Use > Change Management > Change Management overview > Managing alerts

Managing alerts

Alerts trigger a series of checkpoints in a change or task to ensure that the required work activities occur within the specified time frames. Alerts serve as reminders to keep a change or task on schedule.

Alerts are timed or delayed conditions that are true or false. Requests for change proceed in phases, according to a predefined schedule. Alerts monitor the progress of these phases. An alert condition becomes true when circumstances require an automated response. Change Management treats it as an event, and sends the predefined notifications. For example, the late notice alert notifies a designated management group that a request for change is overdue for approval, and updates the alert status to include late notice.

Users can define any number of standard or customized alerts for any phase, control who is notified for each alert, and control the naming convention used for the alert itself. Alerts support other functions within the system.

Function Description
Alert messaging The event manager generates messages to designated recipients as a result of an alert, which updates the original request.
Batch scheduling Change Management schedules all alerts associated with a phase at once when the phase occurs.

What are the alert controls?

The Phase record enables you to set alert controls.

Alert control Description
Reset Sets the status of all current Alert records associated with the current request to inactive. Marks the last action field as reset. Schedules a calculate alert record to recalculate the alerts and restart the alerts process.
Recalc

Retrieves each Alert associated with the request for change and performs the following processing:

  • If the current alert status is active, the alert condition is reevaluated, the alert is updated to reflect the correct status, and processing ends.

  • If the current status is not active, the Schedule Condition field is reevaluated. If Schedule Condition= true, Change Management updates the following fields:

    • Status is set to scheduled.
    • Last Action is set to recalc.
    • Action Time is set to current date/time.
    • Schedule Condition is reevaluated. If true, Alert Time is recalculated and Status updated to scheduled. If false, Status is set to not required.

Alert processing files

There are two primary files used in alert processing:

  • The Alert Definition (AlertDef) file defines the alerts used by all phases

    AlertDef defines the basic alert information for each named alert and all general alert definitions. AlertDef is a static file.

  • The Current Alerts (Alert) file tracks the alerts created for each phase

    Alert is an active file.

Access an alert definition record

Applies to User roles: System Administrator

Alerts trigger a series of checkpoints in a change or task to ensure that the required work activities occur within the specified time frames. Alerts serve as reminders to keep a change or task on schedule. You can access alert definition records in order to modify, add, or delete alert definitions.

To access an Alert Definition record, follow these steps:

  1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Alerts.
  2. Use search or advanced search to find one or more records.
  3. Click a record to view it in the Alert Definition form.

Create an Alert Definition record

Applies to User roles: System Administrator

To create alert definition records for use by the Change Management, Problem Management, and Request Fulfillment applications, follow these steps:

  1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Alerts.

  2. Problem Management: Click Problem Management > Configuration > Alert Definitions.
  3. Request Fulfillment: Click Request Fulfillment > Configuration > Alert Definitions.
  4. Type the alert name in the Alert Name field.
  5. Type the alert description in the Description field.

  6. Complete the remaining fields in the alert definition record form. If necessary, press Ctrl+H to view help for each field.

    • Scheduling tab: describes the calculations that trigger when the alert occurs.
    • Update tab: describes Format Control considerations and notification messages to be sent.
    • Work Schedule tab: specifies the work schedule to which the alert belongs.

    • Time Zone tab: enables you to perform the following actions:

      • Define a specific time zone.
      • Define a RAD expression to set the time zone alert.
      • Obtain the time zone from a table lookup.
  7. Click Add.