to the next Activity or a precondition associated with the Next Activity directly (or both).  If either (or both) of these conditions is not satisfied, the Next Activity will not be available.  Clicking the chevron will expand the section and give details of these conditions.

• The chevron has been used to expand the section and show details of the Transition condition (1).
• The "CAB Change Level " field is set to "Major" but the Transition condition, "Emergency or Minor", requires the value to be "Minor". Hence this Next Activity is not available and has a grey tab (2).

In the above example the transition condition is not currently being met. The agent can use the "Show Fields" button inside the Next Activity section to highlight just those fields involved in its transition condition, "Emergency or Minor". (The button behavior is identical to "Show Fields" for completing the current activity.)

• The agent has pressed "Show Fields" and all but the two fields involved in the Transition Condition have been hidden (3).
• The Button Name has changed to "Unmask Fields" (4).

The agent can change the value to satisfy the transition condition.

• The agent has changed the value from "Major" to "Minor" and the Transition condition is now satisfied and has a green tab (5).

Advanced Models

Advanced models do not have transition conditions, but still may have pre conditions for the next activity.  Clicking the chevron will expand the Next Activity section and display in the section those fields whose values need to be modified to satisfy the precondition.

Fill in the necessary field values in the Next Activity section.

Once the fields have been completed as necessary, the Next Activity becomes available for selection.

Inaccessible Next Activity

If there are enactment permissions defined on a transition that the current agent does not satisfy, eg group membership, its Next Activity will be permanently unavailable for selection.

• Access is denied to this Next Activity (6).

Access is denied to this Next Activity. There is no action the agent can take to make this available other than for their Zendesk User properties to be changed to satisfy the permission requirements.
Example: Be made a member of one of the groups restricting this transition.

To get more details of the restriction, hover over the radio button area just to the right of the red tab :

• Hover over the radio button area and the cursor changes to "not allowed", preventing selection (7).
• The tooltip explains that the current user is not a member of the required "Change Managers" group (8),