Setting up Routing Rules in SP 4.0

Overview

In Sponsored Projects, users with the SP System Administrator role can set up a variety of types of routing rules based on the answers to questions on a record so that each record can be reviewed by all of the people and groups necessary. These rules can be triggered off of any form object, and can target various audiences, such as a research team member with a certain role, members of an ad hoc team from the Admin module, or users with the reviewer role for a certain unit. 

For example, if researchers indicate that their research will involve human subjects, you can set up a rule to make sure the IRB Ad Hoc Team reviews the proposal.

Like form object changes, rules added to the Rule Builder page must be published before they will take effect on newly created records. Any changes made to rules, will not retroactively be applied to existing records. 

Review rules can be added to the proposal or award form. 

See the sections below for more information on how to access the rule builder, how to define a rule, the different types of rules and when they can be applied, and how to organize rules into a routing chain.

Additional Resource

Rule Builder Functionality Video (7 min. view time)

Accessing the Rule Builder

1. From the Sponsored Projects dashboard, click on More, and then click on Forms.
   
   
   
   
2. Click on the desired form.
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Manage Form, and then click on Form Rules.
   
   
   
   
4. You will be brought to the Rule Builder page to add, edit, or delete rules.
   
   

Creating a New Rule

Follow these steps to create a new rule.

1. Click on Add Condition in either the top right header or the bottom of the table.
   
   
   
   
2. With the Add Condition pop-up screen open:
   • Choose a section to add to the rule by clicking on the checkbox next to that item.
   • If available, choose a Question and/or Option to add by clicking on the checkbox next to that item.
   • Some object types allow a specific answer to be specified. When applicable, the second column will have an arrow, then when selected displays the available options in the third column. When a value is selected in this column, that will create a condition that requires this specific value in order to activate the rule.
     
     

3. Click Update. The pop-up box will close and the new rule will be shown on the Rule Builder page.
4. Once the Condition has been added to the Builder, refer to the Condition Column details below to learn about the additional options that are available.
5. After defining the Condition, the Action needs to be defined. Refer to the Action Column details below to learn more about the available options.
6. At any point while the rule is being added, the Review Order column value can be updated. This value can also be edited after the rule is saved. See the Review Order Column details for more information.

Understanding Setup Specifics

Condition Column

After a condition has been specified in the Add Condition dialog, the condition will be displayed in the Condition column and the following actions are available:

1. Add Logic: Select the Add Logic button to display a row under the first condition with AND and OR radio buttons displayed. 
   
   

• • • These operator radio buttons will default to AND, but the selected value can be changed any time the Condition column is in edit mode in order to specify the desired operator between the conditions.
    • Below the operator radio buttons, another Add Condition button will be displayed. Selecting this will open the Add Condition dialog again, where a second condition can be specified.
    • This process can be repeated as many times as desired to create the needed conditions.

2. Edit condition: Click on the pencil icon to open the Add Condition dialog again and make edits to the existing condition.
3. Delete condition: Click on the trash can icon to delete the condition.
4. Add Group: Select the Add Group button to group any previous conditions and display a row of operator radio buttons under the existing conditions. 
   
   

• • • These operator radio buttons will also default to selecting AND, but can be changed any time the Condition column is in edit mode. 
    • These operator buttons allow the desired logic between groups to be selected. 
    • Within the new group will be another Add Condition button which when selected invokes the Add Condition dialog

5. Cancel: Select Cancel to discard the changes made during the current edit session. 
   • If selected while making a new rule, canceling will remove the new rule entirely
   • If selected while editing an existing rule, canceling will return the rule to the state prior to putting in edit mode.
   • A confirmation message will be displayed when Cancel is selected in cases where a change has been made while in the edit session.
6. Save changes: Click Save to lock the selected conditions, making the Condition column read-only and enabling edit mode in the Action column.

Action Column

In edit mode, a dropdown menu labeled Action lists relevant rule types based on the selected condition(s).

The criteria for each rule type to be available are listed below:

• • Team Review Rule, Team Notification Rule: Available regardless of conditions for proposals and awards.
  • InfoReady Review Rule: Available regardless of conditions for proposals only if the tenant has been provisioned to allow this integration.
  • Unit Review Rule: Available when all ways to make the rule evaluate to true require a unit finder object being answered (not with a specific value).
  • Research Team Review Rule, Certification Rule, Outside Interests Disclosure Rule: Available when all ways to make the rule evaluate to true require at least ONE research team object role being defined. 

• Refer to the Important Considerations to Note below section for the definitions of each rule type.
• Upon selecting Team Review Rule, Team Notification Rule, or InfoReady Review Rule, an additional drop-down will be displayed to select the desired team from the list of teams defined in the Admin module.
• Selecting Certification Rule or Outside Interests Disclosure Rule requires no additional input.
• Selecting Unit Review Rule or Research Team Review Rule results in a checkbox labeled “Require Additional Review” to be displayed. 
  • • This checkbox will be unselected by default
    • If this checkbox is selected, that means this rule will automatically include the “rollup” reviews for the selected Unit/Internal Association in the relevant unit finder object or research team member’s internal association field. More on this below in the Important Considerations to Note section.

• The Cancel button in the Action column is always available. It’s function can change depending on how the Action column became editable:
  • • If the Action column becomes editable after saving the Condition column, selecting Cancel returns to making the Condition column editable.
    • If the Action column becomes editable after selecting the Edit Action button, selecting Cancel returns the rule to the previous state and discards any changes to the Action column.
• Once all required input has been provided, the rule can be saved.
• Saving the rule locks in the Condition and Action column content and transitions the rule to read only mode.

Review Order Column

Type in the desired number order in the Review Order boxes and then click on the Save List Order button.

• The Review Order column is editable at all times, whether the Condition/Action columns are editable or not. 
• If this value is changed while the rule is in edit mode, upon saving, the updated Review Order value will be saved and the rule will be sorted in the table according to ascending Review Order.
• If the value is changed while the rule is not in edit mode, the Save List Order button will become enabled at the bottom of the table. Selecting this button will save the Review Order column changes and all rules will be sorted in the table according to the ascending Review Order.

Editing or Deleting Existing Rules

• After a rule has been saved and is in read only mode, three available actions are available:
  • Edit Condition: Selecting Edit Condition returns the Condition column to an editable state, where all of the functions defined in the Condition Column section are available:
    • Since the Action column is dependent on the Condition column, choosing the Edit Condition button results in clearing the Action column content. Upon saving the updated Condition column content, the Action column content will need to be re-selected.
  • Edit Action: Selecting Edit Action returns the Action column to an editable state, where all of the functions defined in the Action Column section are available.
  • Delete: Selecting Delete (trashcan icon) will result in removing the entire row from the rule builder table. There is a modal to confirm the desired action.

Important Considerations to Note

Condition Operator Hierarchy

• Conditions within a group are evaluated top to bottom. Within a group, the AND and OR operators are given the same priority

Example:

Condition A = “Answer 1” AND Condition B is answered OR Condition C = “Answer 2”

In this case, the overall rule will evaluate to true if Condition A = “Answer 1” AND Condition B is answered, or if Condition C = “Answer 2”

Essentially, the conditions are evaluated as if there are parenthesis around each subsequent condition:

((Condition A = “Answer 1” AND Condition B is answered) OR Condition C = “Answer 2”)

• Organizing conditions into groups establishes another way to create a particular hierarchy in the evaluation of conditions. This is particularly useful if there are multiple sets of conditions that are dependent.

Example:

Group 1: (Condition A = “Answer 1” AND Condition B is answered) 

OR

Group 2: (Condition C = “Answer 2” AND Condition D is answered)

In this case, the overall rule will evaluate to true if either of the groups are true

Action Column Require Additional Review functionality (Unit “Rollup” reviews)

• If this configuration is enabled on a routing rule, when the corresponding unit finder object or research team internal association is populated, if that particular unit is configured to require additional review in the SP Routing Profile page in the Admin module, then the unit listed in the SP Routing Profile page will also be included in the routing tab. This pattern will continue for as many additional unit reviews based on the Admin module set up.
• If this new configuration is not enabled for a Unit Review or Research Team Review rule, it will continue to work as it previously did where the unit in the form object will be the only one that requires a review.

General Rules of Note

• Only one rule can have its Condition/Action column content edited at a time.
• The Review Order values for multiple rules can be updated within a single selection of the Save List Order button.

Action Column Rule Type Definitions

Certification Rule

• Used to require the research team member of the applicable role to verify the contents of the record based on the tenant’s Certification text (Manage Certification page)
• The users targeted by these rules will have to complete the certification action to allow the routing chain to proceed past this rule.

InfoReady Team Review Rule

• Used to notify members of the relevant team that the referenced record needs to be reviewed within InfoReady.
• This rule can be set up with any team defined in the Admin module.
• This rule is only available if the tenant is configured to allow the SP-InfoReady integration.
• This rule type is only available for proposals.
• The review workflow in InfoReady has to be completed before the routing chain will proceed past this rule.

Outside Interests Disclosure Rule

• Used to create a research-based disclosure within Outside Interests for the research team member of the applicable role on the SP record.
• If the SP-OI object is on the form, this object will display some summary data for any research-based disclosures triggered by this rule type.
• There is no additional action required by the user targeted by this rule in order for the routing chain to proceed past this rule.

Research Team Review Rule

• Used to require any user with the SP Proposal/Award Reviewer role for the internal association of the research team member with the applicable role to review the record.
• Any user with this role will have to complete the review action in order for the routing chain to proceed past this rule.

Team Review Rule

• Used to require any member of the selected team to review the record.
• This rule can be set up with any team defined in the Admin module.
• Any user that is part of the targeted team will have to complete the review action in order for the routing chain to proceed past this rule.

Team Notification Rule

• Used to notify any member of the selected team that they may want to review the record.
• This rule can be set up with any team defined in the Admin module.
• There is no action required by the member of the targeted team for the routing chain to proceed past this rule.

Unit Review Rule

• Used to require any user with the SP Proposal/Award Reviewer role for the unit listed in the applicable unit finder object to review the record.
• Any user with this role will have to complete the review action in order for the routing chain to proceed past this rule.