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[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]
As an administrator or dispatcher, use batch optimizations to have the Scheduling Operations Agent rebalance a large set of resources, requirements, and bookings asynchronously. You configure the work once as a scope, a goal, and a plan, run it on demand, and review the results before they're applied or have them applied automatically.
Use batch optimizations to optimize broadly across many resources and bookings in the background. To optimize the schedules of one or a few specific technicians right now, use interactive optimizations (preview) instead.
Important
- This is a preview feature.
- Preview features aren't meant for production use and may have restricted functionality. These features are available before an official release so that customers can get early access and provide feedback.
Prerequisites
- An administrator set up the agent.
- You have the Scheduling Operations Agent Administrator role to create scopes, goals, and plans, or the Scheduling Operations Agent User role to run an existing plan. Learn more in Assign permissions and roles.
Find scopes, goals, and plans in the Settings area of the Resource Scheduling app, under Optimization.
Step 1: Create a goal
A goal defines the objectives and constraints for the optimization. Create a custom goal or use a built-in goal. Learn more in Goals and objectives (preview).
Step 2: Create a scope
A scope defines which resources to optimize, which unfulfilled requirements to consider, and which existing bookings the agent can change. Learn more in Scopes (preview).
Step 3: Create a plan
A plan combines the scope and goal with a time range.
In the Settings area of the Resource Scheduling app, under Optimization, select Scheduling Plans, and then select New.
Enter a Name.
Select the Scope you created.
For Scheduling goal, select the goal you created.
For Apply method, select Review before apply or Apply automatically.
Set the time range with Time range reference, Time range offset, and Duration. To learn more, see Time range.
Select Save.
Step 4: Run the plan
Open the plan and select Run optimization plan. The run starts immediately, and the new request appears in the plan's Optimization Requests grid. Whether the results are applied automatically or held for you to review depends on the plan's Apply method, which you set in Step 3.
The optimization runs asynchronously, so you can continue working while the agent processes the request. A plan runs only one optimization request at a time.
Step 5: Review and apply the results
In the plan's Optimization Requests grid, find the request for the run. When a request is Ready for review, open it to review the suggested schedule. A summary at the top of the review window describes the goal, the number of resources, and the time range. The window shows the suggested schedule in several views:
- Gantt: A timeline of the suggested schedule, where each resource row is marked Suggested. Use the Hourly control to change the time scale, and expand a resource to see its bookings.
- Map: The suggested routes, with each stop numbered in visit order.
- Booking details: A list of the bookings in the result, including the Change Type (Create, Update, Delete, or None), booking status, resource, start and end time, and duration.
- Open requirements: A list of the requirements that couldn't be scheduled, including priority and promise times.
Switch between the Map, Booking details, and Open requirements views from the view selector on the toolbar.
To apply the result, select Apply. The changes are applied asynchronously. If bookings, requirements, or resources changed since the request ran, the agent warns you before applying. You can't apply a request that's more than 72 hours old or past the start of its time range.
If a request shows Failed, or the results aren't what you expect, learn more in Improve optimization results (preview) and Limits and troubleshooting (preview).