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darkknight
darkknight
Expert ⭐️
September 19, 2018

Rules Engine: Include a free text comments field within Tasks and Actions

  • September 19, 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 90 views
When creating complicated rules, it's not uncommon to go back to it months later and ask "why did I create that logic?" Or if someone has to come behind me and trying to understand what I did.

It would really help to have a comments section in each task/action to capture more detail than can be added in the Description.   Kind of like how programmers add comments to their code.



      8 replies

      samantha_braastad
      samantha_braastad
      Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
      September 19, 2018
      Agreed! Any documentation added within the tool is helpful for when changes are made and help remove the need to document in multiple sources which quickly can become out-of-date.
        H
        Gainsight Employee ⭐️
        hitesh_sharma
        Gainsight Employee ⭐️
        September 19, 2018
        Hi Samantha / Jeff,

        We do have Description field per Action for the same in Bionic Rules,



        Also we have Description field per task beside task name,



        Let me know in case of any further questions.
        darkknight
        darkknightAuthor
        Expert ⭐️
        September 19, 2018
        Yes I know about the Description field.  Looking for something where more detail can be added and viewed within the action/task.
        Jeff Kirkpatrick
        dan_ahrens
        dan_ahrens
        Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
        September 20, 2018
        @Hitesh - what are the character limits for those two description fields and how is text treated if it exceeds the small text box?

        @Jeff - do you have a sample description that you could share or thoughts on what character count you'd anticipate needing?
        VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
        darkknight
        darkknightAuthor
        Expert ⭐️
        September 21, 2018
        I don't have a sample description off hand, but where there is fairly complicated filter logic, it would help to be able to write it out in free text to help clarify the reasoning behind the logic. 

        Also, to add a comment whenever logic is edited/modified.   Countless times I've come back to an action or a task and thought "when and why did I set the value to X"  I'd say the larger the character count the better.
        Jeff Kirkpatrick
        samantha_braastad
        samantha_braastad
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
        September 21, 2018
        I don't have a specific example but agree that be able to add notes would be helpful. Ideally, filters would be visible from the view box based on what is currently set within the Task. The text back would be more to add context as to why that dataset is being used and any modifications. For example, a filter was adjusted to add another case type based on changes to the way the support team is logging cases. Having this in a text box would make it easy to see that an adjustment has been made and way. 
          darkknight
          darkknightAuthor
          Expert ⭐️
          July 8, 2019
          Has any additional consideration been given to this?

          As I make changes to Rules, it would be EXTREMELY helpful to have comments on each Task & Action to capture what changes I made and when.

          The alternative is having to keep this logged externally which is PAINFUL.

          Jeff Kirkpatrick
          darkknight
          darkknightAuthor
          Expert ⭐️
          July 8, 2019
          An example:

          Today I had a CTA rule that was triggering to accounts that were newly added to Gainsight, and I needed to change the Action criteria to also account for Customer Info::Created Date >= Subtract 60 Days From Rule Date AND Customer Info::CSM != Null.

          I wish I was able to add a note to the rule action itself to highlight what I changed and when.

          Jeff Kirkpatrick
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