Clocks allow you to track time in specific areas of ServiceCenter. This section uses incident tickets as an example. Incident tickets can be associated with multiple clocks, one clock or no clocks. Clocks allow you to track the following:
The time an incident ticket spends in an incident state or different states.
The time an operator spends editing a ticket.
The time a ticket spends in an assignment group or multiple groups.
What is a Clock?
Clocks are based on records in the clocks Database Dictionary. Each record has the following fields:
Field Name Data Type Description
type character The type of clock, e.g., problem or downtime. All clocks associated with problem tickets have a clock type of problem.
name character The name of this clock, e.g., Time spent in alert 3.
key.char character An arbitrary character key used to associate a clock with a
particular external record. All clocks associated with problem tickets store the problem number in this field.
Clocks Example on page 197 provides an example of how clocks work with incident tickets. The following example uses three states: Open, Pending and Closed.
Whenever an incident enters the Open state, a clock named total.time is started.
Whenever an incident enters the Pending state, the total.time clock is stopped, and a clock named pending.time is started.
Whenever an incident ticket leaves the Pending state, the total.time clock is started again, and the pending.time clock is stopped.
Whenever an incident enters the Closed state, the total.time clock and the pending.time clock are both stopped.
1 Applying this model to the example in Figure 12-1 on page 197:
2 At 1:00 PM on July 1, incident ticket 104 is created and saved in the Open state. A clock named total.time is created and started.
3 At 4:00 PM on July 2, the problem ticket is moved to the Pending state.
The total.time clock is stopped, after running for 27 hours.
key.numeric number An arbitrary numeric key used to associate a clock with a
particular external record. All clocks associated with problem tickets have NULL in this field. (In Incident Management, the problem number is a character field.)
total date/time The total time that this clock has been running.
Note that this value may not always be accurate for clocks which are currently running.
events array Array of events.
events structure Event structure.
start date/time Date and time when this clock was started.
stop date/time Date and time when this clock was stopped. A clock may start and stop multiple times over its lifetime.
Field Name Data Type Description
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The pending.time is created and starts running.
4 At 2:00 PM on July 4th, the ticket is returned to the Open state.
As the ticket leaves the Pending state, the pending.time clock is stopped, after running for 46 hours.
As the ticket leaves the Pending state, the total.time clock is restarted.
Open state, ServiceCenter instructs the total.time clock to start. Since the clock is already running, nothing happens.
5 At 2:30 PM on July 4th, the ticket is Closed.
Incident
As the ticket enters the Closed state, ServiceCenter attempts to stop the pending.time clock, which is already stopped.
As the ticket enters the Closed state, the system stops the total.time clock. This clock has been running for 30 minutes since being restarted.
6 The clock totals are:
total.time—ran from 1:00 p.m. July 1st until 4:00 p.m July 2nd:
27 hours; and also ran from 2:00 PM July 4th until 2:30 PM July 4th for 0.5 hours. The total running time: 27 + 0.5 = 27.5 hours.
pending.time—ran from 4:00 PM on July 2 until 2:00 PM on July 4, for a complete running time of 46 hours.
Starting and stopping clocks
ServiceCenter provides four methods for starting and stopping clocks. You can start and stop clocks by:
Status changes.
Editor tracking.
Format Control.
RAD changes.
Note: When a clock is started, a record is automatically created in the clocks file.
Starting and stopping clocks by status changes
In Incident Management, you can define an incident status. These status definitions are stored in the pmstatus file. Each time an incident ticket changes status, ServiceCenter checks for any clocks that need to be started or stopped. For example, if an incident ticket changes from Pending to Open, ServiceCenter checks for any clocks associated with the problem ticket that need stopping or starting.
To access a pmstatus record:
1 Select the Toolkit tab in the system administrator’s home menu.
2 Click Database Manager.
3 Type pmstatus in the File field.
4 Click Search.
5 Select apm.status.g from the QBE list displayed.
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6 Click Search.
7 Select the name of the status from the record list for which you want to set a clock.
For example, select Pending customer.
8 Modify the record as needed.
Click Save or press F2 to save the changes made to the record.
A message appears in the status bar stating: Record updated in the pmstatus file.
Rename the record and click Add or press F5 to create a new pmstatus record.
Figure 12-2: PMStatus Record
PMStatus fields
Name—the name of the Incident Management status that will trigger the clock.
Sort Value—the order in which statuses are displayed in a combo box.
On Entering This Status
The clocks listed in this structure are affected when an incident ticket enters the status listed in the Name field.
Start These Clocks—clocks that you want Incident Management to start when a ticket enters the status indicated in the Name field.
In the example shown, each time an incident ticket enters the Pending customer status, a clock named pending.customer is started. This clock keeps track of how long the ticket remains in the Pending customer state.
Stop These Clocks—clocks you want Incident Management to stop when a ticket enters the status indicated in the Name field.
In the example shown, each time an incident ticket enters the Pending customer status, a clock named total.time is stopped. This clock keeps track of how long the ticket has been in states other than the Pending customer state.
On Exiting This Status
The clocks listed in this structure are affected when an incident ticket enters a status other than the status listed in the Name field.
Start These Clocks—clocks that you want Incident Management to start when a ticket enters this status.
In the example shown, each time an incident ticket exits the Pending customer status, a clock named total.time is started. This clock keeps track of how long the ticket has been in states other than the Pending customer state.
Stop These Clocks—clocks that you want Incident Management to stop when a ticket enters this status.
In the example shown, each time an incident ticket exits the Pending customer status, a clocked named pending.time is stopped. This clock keeps track of how long the ticket remains in the Pending customer state.