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