Delegating Primary Items to Another User

You can use the out-of-office feature to delegate active primary items owned by one user to another user for a specific time period. This is useful for ensuring that items are addressed during vacation periods, holidays, or other times when users may be unavailable.

For example, Nancy, an IT support technician, may own several outstanding requests for service. She can create an out-of-office entry to delegate these items to Chad, another support technician, for her two-week vacation period. Once the entry is active, the outstanding items are delegated to Chad, who is now responsible for them, along with incoming items that may normally be assigned to Nancy.

Delegations are recorded in the State Change History and Change History sections for each item. The user who created the out-of-office entry is reflected in this audit trail.

Once the out-of-office entry expires, all delegated items are returned to Nancy, except for items that Chad has moved to another state or to a different owner.

Considerations for Item Delegation

Consider the following information before delegating items to another user:

Creating Out-of-Office Entries

Users and administrators open the out-of-office delegation settings differently, but the steps for creating entries are the same.

To open delegation settings from the SBM User Workspace:

  1. Click your user name in the upper right corner.
  2. Select the Advanced tab.
  3. Click the Edit button next to Delegation While Out of Office.

To open delegation settings from Serena Work Center:

  1. Click your user icon in the upper right corner.
  2. Select Out Of Office.

To open delegation settings from SBM Application Administrator:

  1. From the Administrator Portal, select the Users icon.
  2. Search for or navigate to the user for whom an out-of-office entry will be created, and then click Details.
  3. Select the Out Of Office tab.

To create out-of-office entries:

  1. On the Delegation view, click Add.
  2. Select start and end dates and times for which items should be delegated. By default, times are set at 00:00, which represents midnight of the selected day.
    Tip: To cancel a delegation, set the end date and time to the current time.
  3. Search for or navigate to the project that contains items to be delegated.
  4. Select the Delegate items in sub-projects too check box to delegate items in the selected project and its sub-projects.
  5. Click Find to search for a user to whom items will be delegated. Only users who have privileges to own items in the selected project are listed.
  6. Select the Send E-mail check box to have the system send an e-mail to the specified user whenever an item is delegated. You can enter a subject and compose a message with rich-text formatting. When the delegation period ends, the user will stop receiving e-mails.
  7. Save your changes.