Milestone Rules

Milestones are specific actions or steps for a work item. You can use milestone rules to monitor the target completion data and time for each milestone. For example, an incoming order might require you to set up an account, purchase materials, schedule a job, etc. Milestone rules track the completion dates and times for each of these milestones.

The target completion date for milestone rules is called the Milestone Completion Target Date (MCTD). This field and its status are considered global system fields. These fields are defined by XTRAC and included in events that are sent to the business activity monitoring tool and to XTRAC Workbench.

Milestone rules can also have completion conditions that are associated with them. When the completion conditions for a milestone are met, XTRAC no longer tracks the associated MCTD or the item's status (green, amber, red).

Milestone rules are centralized rules and are usable across all nodes. They do not have a specified owner.

When a milestone is created, a start date is set and the status is set to in-process. When a milestone is completed, XTRAC sets a complete date and sets the status to complete. If a completion condition is not met, XTRAC changes the MCTD to a red state.

XTRAC monitors the MCTD and calculates the date when the work is in jeopardy based on the threshold values that you define. If you change the target date, XTRAC recalculates the target date when the milestone might be in jeopardy.

In the unlikely event that a work item is locked for editing for longer than two hours, XTRAC cannot change the jeopardy status to amber or red for that session.

The default thresholds are set in the Organization Detail window. For details on how these threshold values and timers work, see Organization.

However, in the Milestone Rule Detail window, you can set different threshold percentages for each milestone rule.

When a threshold is crossed, XTRAC changes the jeopardy state in XTRAC Workbench. In Workbench, all milestones that are associated with a work item display in the Milestones window.

IMPORTANT: For general XTRAC rule information, see XTRAC Rules.

Creating a Milestone Rule

Note: To define a milestone rule, you need the Create Milestone Rule security function as part of the security group associated with your entitlement set.

To create a milestone rule

1. In Feature Explorer, click Rules > Milestone Rules.
2. In the Milestone Rule Summary window, click New.
3. In the Milestone Rule Detail window, in the Description field, type a description for the rule (up to 60 characters).
4. Select the event that you want to use.
5. Build the rule condition by selecting the fields, criteria, and values.

For details, see Rule Conditions and Building a Rule Condition.

6. Click the Action tab.

7. From the Business Calendar box, select the calendar to use to calculate the milestone complete target date.
8. From the Milestone Target box, enter the number of minutes, hours, or days that you want the milestone complete target date to be set after the specified event.

Either Current System Date/Time or Work Item Create Date/Time.

9. Set the applicable Amber and Red thresholds by specifying the percentage of the target date when a user is notified if the applicable milestone complete target date has not been reached

You can also check the Use Default Amber and Use Default Red check boxes.

10. Click the Completion Condition tab.
11. In the Completion Condition tab, build the rule condition by selecting the fields, criteria, and values.

For details, see Rule Conditions and Building a Rule Condition.

12. (Optional) In the Change Request ID field, type the ID of the change request (up to 30 characters).
13. (Optional) In the Memo field, type the reason for creating the rule (up to 30 characters).
14. Click Save.

XTRAC saves the rule, numbers it, and appends it to the bottom of the sequence list on the Milestone Rule Summary window.

15. Specify the order that XTRAC executes the rules in.

See Ordering Rules.

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