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An assignment is an instance of a class derived from the Assign- base class. Assignments record a temporary condition of an open work object within an executing flow. The condition requires a user or an external system to act on a work object for it to progress.

The phrase " perform an assignment" refers to a user's analysis, research, data input, and decisions that cause the assignment to be completed. (In certain situations, assignments can be processed completely or in part by a Process Commander agent rather than by a person.)

Assignments are created by a flow operating on a work object, but assignments are not themselves part of the work object. The system saves data recording an assignment in instances of the Assign-Workbasket class, Assign-Worklist class, or other subclasses of the Assign- base class.

In a flow diagram, the shape identifies an assignment, which references an activity with an Activity Type of Assign. At runtime, assignments appear on a user's worklist, or on a workbasket's list, in decreasing order of urgency. The research, analysis, decision making, and data entry that a user does to complete the assignment is known as processing the assignment. After the assignment is complete, it disappears from the worklist.

When a flow execution reaches an assignment shape at runtime, the system performs the following processing: MARIK 2/27/08

1. Computes the goal time and destination time based on the current time and the service level rule (if any).
2. Identifies any skills required or requested for routing.
3. Calls the Router activity (if any) or decision tree to determine the workbasket or worklist that is to receive the assignment.
4. Saves the Assign-Workbasket, Assign-Worklist (or other Assign- class) instance.
5. Calls the Notify activity (if any) to send out an email notification.

Optionally, assignments may have an assignment status, with values such as Current or Next. This status is not related to the work object status, a different property in a different class.

Notes

• From the worklist display, users can click the Where-am-I? button () to identify the current assignment shape on the Visio diagram representation of the flow rule.
• By default, assignment shapes are designated as entry points, which allows users to return to them when processing later assignments, by using the breadcrumbs control or the Work-.Previous flow action.
• By convention, many standard activities assume that an assignment instance when on the clipboard has a page name of newAssignPage.
• One work object may have multiple flow executions in process and each may have one or more open assignments. An activity can iterate through property .pxFlow("flowname").pxAssignmentKey to find the handle of each open assignment.
• Agents can complete assignments and cause a flow execution to progress. The standard activity Work-.ResumeFlow allows an agent — typically the Pega-ProCom agent — to select and complete a flow action ordinarily routed to a person. When called by a service level rule, this activity can implement a business practice such as "If the manager does not reject a request within 30 days, the request is automatically approved."

	agent, Assign- base class, assignment statistics, assignment status, back-to-back assignments, breadcrumbs control, entry point, flow, flow action, perform, problem assignment, worklist, urgency, worklist, workbasket
	Activity form — How to create activities for flows Flow rules — Editing in Visio — Assignment shapes Working with the Assignments in Error reports
	Standard activities for flows Standard properties in the Assign- base class

Definitions — A