What's New

Destination operational modes

Three different operational modes are now available to provide flexibility in how On-Call Optimizer imports and exports shifts to and from configured destinations, particularly when faced with unexpected changes that must be reconciled.

• Authoritative (default for new schedules) - On-Call Optimizer is the source of truth for the schedule and makes the necessary changes to the destination to align it with the schedule in On-Call Optimizer.
• Bidirectional - On-Call Optimizer is the source of truth for all assignments made directly in On-Call Optimizer but will also import changes that are made to previously exported shifts back into the On-Call Optimizer schedule from the destination.
• Manual Export - On-Call Optimizer is the source of truth for the schedule (like authoritative mode), but will only make changes to the destination when an export operation is manually triggered by a user.

The new operational mode configuration replaces the previous enabled/disabled destination configuration setting once selected on a schedule. Until that time existing destinations continue to operate with unchanged behaviour (shown as Export on change (deprecated) in the app).

Schedule owners will be contacted to coordinate migration over the next week or two. Feel free to update your schedules at any point however - the new operational modes are better in every respect!

More details and a full description of the behaviour of each mode can be found in the destination documentation.

Refreshed destination and export history pages

The destinations tab within a schedule has been refreshed to provide greater visibility into the current state of shifts that have been exported and the history of previous exports.

Organization administration improvements

The organization section has been updated to separate the member list and role permissions from general settings using tabs.

• The display name of the organization is now configurable on the general organization settings tab.
• The members tab now displays the calendar and slack connection status for each member - allowing adminstrators to see at a glance how onboarding of the organization is progressing.
• Adminstrators can now invite members to On-Call Optimizer directly from the organization members tab without first having to add them to a schedule.
• Additional role permissions have been enabled allowing members of an organisation to be granted the ability to create and manage schedules, and/or create and manage integration connections (e.g. On-Call Products, Slack). These permissions can be configured on the organization roles tab.

To access the organization section, click on the organization’s name in the menu accessed by clicking the profile icon in the top-right of On-Call Optimizer.

Override removal notification

A new notification is available when On-Call Optimizer removes an override (aka shift) from a destination schedule in a linked on-call product such as Pagerduty.

A potential use-case for this feature is to provide a warning if a team member has attempted to swap or reassign a shift directly in Pagerduty (or another linked product) rather than On-Call Optimizer and is therefore overwritten by On-Call Optimizer’s normal export process!

For more details on how this notification works and how to enable it see the destination documentation.

Notification method flexibility

You can now choose to receive each notification via any combination of available notification methods. For example you can choose to receive new assignment notifications only via email and swap response notifications only via Slack, or even if you prefer via both email and Slack in parallel!

Configure your notification preferences via your profile page.

Improvements to assignee change processs

A refreshed and standardized interface that provides fast and intuitive confirmation of assignee change actions is also the home of two major improvements in the ability to change the assignee for a shift. The assignee change actions remain accessible via the icons to the right of the assignee name in the shift popup dialog.

Configurable assignment periods

When changing the assignee for a shift there is now the option to specify how much of the shift is changed.

• New 30 minutes, or 1 hour options provide a simple method for temporarily providing coverage for a teammate while they are unavailable during a meeting or a commute. These options apply to the start of the shift for future shifts, and the next 30 minutes or 1 hour if the current shift is being changed.
• The traditional options to change the entire (or remaining portion of the current) shift, or specify a completely custom period of time within the shift still remain available also.

Reassign directly to another user

On-Call Optimizer now allows any member of a schedule to directly reassign a shift to any member of the organization using the reassign ( ) icon. In the confirmation dialog that is displayed:

• You must select the user to which the shift should now be assigned.
• The reassignment can be specified to be for any of the four time periods described above.

The new assignee will receive a notification that the shift is now assigned to them.

Bugfixes and minor changes

• The design and layout of the destination table within each schedule has been improved and streamlined to more clearly present the configuration and status of any linked destinations.

For more details on older changes, please select a month from the list below.