Assignment Rule form

Release version: Yokohama

Updated January 30, 2025

3 minutes to read

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Summary of Assignment Rule form

The Assignment Rule form is used to create or modify Advanced Work Assignment rules in ServiceNow, enabling automated and skill-based routing of work items to agents. This form helps define how work is assigned, managed, and handled based on agent availability, skills, shifts, and preferences.

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Key Features

Name and Application: Identify the assignment rule and associate it with a specific application, defaulting to Global.
Assign by: Choose the routing strategy, including:
- Last Assigned: Assigns to the agent who has gone longest without work.
- Most Capacity: Assigns to the agent with the greatest capacity.
Auto-assign handling: Allows automatic acceptance of work items by agents without manual approval, disabling manual Accept or Reject actions. Display options control if accepted chat interactions appear in the agent inbox or open in workspace tabs.
Rejection handling: Enables agents to reject work items and supports automatic reassignment after a configurable timeout period. Timeout settings include duration and the agent’s availability status after timeout. This is disabled when auto-assign is active.
Skill handling: Supports routing based on agent skills with options to:
- Enable skills for routing
- Evaluate skill levels to route to the most qualified agents
- Enforce mandatory skills for assignment
Shift handling: Assign work based on agent shift schedules, including options to:
- Enable shift-based assignment
- Add time constraints such as required time to complete work items
- Select agents based on least or most time left in their shifts
- Ensure agents are continuously available for required work duration

Key Outcomes

Automated and precise routing of work items based on agent availability, skills, and shifts improves efficiency and service quality.
Flexibility in assignment rules allows organizations to tailor work distribution strategies according to operational priorities.
Managers can ensure agents are assigned work they are qualified for and available to handle, reducing idle time and improving workload balance.
Integration with Workforce Optimization plugins and planned agent schedules enables advanced shift-based assignments.

When creating or changing an Advanced Work Assignment assignment rule, the Assignment Rule form contains the following fields.

Table 1. Assignment Rule form
Field	Definition
Name	Name of the assignment rule.
Application	Name of the application to which this assignment rule belongs. The default application is Global.
Short description	Brief description of the assignment rule.
Assign by	Type of assignment. Select one of the following values: Last Assigned: Routes a work item to the agent who has gone the longest without being assigned work. Most Capacity: Routes a work item to the agent who has the greatest availability for handling the work.
Auto-assign handling	Work items are automatically accepted without agents having to select Accept or Reject. Enable auto-assign work items: Select this option to have work items automatically accepted on behalf of agents. Agents are unable to manually Accept or Reject work items. Display options: Select one of the following values: Select Inbox card to accept the chat interactions and add them to the agent inbox. Agents can open the accepted interaction from the inbox. Select Inbox card and workspace tab to accept chat interactions and open a tab for each accepted interaction.
Rejection handling	Work items are rejected and handled. Allow agents to reject: Enable agents to reject work items in their inbox. Reassign on timeout: Enable reassignment of work items not accepted or rejected by agents within the specified timeout period: Timeout value (Days and Hours, Minutes, Seconds): Length of time allowed for an agent to accept or reject a work item before the assignment times out (ends) and is reassigned to another agent. Timeout presence state: Agent availability state after the timeout occurs: Available, Away, or Offline. This tab isn't available when auto-assign handling is activated.
Skill handling	Skill-based work assignments. Enable skills: Route work items to agents with the appropriate skills. When selected, the Evaluate skill level and Enforce mandatory skills check boxes appear cleared. Evaluate skill level: Route work items to the most qualified agents based on their skill level. Enforce mandatory skills: Route work items to agents with required skills.
Shift handling	Work items are assigned to agents based on shifts. Enable-shift based assignment: Assign work items to agents based on time available in their shifts. Add time constraints: Add the time required to complete work items in shifts and whether agents should be continuously available for the required time period. This field appears only when the Enable shift-based assignment option is selected. Agent criteria: Select an agent based on the time left in the agent's shift. This field appears only when the Enable shift-based assignment option is selected. Available options: Least time left in shift: Assign a work item to an agent from a group of available agents based on the least amount of time available in their shifts. Most time left in shift: Assign a work item to an agent from a group of available agents based on the maximum time available in their shifts. Time required: Time required to complete a work item. Available continuously for the required time: Assign work items to agents who are continuously available for the required time period without any breaks in a shift. Agents who don’t have the minimum time required in their shifts aren’t considered for work item assignments. Note: The Shift handling field is available only if the Advanced Work Assignment plugin (com.glide.awa) is activated and the Workforce Optimization for Customer Service plugin (com.snc.wfo.csm) or the Workforce Optimization for ITSM plugin (com.snc.wfo_itsm) plugin, or both, is activated. As a manager, you must have planned schedules for agents to assign them shifts. For more information, seeScheduling in Workforce Optimization for Customer Service andScheduling in Workforce Optimization for ITSM. This field appears only when the Add time constraints option is selected.