Our team relies heavily on work items as part of our damage prevention process. They allow us to create a separate task associated with a dig ticket where we can document notes, track activity, and move items from open to closed status for reporting purposes. This functionality has become an extremely valuable part of our damage prevention strategy.
One challenge we continue to encounter, however, is the ability to create work items in large volumes. We have developed proprietary methods to identify the dig tickets that present the greatest risk to our network, which ultimately produces a prioritized list of Utilisphere IDs. Currently, there is no functionality within Utilisphere that allows us to upload that list and create work items in bulk.
To bridge that gap, we have developed a semi-automated process using a virtual machine and Python scripts to create the work items individually. While this has helped, the process can be fragile. Server delays, system response times, or another user actively working within a ticket can cause the automation to fail, often requiring the process to be restarted from the beginning. It also requires ongoing maintenance and monitoring to ensure the automation continues to operate correctly.
Because work items are already an integral part of Utilisphere, we would like to see a native bulk work-item creation capability. Ideally, this would allow users to upload or paste a large list of Utilisphere IDs and automatically create a work item for each associated ticket. This would eliminate the need for external virtual machines and custom Python scripts, reduce the risk of automation failures, and allow our team to scale our damage prevention efforts much more efficiently.
0 Votes
1 Comments
Lindsay RennerIrth
1 day ago
Hey Asher,
Thank you for the detailed feedback. It is helpful to hear how central work items are to your damage prevention process, and I understand how frustrating it is to maintain a VM and Python scripts that can fail partway through and need to be restarted.
Since you already have a solid method for identifying the dig tickets that carry the most risk, I think there may be an opportunity to use Smart Score and Process Automation together to create the matching work items automatically, based on your criteria and without an external process. I would like to partner with you to explore whether that fits your workflow before we look at a separate bulk creation feature.
If this approach does not fit your needs, please reply here and let us know. We will make sure your request for native bulk work item creation is captured as feedback.
Our team relies heavily on work items as part of our damage prevention process. They allow us to create a separate task associated with a dig ticket where we can document notes, track activity, and move items from open to closed status for reporting purposes. This functionality has become an extremely valuable part of our damage prevention strategy.
One challenge we continue to encounter, however, is the ability to create work items in large volumes. We have developed proprietary methods to identify the dig tickets that present the greatest risk to our network, which ultimately produces a prioritized list of Utilisphere IDs. Currently, there is no functionality within Utilisphere that allows us to upload that list and create work items in bulk.
To bridge that gap, we have developed a semi-automated process using a virtual machine and Python scripts to create the work items individually. While this has helped, the process can be fragile. Server delays, system response times, or another user actively working within a ticket can cause the automation to fail, often requiring the process to be restarted from the beginning. It also requires ongoing maintenance and monitoring to ensure the automation continues to operate correctly.
Because work items are already an integral part of Utilisphere, we would like to see a native bulk work-item creation capability. Ideally, this would allow users to upload or paste a large list of Utilisphere IDs and automatically create a work item for each associated ticket. This would eliminate the need for external virtual machines and custom Python scripts, reduce the risk of automation failures, and allow our team to scale our damage prevention efforts much more efficiently.
0 Votes
1 Comments
Lindsay Renner Irth 1 day ago
Hey Asher,
Thank you for the detailed feedback. It is helpful to hear how central work items are to your damage prevention process, and I understand how frustrating it is to maintain a VM and Python scripts that can fail partway through and need to be restarted.
Since you already have a solid method for identifying the dig tickets that carry the most risk, I think there may be an opportunity to use Smart Score and Process Automation together to create the matching work items automatically, based on your criteria and without an external process. I would like to partner with you to explore whether that fits your workflow before we look at a separate bulk creation feature.
If this approach does not fit your needs, please reply here and let us know. We will make sure your request for native bulk work item creation is captured as feedback.
Thanks,
Lindsay
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