Define scenarios

Scenarios enable workflow designers, scenario administrators, and others with the correct permissions to preconfigure forms with values that apply in specific situations. Scenarios enable you to send messages more quickly since you don't have to fill in all the form fields with the same values every time. You can set up multiple scenarios for a single form to account for the variety of real-world incidents.

For example, you could use the same Incident Response form as the foundation for two different scenarios:

  • Scenario A: Sev-1 Service Outage: Sets the priority to Critical targets a special MIM triage team on all available devices for a Sev-1 incident that's impacting customers.
  • Scenario B: Internal Subsystem Slowdown: Sets the priority to Medium and targets the applicable service team on work email and text (SMS) devices when your monitoring systems notice that an internal service is getting bogged down.

Understand scenario values

When a message sender selects a scenario, any values configured for the scenario replace the default values on the form:

  • Values defined for a scenario appear on the form when someone selects the scenario to send a message.
    • For example, if a text property has a default form value of "Service degradation" but the scenario value is "Web app service degradation", the latter text — Web app service degradation — appears on the form for the scenario.
    • If no value is specified for a scenario
  • If you don't specify a value in the scenario, the default form value appears when someone selects the scenario to send a message. 
    • For example, if a text property has a default form value of "Antares application", and there is no value defined in the scenario, the form value of "Antares application" appears on the form for the scenario.

If you edit the scenario to change its values, the changes are reflected in the scenario form as soon as you save the scenario. You can also add or remove settings (for example, properties or entire sections) from the form layout, and these changes are reflected in the scenario.

Hidden form sections and scenarios

You can configure some form sections (for example, Recipients, Devices, and Handing) to be hidden from form initiators. Form scenarios respect these visibility settings; for example, if a form's Recipients section is hidden, then message senders cannot modify the recipients when initiating the scenario. Scenario editors can still modify the default scenario settings for hidden form sections using the guidelines explained above.

Create and manage scenarios

There are two ways to create and edit scenarios, depending on your scenario permissions:

  • If you have access to the workflow and have manage scenario permissions, you can access scenarios from the form's Edit menu.
  • If you have manage or editor permissions for the scenarios and sender permissions for the form, you can access scenarios through the form's messaging page.

Create and manage scenarios in the workflow

You can edit the scenario and its permissions in the form's Edit menu.

Create and manage scenarios on the Messaging tab

Depending on your scenario permissions, you can create, modify, rename, and specify permissions for scenarios from the messaging page used to send the form. This makes it easier for users who don't have access to the workflow to create and modify the scenario.

To create or modify a scenario on this page, configure the form as required then save it as a scenario. To save time when creating several similar scenarios, you can use an existing form as a template for a new scenario.

The following instructions assume that the selected form includes at least one scenario. If no scenario exists for a form, the form-level defaults are automatically loaded when the form is selected.

Scenario permissions

You can independently set which users and roles can manage, edit, and initiate scenarios.

  • Manage Scenarios: The permission to manage scenarios for a form, including creating, editing, deleting, and adjusting scenario permissions for all scenarios associated with a form. Set which users can manage scenarios in the Sender Permissions for a form.
  • Scenario Editor: The permission to edit a scenario, including changing the default values, editing the name, and updating the scenario permissions for the scenario. Set this permission in the Scenario Permissions, accessed either by selecting Edit > Scenario on the form in the workflow or clicking the Scenario menu on the scenario in the Messaging tab.
  • Scenario Initiator: The permission to send a message using the scenario. If a user does not have scenario initiator permission for a given scenario, they won't see that scenario in the list of available scenarios when sending a form. Initiators without editor permission can still edit the default values before sending a message, but cannot save them to the scenario. Set this permission in the Scenario Permissions, accessed either by selecting Edit > Scenario on the form in the workflow or clicking the Scenario menu on the scenario in the Messaging tab.

Example scenario: Severity 1 incident

Configuring scenarios is similar to filling out a form to send a message...except that you don't hit send. In this example, we'll create a scenario for an "Initial Incident" for when the incident is a SEV-1 service outage.

Next steps

Create a few scenarios of your own for one of your workflows, using different property values, recipients, devices, and so on. When you have several scenarios completed for a form, navigate to the form on the Messaging tab and experiment with loading them into the form — and try editing them from that page.