Target groups are the most advanced group type and are popular for use in automatic enrolment workflows. This is because rules with conditions are created to determine which users will be included and excluded. These rules process daily to ensure the group assignment is frequently updated. The rules can be created with conditions that consider:
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Personal attribute values
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Group assignment
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Training history (Courses, Course templates and Learning paths)
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Job profiles assigned
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Skills achieved
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Cluster (Classification object completion)
A rule can contain a single condition, or multiple conditions that form And condition logic. Multiple rules can also be created to form Or logic where only one rule needs to be satisfied for assignment. This Deep Dive Guide provides insights on how to create and test Target groups.
Creating a Target Group
To create a Target group, go to the Organisational structure and groups function. Click on the Create button and select the Target group option. Decide where the group should be inserted. However, this can also be changed retrospectively after creating the group via drag & drop. Once decided, a new window will open where various tabs are displayed.
Target groups can not be created in hierarchical structure as with System groups and BU groups.
Description Tab
In the Description tab you can set the Status field to determine if the target group will be Active or Inactive. You can also fill in several other fields in this tab, e.g. Provider, Clients etc. You can use the 'i' Information button, which is above the individual fields, to display a description of the respective field. The two fields that must be populated are Comment on changes and Name fields. These descriptions should be clear and concise so that the group can be found easily.
Rules Tab
The Rules tab is where you define the rules that determine which users are to be assigned to the group. There are two different rule options:
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Including rule: Users are added to the group based on certain attributes or conditions.
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Excluding rule: Users are excluded from the group based on certain attributes or conditions.
Each created rule must be named and a comment can also be added to describe the rule.
As soon as you have saved the rule via the corresponding button, the new Condition option is available to you when creating the target group. Select these.
A new Selection window opens, which offers you various options via different tabs to filter the users who are to be assigned to this group. For example, Courses, Course templates, Skills etc. can be selected here.
In the following example, Attributes were selected as filter criterion. These attributes are a large number of different user attributes that can be taken into account during filtering. You can decide whether one or more of these attributes should be used for filtering.
In this example, the user attribute FIRSTNAME was selected as the filter criterion.
After this selection, a new window opens in which you have to choose a Comparison operator. In this example, the comparison operator Is equal to was chosen.
Enter the Value that should be queried. In this example, the value Michael has been selected.
As soon as you click OK, you will see the defined rule again, including the condition. In the current example, a rule has been defined that causes all users of the system whose first name = Michael to be added to the group.
It is important to note that rules (including and excluding rules) cant contain several conditions. Example: A target group consists of one including rule with two conditions: “people from Germany” and “people older 60 years”. Multiple conditions within a rule are always connected to form And conditions. This means that users must fulfil all conditions to be meet the rule. In the example above, this means that only people from Germany that are older than 60 years are included.
Users that are covered by including rule and excluding rule are always excluded from the Target group. Example: A target group built from include rule “all people living in Germany” in combination with exclude rule “all people under 60 years” will not contain people that live in Germany with age under 60.
Exceptions Tab
You also have the option of defining exceptions in the Exceptions tab. This allows you to manually determine individual users that fall outside the rules to include or exclude.
If you select Include , for example, a new Selection window opens. In this window, you can select the user you want to include or add to the group (or exclude from the group if you have previously selected Exclude).
Another window will open where you need to select a Reason for the exception and add a Comment. In addition, there is also the option to set a Review Date. This allows you to specify the date on which this exception should be checked again.
When you click the Save button, the added users will be displayed in the Exceptions tab below. Once done, close the pop-up window.
Ensure you click the Save button once you have finished describing the group, defined the rules, and exceptions added; otherwise changes will not be saved.
Checking the Rules
After the Target group is saved, you will need to check the rules to ensure users have been assigned as expected. You can do this using the Start target group generation icon. This will manually process the rules of the highlighted target group.
Once processing is complete, you can click the User assignment icon and select Participant list to view assigned users.
If the Participant list users look correct, the group can be finalised as described in the next step.
If the Participant list users are not as expected, edit the group and review changes.
Target groups are updated daily via the TargetGroupPersonAssignment cron job stored in the Scheduled jobs function.
Processor Name: de.imc.clix.comp.groupmanagement.targetgroup.job.RuleSetProcessorJob
Finalising the Group
When you first create a Target group it be saved as a Draft version. In order to use the target group throughout the system (i.e. in course assignments), you will need to convert to a Final version. You can do this by highlighting the group, clicking the Edit icon and selecting the Final version option. Your Target group will now be ready for live use.