Hi Gemma.

Thanks for your comments

In reply.

Performance activities doesn't differentiate feedback from appraisals from check-ins.  They are treated simply as a type. See on the general tab

So all the configuration options apply to all types.

In the case of the direct reports relationship.  It is true that this would typically be used for management 360 feedback processes.  But there may be other cases where this is applicable.

How this is used?  

Performance activities uses (audience/position/organisation) assignment to define the activity subject, and the subject users' job assignments to select the formal participant relationships (Direct report, manager, appraiser, managers manager) and manual selection to define the informal participants (Peer, reviewer, Mentor, external recipient).

When the activity is created the code looks at the job assignments for the subject user and assigns a participant instance to the user holding the relationships defined as participants in the activity.  

In the case of direct reports it reverses the relationship to select participants where the subject holds the manager relationship on  users' job assignments.

Disables/Enables job assignment instances. 
Enabling job assignment instances is relevant where the client wants separate activities per job e.g User1 is a nurse (job1) and a member of the pandemic response team (job2).  I want to send separate activities for both those jobs to gather feedback on User1's job1 manager and job2 manager independently.

In this case if the activity is a simple 360 feedback 

with job assignment instances is disabled

1. 1. the activity will create subject instances for the managers defined in the assignment audience (manager1 and manager2) and participant instances for all the users where the user that is manager1 is on any job assignment as manager.  
   2. This could include teams other than nurse and pandemic response (if the manager in question also manages other teams), which may not be desirable.  In which case you can enable job instances to segregate the teams.
      
   3. Conversely, if the feedback is designed to be generic across all teams then this is exactly what you want.

The gap in this that I'm trying to assess is if the client wants to assign an activity to single teams.  Its not currently possible to assign and activity to a set of users (a team as an audience), AND ONLY the manager of that team.

While this is logically true, I'm unclear how much of a problem this represents.

I hope this helps