Advanced Work assignment - Old INCs prior AWA implementation

[sondhal]

Will AWA work on the old Incidents which were created before AWA was implemented in the system?

If not, what possible ways we can configure to handle the old INCs?

Please advise.

[vaishali231 · Accepted solution]

hey @sondhal 

No  Advanced Work Assignment (AWA) does not automatically process Incidents that were created before AWA was implemented.

AWA only evaluates records when:

A record is inserted, or

A record meets the conditions defined in Assignment Rules (on create/update/event)

Older Incidents do not go through this lifecycle, so no work items (awa_work_item) are generated for them.

 Recommended Approaches to Handle Existing Incidents

1. Re-trigger AWA via Record Update 

Update existing Incidents so they meet AWA rule conditions again.

Ensure your AWA Assignment Rule is configured to run on update

Perform a bulk update (via Background Script or Fix Script)

Example:

var gr = new GlideRecord('incident');
gr.addEncodedQuery('active=true'); // refine as needed
gr.query();
while (gr.next()) {
   gr.setWorkflow(false); // optional (avoid extra BRs if needed)
   gr.autoSysFields(false);
   gr.u_awa_trigger = true; // dummy/update field
   gr.update();
}

 This forces AWA to re-evaluate and create work items.

2. Use Flow Designer 

Create a one-time Flow:

Trigger: Run on existing records (via scheduled or manual trigger)

Action: Assign Work Item (AWA)

 Safer and aligns with platform best practices

3. Data Cleanup Strategy

In many implementations:

Old/stale Incidents are closed or excluded

Only active and relevant records are pushed into AWA

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If this response helps, please mark it as Accept as Solution and Helpful.

Doing so helps others in the community and encourages me to keep contributing.

Regards

Vaishali Singh

[sondhal]

Thanks @vaishali231 for your response.