Life Cycles

Life Cycles

A life cycle is a built-in guidance system that establishes a directional flow for managing requests, problems, or assets in a help desk. Life cycles minimize human errors and provide privileged (role-based) at every transition.

Supported Modules:
  1. Requests - Formulate a resolution process for incident and service requests.
  2. Problems - Formulate a resolution process for problem requests.
  3. Assets - Design a sequence of stages each product type goes through from acquisition to disposal.
Roles Required: 
Module
Role Required
Requests
SDAdmin (for all sites), HelpDeskConfig (only for associated sites)
Problems
SDAdmin
Assets
SDAdmin, AssetConfig
 

Life Cycle Terminologies   

Terminology
Explanation
Status/State
Refers to the milestones in a request, problem, or asset:
  1. Requests and Problems - Current status of the request (for example: Open, Assigned, or Closed)
  2. Assets - Current state of an asset. (for example: In Store, In Use, or Expired)
Transition
Movement of a request, problem, or asset from one status to another.

You can define actions that can be performed before, during, or after transition:
  1. Before: This phase occurs before a transition. You can decide when the transition must be displayed for technicians to select by:
    1. Restricting access based on roles.
    2. Defining criteria for the transition to be accessible.
  2. During: This phase occurs as the request/asset transitions to a new status/state. You can define actions to be executed when a transition is selected, such as:
    1. Mandating technicians to update certain fields in the request, problem, or asset.
    2. Updating fields or aborting the process based on certain conditions.
  3. After: This phase follows after the transition is completed and the request/asset moves to the next status/state.  You can execute custom actions based on certain conditions.
Start/End block
Default blocks built into the application that indicate the Initial and final phases of a life cycle.
 

Configure Life Cycle 

ServiceDesk Plus Cloud MSP provides a visual process builder where life cycles can be designed using a simple drag-and-drop process.
  1. Go to Setup > Automation > Life Cycles.
  2. Use the module drop-down to navigate to the relevant module.
  3. Click New Life Cycle.
  4. Provide a name and description for the life cycle.
  5. Select the customer to whom the life cycle is applicable, or select All Customers from the drop-down to apply this life cycle to all the customers.
  6. In the Associated Templates/Applies to drop-down, configure as per the selected module. The available templates and product types will be listed based on the customer selected in the application header.
    1. Requests - Select the request template to associate with the life cycle.
    2. Problems - Select the problem template to associate with the life cycle.
    3. Assets - Choose the product type you want to associate with the life cycle. An asset life cycle can be associated with only one product type. 

Info
If an asset life cycle is associated with All Customers, the product type selected for that life cycle cannot be used in customer-specific asset life cycles.
The product type selected in a customer-specific asset life cycle cannot be associated with All Customers. However, it can be associated with other customer-specific asset life cycles. 

Click Next.


You will be redirected to the visual builder where an empty canvas will be displayed. On the right panel,
  1. Life cycle details will be displayed. You can edit the details by clicking the relevant field.
  2. Status or asset states are displayed under the Drag & Drop section.
    1. You can create new statuses for requests and problems under Setup > Customization > Helpdesk > Status.
    2. You can create new asset states under Setup > Customization > Asset Management > Asset State.

You can design the life cycle by dragging the respective status or state to the canvas. On adding the first status/state, the Start and End blocks will appear.
  1. To connect states, hover over a state, click the plus (+) sign that appears on the circle, and drag to the next state.
  2. Configure a transition for the states. Transition configurations are necessary for automated state movement.
    1. Click to create a transition between the states. Provide a name and description for the state, and click Done.
    2. A Transition tab will appear on the right panel and display Before, During, and After phase configurations. Use the pointers below to configure the phases:
Phase
Explanation
Before
Decide when the transition must be displayed for technicians to select based on:
  1. Scope - Restricts access to specific organization roles, groups, or technician roles.
  2. Criteria - Define conditions for the transition to be accessible.
Info
You cannot configure before configuration for the first transition. 
During
Define actions to be executed when a transition is selected:
  1. Mandatory fields - Mandate technicians to update certain fields in the request, problem, or asset.
Info
Default date fields cannot be mandated.  
  1. Rule set - Define conditions and actions to be applied.
    1. Set the condition and action to be executed when the transition occurs.
    2. Apply conditions based on criteria or execute the action without conditions.
    3. Execute a field update custom action or abort the action.
Info
You can define a maximum of 100 rules.  
After
Define actions to be executed after the transition is completed and the request/asset moves to the next status/state.
  1. Set the condition and action to be executed when the transition occurs.
  2. Apply conditions based on criteria or execute the action without conditions.
  3. Choose an action to be executed - send notifications, run a custom function, add a task to the request/problem, or trigger webhooks.
 
  1. You can also set a common transition for the states. This allows assets from different states to move to a specific state after this transition. Enable Common Transition and select a state from the Select Status drop-down.
  2. Right-click a state/transition, and select Delete to remove it from the canvas.
  3. After you configure the life cycle, click Publish. You can also select Save as Draft to save your progress.
The request or asset will remain in the same state if there are no transition configurations.
The life cycle begins at the Start block and finishes at the End block. Only states linked to these blocks will be displayed for the assets.

Notifications created within life cycles, that are created under the All Customers filter, will be generated for the MSP Base Site.


Sample request lifecycle:

 

Actions 

  1. Click and drag the canvas to move it.
  2. Adjust the canvas size with the zoom buttons on the left.
  3. Reset to the default size with the icon,
  4. View the life cycle in liner view or map view using the drop-down at the top:
    1. Linear view lists all transitions and configurations. You cannot edit the configurations in this view.
    2. Map view offers a graphical representation where you can make modifications.

  1. Click to export the life cycle as PDF.
  2. Click    to view the history of actions performed on the life cycle.
  3. Click to view details of the creation and the last updated time of the life cycle as well as the user who made these actions.

List View Operations   

  1. Search life cycle: Use the   icon to search through life cycles using criteria. You can add multiple search criteria using the icon.
  2. Enable/Disable life cycle: Click   > Enable/Disable against the life cycle. You can also use the toggle option under the Status column.
  3. Edit life cycle: Click > Edit against the life cycle.
  4. Duplicate life cycle: Click   > Copy to make a duplicate of the life cycle. A duplicate life cycle will be created for the customer associated with the original life cycle.
  5. Delete life cycle: Click   > Delete to delete the life cycle.
Life cycles associated with all customers will be represented with a dash (-) in the Customer column, whereas life cycles linked to individual customers will have the customer's name in the Customer column. 

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