Dynamic scheduling system properties

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Dynamic scheduling system properties

    Dynamic scheduling system properties enable ServiceNow customers to customize and optimize the dynamic scheduling process for field service tasks. These properties control key functions such as scheduling frequency, automatic task assignment, travel time calculations, and optimization parameters. Proper configuration aligns scheduling behavior with organizational needs, improves task assignments, and enhances operational efficiency.

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    Administrators can access and modify these settings via All > Field Service > Dynamic Scheduling Administration > Properties.

    Key Features

    • Manual Double-Booking: Allows dispatchers to manually double-book agents even with dynamic scheduling enabled (default is disabled).
    • Ignore Agent Travel Time: Enables automatic task assignment without considering agent travel time, prioritizing highest-ranked agents. Note that double booking must be enabled to allow automatic assignment under this setting.
    • Travel Time Optimization: Offers options to optimize work block travel time rating by including travel to tasks, after tasks, both, or excluding travel entirely—useful depending on whether on-time arrival, task sequencing, or route efficiency is prioritized.
    • Travel Calculation Methods: Supports travel and distance estimates using Google Maps API, Beans.AI, or straight-line calculations. The choice depends on whether Google Maps API is enabled and organizational preferences.
    • Advanced Agent Recommendation Logs: Enables displaying detailed logs of recommended agents to dispatchers during scheduling for better decision-making.
    • Dynamic Bundling: Allows bundling of pending dispatch tasks before running dynamic scheduling, optimizing task grouping.
    • Travel Time Threshold Assignment: Enables assigning tasks to the nearest agent within a configurable travel time threshold, regardless of availability.
    • Work Schedule Enforcement: Controls whether dynamic scheduling strictly uses defined work schedules and workforce optimization or falls back to default schedules when needed.
    • Work Order Task Window Dates: Uses Window start and end dates on work order tasks to guide scheduling. Various business rules and client scripts support automatic population and adjustment of these dates based on SLAs, appointments, and transfer orders, with manual overrides allowed under certain conditions.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • By configuring these system properties, customers can tailor dynamic scheduling to match business priorities such as minimizing travel time, ensuring timely arrivals, or managing complex task sequences.
    • Adjust travel time calculation methods to enhance accuracy of agent routing and task assignment.
    • Enable features like manual double-booking or travel time threshold assignment to increase scheduling flexibility and responsiveness.
    • Leverage Window start and end date configurations to ensure tasks are scheduled within appropriate timeframes, respecting SLAs and appointments.
    • Use logging and bundling options to gain visibility into scheduling decisions and optimize workload grouping for field agents.

    Set up properties to customize the behavior and functionality of the dynamic scheduling process according to your organization's needs.

    The following properties allow you to control aspects such as the frequency of scheduling, automatic assignment, travel time calculations, and optimization iterations. Adjusting these properties helps optimize task assignments, improve efficiency, and align the dynamic scheduling process with your specific requirements.

    Navigate to All > Field Service > Dynamic Scheduling Administration > Properties.

    Table 1. System properties for Dynamic scheduling
    Property label Property name Description
    Allow dispatchers to manually double-book agents work.management.allow. doublebooking.dynamicscheduling Allows dispatchers to double-book agents manually even when dynamic scheduling is enabled.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: false
    Property to ignore calculation of travel time for agents to task location based on schedule com.snc.dynamic.scheduling. ignoreAgentTravelTimeDuringScheduling Assigns work order tasks automatically without considering travel time for agents.

    The Ignore Travel option appears in the work order task form, allowing dynamic scheduling to assign tasks to the highest ranked agents regardless of travel time.

    Set up the following parameters related to dynamic scheduling when Ignore Travel is enabled:

    Note:
    • Double booking must be enabled for the system to assign tasks to the agent automatically.
    • If access hours are defined in a work order task, the system ignores the defined access hours limit when auto-assigning that task to agents. Access hours are activated using Field Service Access Hours Management (com.snc.fsm_access_hours) plugin.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: false
    Optimize work block travel time rating com.snc.dynamic.scheduling.optimize_travel_time_rating Optimize work block travel time rating.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: Include all travel

    The following is more details on the property options:

    • Include travel to task - Ideal when on-time arrival is a key business metric. Only the time it takes to travel to the task is considered in the rating. Any travel after the task is ignored for scoring.
    • Include travel after task - Ideal when the order of tasks matters and incorrect sequencing could increase overall route time. This is best if you want to factor in the impact a task has on travel time to the next task. This method ignores how far the agent has to go to the task, but includes the impact that traveling to the task has on the rest of the route.
    • Include all travel - This is ideal for route efficiency if you want to minimize the total travel time across a technician’s day. This method considers both the travel to a task, and the travel after a task.
    • Include no travel - Ideal for remote tasks, virtual support, or dispatch scenarios where the technician is static since travel is not a factor in work block rating.
    Travel calculation method work.management.travel.calculation. dynamic_scheduling Uses Google Maps API, Beans.AI, or straight line estimates to calculate estimated agent travel time and distance to task locations when agents are assigned tasks using dynamic scheduling.
    Distance calculation method work.management.distance.calculation.dynamic_scheduling Calculates agent’s estimated travel time and distance to the task location based on either Google Maps API, Beans.AI, or straight-line.

    If the Use Google Maps API for travel time estimates geolocation property is enabled, then you can select Google Maps API or straight-line estimates in the properties for calculating estimated travel time and distance.

    If the Use Google Maps API for travel time estimates is not enabled, then the system uses the value in the Estimated Travel Duration field in the work order task to determine task assignment for the agent.

    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: Use straight line estimate.
    Show advanced agent recommendation logs to user com.snc.dynamic.scheduling.showlogs Displays recommended eligible agents to the dispatchers while scheduling the tasks using dynamic scheduling. Type: true/false Default value: false
    Dynamic Bundling before Dynamic Scheduling com.snc.dynamic.scheduling.bundle_before_scheduling Ensures dynamic bundling runs before dynamic scheduling. Tasks in the Pending Dispatch state are bundled before running dynamic scheduling.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: false
    Enable the feature of assigning task to agent with travel time within threshold work.management.enable.optimizing.travel Enables dynamic scheduling to assign work order tasks to the nearest agent regardless of availability.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: false
    Assign task to agent with travel time within the threshold in minutes work.management.travel.time.threshold.minutes Sets the travel time (in minutes) that assigns a work order task to the nearest agent if they are within the travel distance.
    • Type: integer
    • Default value: 5
    Allow Dynamic Scheduling to only use work schedule/WFO com.snc.dynamic.scheduling.useWorkScheduleOnly Controls whether dynamic scheduling and workforce optimization can fall back to the default work schedule when scheduling agents. When set to true, the scheduling engine does not fall back to the default work schedule. When set to false, the scheduling engine falls back to the default work schedule if an agent's work schedule expires or is unavailable.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: true

    Work Order Task Start and End Dates

    Dynamic scheduling uses Window start date and Window end date field values in the work order task to schedule tasks. Additionally, the system properties, business rules, and client scripts are considered during set up and configuration.
    • If both the Window start and Window end dates are present in the work order tasks, dynamic scheduling uses these dates.
    • If the task has a Window start date but the date has passed, dynamic scheduling uses the current date and time for this value.
    • If the task has a Window start date but no Window end date, dynamic scheduling uses the com.snc.wm.wo.task_window_day property to determine this value.
    • If the task has no Window start date but has a Window end date, dynamic scheduling uses the current time for this value.
    • If the task has neither a Window start nor a Window end date, dynamic scheduling uses the current time and date for the Window start and the com.snc.wm.wo.task_window_day property for the Window end.
    • If a task is created, the Window end date gets automatically populated based on the latest SLA breach date from its parent work order. The business rules Populate Window End Based On SLA for both Task SLA [task_sla] and Work Order Task [wm_task] tables, and the client script Calculate Window End has to be set to true.
    • If a task is created and Fixed window is enabled, the business rules and client scripts doesn't execute and Window end time is not updated. If a work order is created based on an appointment and there is an SLA associated with the work order, the Window end time is populated based on the appointment and not on the SLA.
    The Window start date field gets updated based on the delivery date of the transfer order only for the work orders that are not assigned. The business rule Sync up Delivery Time with WOT has to be set to True. For multiple transfer orders containing mandatory part requirements, the Window start date is set to the latest delivery time of the transfer order(s). Window start date is updated based on transfer orders only when the part requirement associated with the transfer order is mandatory. However, you can manually edit the window start time and override the existing date that is populated based on the transfer order.
    Note:
    The Window start date is not updated if the work order task is one or more of the following:
    • Associated with an appointment
    • Fixed Window
    • Window end is populated and is before the delivery by date.