Create indications
An indication is a time counter automatically generated when the indicator start conditions are met. It shows all primary timings, time points, and the current state of the SLA for a particular record (an incident, a request, etc.), which allows for tracking the level of the service quality target indicators.
When creating an indication-related record, the system fills in the fields of this record. Time points and timings are also automatically recalculated when the indicator counting pauses, cancels or stops.
To check the indication for an incident, complete the steps below:
- Open the required incident record.
- Scroll down to the Related Lists area and open the Timepoints Indication tab.
- Open the indication record you want to check.
To check the active service level indications, navigate to Service Level Management → Indication.
Indication form fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Indicator | An indicator that initiated the start of the indication and started the counter. |
| Timezone | The indication timezone. |
| Record | The original task that induces the SLA counting. |
| Breached | The marker that shows whether the SLA has been breached. |
| Astronomical time elapsed | Astronomical time that has elapsed since the indication started, displayed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. It is calculated on the regular 24/7 basis. The field itself stores duration in milliseconds. |
Astronomical time elapsed in % | Ratio calculated by the formula described below. |
| Astronomical time left | Astronomical time left until the SLA is breached, displayed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. It is calculated on the regular 24/7 basis. The field itself stores duration in milliseconds. |
| Start time | The date and time when an indication has started. |
| Complete time | The date and time when a time counter (an indication) stopped. |
| State | The current state of an indication specified:
|
| Pause on | The last date and time when the indication paused. |
| Pause time | The duration of the indication paused, displayed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. The field itself stores duration in milliseconds. |
| Business time elapsed | Business time that has elapsed since the task was started, displayed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. It counts the working calendar specified in the Schedule field of the original indicator. The field itself stores the duration in milliseconds. |
| Business time elapsed in % | Ratio calculated by the formula described below. |
| Business time left | Business time left until the SLA is breached, displayed in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. The calculation counts the working calendar specified in the Schedule field of the original indicator. The field itself stores the duration in milliseconds. |
Breach time | The date and time of the SLA breach that the system calculates, taking into the pause duration, or that is taken from the field defined in the Breach time field of the original indicator. |
| Original breach time | The original date and time of the SLA breach, calculated at the moment when the system creates an indication, or taken from the field defined in Breach time field of the original indicator. |
Timings and percentages
The indication record contains two field sets containing timing information related to the task. These are:
- Astronomical time elapsed
- Astronomical time elapsed in %
- Astronomical time left
and
- Business time elapsed
- Business time elapsed in %
- Business time left
The difference between these values is that the "astronomical" values are always calculated on the 24x7 basis, while the "business" values take into account the schedule specified for the related indicator.
Examples:
Create an indicator with the following conditions:
Field Value Name Name Commitment Type Resolution Time Table Task Active Enabled Indication start time Defined by condition Indication breach time Defined by duration Duration 10 minutes Schedule 24x7 Timezone Europe/Moscow Timezone Source Indicator timezone Start conditions Condition State IS In Progress When to Cancel Never Pause conditions Condition State IS Postponed Complete conditions Condition State IS Completed - Create a task record:
a. Navigate to https://{your_instance_url}/record/task.
b. Fill in the mandatory fields. Move it to the In Progress state.
c. Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes. An indication is started.
The Start time field of the indication is populated with the time when the indication actually started. The Original breach time field is populated with the time when the indication is to be breached. This value is calculated by summarizing the indication start time and the related indicator duration.
Next, consider a case when an indicator uses a popular schedule "8x5" (5 working days for 8 hours). Using this schedule, the difference between astronomical and business timings can be considerable. For example, an incident raised at 1 pm on a working day. The indication start condition is defined as "State IS In Progress", and an indication complete condition is defined as "State IS Completed." So the incident was taken to work at 2 pm (the indication started), and it was completed at 11 am on the next day (the indication completed). So, its business time elapsed was 5 hours, while the astronomical time elapsed was 21 hours.
Calculation nuances
As mentioned above, the "astronomical" time values are always calculated on the 24x7 basis, unlike the "business" values. These fields consider the schedule specified in the parent indicator.
- If the specified schedule is invalid or deleted, the 24x7 schedule is used for calculations.
- A schedule is applied based on the timezone specified in the parent indicator.
In formulas below, NOW stands for the current date and time.
Used values
| Value | Formula | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Start time (ST) | Absent | Indication start date and time. |
| Breach time (BrT) | Absent | SLA breach date and time.
|
| Pause time (PT) | Absent | Total duration of pauses. |
| Actual duration (AD) | BrT - ST | An actual duration. It is used to calculate the actual time according to the 24x7 schedule. |
| Indicator duration (D) | Absent | An indicator duration. It is used in business time calculations according to the specified schedule. |
| mPT | (NOW - Paused On)^SCH | Pause duration for now (if an indication is paused). The ^SCH means that the formula uses the specified schedule when calculating. |
The Business time elapsed and Business time left values are calculated based on the schedule specified and stored in the Duration format.
The Astronomical time elapsed (AET) value is calculated as the difference between the current date and time and the Start time (ST) value.
AET = NOW - ST
The Astronomical time left (ALT) value is calculated as the difference between the Breach time (BT) value and the current date and time.
ALT = BrT - NOW
After the indication is breached, the Astronomical time left stops calculating (that is, no more time left). Also, the Astronomical time elapsed and Astronomical time left values are stored in the Duration format.
The Astronomical time elapsed in % (AE%) value is calculated by the formula below:
AE% = AET/AD* 100 (%)
The Business time elapsed (BET) value can be calculated using the formula below:
BET = (NOW - ST)^SCH - ( PT + mPT)
The Business time left (BLT) value can be calculated using the formula below:
BLT = (BrT - NOW)^SCH
After the indication is breached, the Business time left stops calculating (that is, no more time left).
The Business time elapsed in % (BE%) can be calculated using the formula below:
BE% = BET/D * 100 (%)
The working time consumption rate is calculated to 999% by default.
Configure indications
There are system properties that allow to set indication records such as the breach time and recalculation period. To set them, complete the following steps:
- Navigate to System Properties → All Properties.
- Find the required property using the list search boxes or the condition builder and open it.
- Edit the Value field.
- Click Save or Save and Exit.
| Property Name | Description |
|---|---|
slm.calculation.period.after_breach | Specifies the recalculation period for breached indications. The default value is 7200 seconds (2 hours). |
slm.calculation.period.before_breach_greater_than_1_day | Specifies the indication recalculation period when there is more than one day left before the breach. |
slm.calculation.period.before_breach_1_day | Specifies the indication recalculation period when there are from 6 hours to 1 day left before the breach. |
slm.calculation.period.before_breach_6_hour | Specifies the indication recalculation period when there are from 2 to 6 hours left before the breach. |
slm.calculation.period.before_breach_2_hour | Specifies the indication recalculation period when there are from 30 minutes to 2 hours left before the breach. |
slm.calculation.period.before_breach_30_minutes | Specifies the indication recalculation period when there are less than 30 minutes left before the breach. |
slm.calculation.max.actual_elapsed_percentage | Specifies the percentage value for the Astronomical time elapsed in % field, after which the indication stops recalculation. This value should be greater or equal to 100%. The default value is 1100%. |
