Are Queue Files viewed as a business requirement or an implementation issue?

Work Management systems commonly assign Work Orders/Requests/Faults to physical queues. These queues may relate to assigned Priority or the type of worker who will undertake the assigned work. Work Orders can be transferred between queues, for example, if the assigned Priority is escalated.

A queue represents a list of items that have a particular status value.  Queues are often viewed by different groups of users and contain different information.

Should queue files be counted as separate ILFs?

Files: Internal Logical Files

Where they exist the following may be counted as ILFs:

• Work Order, Fault (or similar) Files
  These are the files that record the details of the work requested. If a Work Order can exist outside all queues (ie be unassigned) and it has its own unique DETs it is counted as a separate ILF. However, if the Work Order only ever exists within the context of a queue it is not counted as a separate ILF.  (This is a rare occurrence)


• Queue files where the following conditions are true:
  • They physically exist
  • The queue has unique DETs, for example the attributes of the Repairman queue may be:
    
    
    • Date Work Order assigned to queue
    • Required Skill Level
    • Repairman assigned
    • Repair appointment date, etc
    
    
  • The queue contains the Work Order Number as a Foreign Key

Queues are not to be counted as separate logical files where they are simply represented by a status flag on the main Work Order/Fault record.

Where all queue sub-types have essentially the same DETs, count only one queue file.

Transactions: External Inputs

Where they exist, the following may be counted as EI's

• Assign to Queue
• Delete from Queue
• Modify Queue Details
• Transfer Between Queues

Note: Where multiple queues exist, multiple transfer transactions may be counted if different logical processing can be demonstrated.  The transfer function involves the deletion of the record details from one queue file and the addition of the record details to another queue file.  This is counted as one elementary process as the two must occur together for the transaction to be considered complete, and for the business of the system to be left in a consistent state.

All of the above transactions also update the Work Order/Fault file to indicate the queue to which the Order now belongs.

Transactions: External Outputs, External Enquiries

Where they exist, the following may be counted as EOs and EQs

• One transaction for each unique elementary process that facilitates the viewing and reporting of data on the queue files.