Create a new assignment

If you have the required access rights, you can create assignments to designate different users who need to work on objects within a specific role, such as reviewer, editor, or writer. When you assign objects to other users and change the status for a specific workflow phase, the object is in the My Assignments list for the users associated with that workflow phase.

About this task

For most workflows, the total number of users you assign a given role is fairly small to keep topics in the assignment pool moving along. The greater the number of users assigned a given role, the slower the assignments complete.

To create a new assignment:

Procedure

  1. Find the object that you want to assign.
  2. Click Move icon.
    Tip: When you assign a topic to a user, you can view the related assignment map in the Details side panel and you can also view the related assignment map and assignment rule for each assignee role by expanding Details in the Move dialog.
    Figure: Move dialog with Assignment Map details
  3. Click Add a Role.
  4. From the Role dropdown list, select a role.
    The role you choose determines the available users you can assign. For a user with multiple roles, you can only assign each role once.
  5. From the Users dropdown list, select users for the assignment role.

    You can select as many users as you want with this role up to the maximum number of assignees allowed, which depends on your system configuration for the role.

    Tip: You can type in a name to search for a user. If there are more than 250 users, some users might only appear in the list when you search for them.
  6. Optional: In the Comment field, add a comment for assigned users to see in the expanded row information of the object.
    Note: The added comment is also included in the assigned object's revision history.
  7. If an assignment map was not automatically added or if you want to change it, take the following actions:
    1. Click Modify.
    2. In the resulting Choose a Map dialog, either select the radio button for an assignment map in the list or search for another map and select it.

      When you search for an assignment map in the search dialog, remember that you can only apply one assignment map per role, but different roles can have different assignment maps.

    3. Click OK.
  8. Optional: Either enter a date or click Calendar icon to pick one.
    The correct format for dates is yyyy/mm/dd, such as 2024/05/31 for May 31, 2024.
  9. Select an assignment rule for the users:
    Table 1. User assignment rules

    Assignment rule

    Description

    Allow users to change status

    Users can manually change the status of the assignment.

    Note: You cannot select this rule if the role does not already allow users to change the status. The rule cannot override how roles are configured.

    Mark as finished if everyone is finished

    The assignment changes to finished for all users only if all assigned users mark the assignment as finished.

    Note: You cannot select this rule if the role only includes one assignee.

    Mark as finished if at least one person is finished

    The assignment changes to finished for all users if any assigned user marks the assignment as finished.

  10. Click Add.
  11. Optional: Add additional roles using the steps above. You can only add a role once. You can select multiple users for the specified role.
  12. Optional: To change the status of the assignment, from the Status dropdown list, pick a new status.
  13. Click Move.

Results

If your configuration allows it, all assignees receive a notification email for the assignment.
Note: You, as the user who made the assignment, do not receive an email notification, since you are the acting party and changed the object status.