Destinations

An schedule can be linked to one or more destinations to enable the import and export of assigned shifts. Each destination is associated with a single assigned role (e.g. Primary, Secondary).

Operating Modes

The operating mode of a destination controls when and how refresh and export operations are performed.

Refresh

Refreshes happen regularly (at least hourly) to update the cached state of the destination from the external system.

Each refresh is also responsible for performing any necessary import of shifts from the destination to On-Call Optimizer depending on the needs of the configured operational mode.

Export

During an export operation On-Call Optimizer exports one or more shifts to the destination as determined by the configured operational mode.

Authoritative (default)

On-Call Optimizer is the source of truth for the schedule and makes necessary changes to the destination to align it with the schedule in On-Call Optimizer.

• Newly assigned shifts are automatically exported to the destination as soon as they are confirmed in On-Call Optimizer.
• When a refresh observes differences between shifts at the destination and On-Call Optimizer, the shifts from On-Call Optimizer are re-exported to overwrite any changes made in the destination and restore the schedule to the intended state.

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.

• Newly assigned shifts are automatically exported to the destination as soon as they are confirmed in On-Call Optimizer.
• Changes to previously exported shifts at the destination are imported back into On-Call Optimizer when they are observed by the next refresh operation.
  • On-Call Optimizer will only check for changes to shifts within the horizon of the schedule. Changes beyond the horizon, will be overwritten by the next automatic assignment made by On-Call Optimizer at the time it is confirmed.
  • In the case of conflicting changes made in both the destination and On-Call Optimizer within the same window of time (e.g. between two refresh operations), the On-Call Optimizer assignment will overwrite any change made directly in 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.

• Newly assigned shifts will remain in On-Call Optimizer as pending changes for the destination until a manual export is triggered.
• If a refresh observes differences between shifts at the destination and On-Call Optimizer the state and list of pending changes in On-Call Optimizer to correct the differences is updated, but no action is taken until a manual export is triggered.

Configuration

Destinations are added and removed from the “Destinations” tab within a Schedule.

Schedules created via linking an existing schedule will have a matching destination pre-populated which can be removed or edited if desired.

Each destination has two parameters which control its behaviour:

• Linked Assignee: Which of the assignees from the schedule will be exported to the destination.
• Operating Mode: Controls when and how On-Call Optimizer will import and export shifts from the destination during the lifeycle of the schedule. The default operating mode for new destinations is Authoritative.

Updating destination configuration

To change the linked assignee or operating mode for a destination:

1. Navigate to the Destinations tab of the appropriate schedule.
2. Find the destination to be configured in the table displayed.
3. Click the edit icon ( ) in the right most-column.
4. Select the updated values as desired.
5. Click Update Destination to confirm the changes.

Notifications

Unrecognized override removal

When removing a shift from a destination (e.g. an override from Pagerduty), On-Call Optimizer can be configured to send a warning notification if the shift is not recognized as having been previously added by On-Call Optimizer. This can provide a guard against changes made directly in the destination being inadvertently overwritten by On-Call Optimizer without notice.

Notification of removed overrides will be sent to all schedule admins as well as the member that the removed override was assigned to.

On-Call Optimizer will not notify about the removal of shifts/overrides that are recognized as having been previously added by On-Call Optimizer and are being removed because of an intended schedule change.

How to enable

Override removal notifications are disabled by default, but can be enabled:

1. Select My Profile from the drop-down menu behind the user icon in top-right corner of the application.
2. Select Configure Notification Preferences from the Notifications section roughly half-way down the page.
3. In the Notifications panel that appears, ensure the toggle button for Destination override removed is on (slid to the right) for at least one of the available notification methods (e.g. email/Slack).
4. Click Save preferences at the bottom of the panel.

Supported Destinations

• Any of the listed On-Call Products

Additional destination types (e.g. calendars) will be added soon.