Advanced Work Assignment(AWA) : What Actually Changes when it is Enabled

[Shaik Dimple]

Hi Community,

In my previous post, I explained how work flows through Advanced Work Assignment (AWA).

In this post I want to focus on one simple thing - what actually changes when AWA is enabled, compared to normal assignment.

How assignment works without AWA:

When AWA is not used:

• Assignment rules run when a record is created.
• The record is assigned directly to a group or a user.
• The system does not check whether the user is available or already overloaded.
• Once assigned, the work usually stays with that user unless someone manually reassigns it.

How assignment works with AWA:
When AWA is enabled: 

• Assignment rules do not assign work to a user.

• Their job is only to send work to the correct queue.

• From the queue, AWA decides which agent should receive the work.

AWA checks in real time:

• Is the agent available?
• Does the agent have capacity?
• Is the agent eligible to receive this work?
• Only then is the work offered to an agent.

The key difference (kept simple)

Without AWA:
Work is assigned first, availability is checked later (manually).

With AWA:
Availability is checked first, assignment happens only when someone can take the work.

Why work may stay in a queue

When AWA is enabled, it is normal to see work waiting in a queue.

This usually means:

• No agent is currently available or
• Agents have reached their capacity.
• This is expected behaviour and prevents overloading agents.

Final thoughts

• AWA does not make assignment faster - it makes it more realistic.
• Work is assigned only when someone is actually available to handle it.

Once this difference is understood, AWA behaviour becomes much easier to interpret.

Thanks & Regards,
Dimple Shaik

[DurgaPrasaR6431]

Hi @Shaik Dimple,

When no agent is available at the current minute, can we let the end user wait until an agent is available and proceed forward? 

[Shaik Dimple]

Hi @DurgaPrasaR6431 

Yes, that is possible depending on the channel you are using.

For example: in chat scenarios, the end user can remain in the queue until an agent becomes available. Once an agent is free and has capacity, AWA can then route the interaction to that agent.

For record based work items like incidents or cases, the work will simply remain in the queue until an eligible agent becomes available and AWA offers it to them.

So in both cases, the idea is similar the work waits until someone who is available and eligible can take it.