Task Fields

The ID field contains the task identifier. This unique identifier is automatically generated by the application when the task is saved for the first time.

The Subject field is used to enter a short description of the objective of the task.

The Workflow field shows the ID and subject of the workflow to which the task belongs.

The Phase field is used to select one of the phases of the workflow to which the task belongs. Selecting one of these phases moves the task to this phase.

The Provider not accountable field shows whether the SLA clocks of the requests that are linked to the workflow of this task should be stopped indicating that this account is not to be held accountable for the period that this task is active.

The Requests table field lists the requests that are linked to the workflow to which the task belongs.

The Problems table field lists the problems that are linked to the workflow to which the task belongs.

The Manager field shows the person who is selected in the Manager field of the workflow that this task belongs to.

The Category field is used to select the category of the task.

• Risk & impact tasks are used to help plan workflows.
• Approval tasks are used to collect approvals for workflows. These can be used at various stages in the life cycle of the workflow.
• Implementation tasks are added to workflows for development, installation, configuration, test, transfer and administrative work that needs to be completed for the implementation of the workflow.
• Automation tasks are added to workflows for tasks that are fully automated, and do not need notification or assignment. These tasks are not visible in the Inbox.

The Impact field is used to select the extent to which the service instances related to the task will be impacted by the completion of the task.

Note that a service instance is degraded when some of its non-core functionality is not working, or when the response time of the service instance is slow. A service instance is also degraded when some or all of its redundancy is no longer available (e.g. when a server of a server cluster is down) even though the use of the service instance is not affected. A service instance is down, or unavailable, when any part of its core functionality is not working.

The Team field is used to select the team to which the task is to be assigned.

The Member field is used to select the person to whom the task is to be assigned.

The Skill pool field is used to select the skill pool which members need to be asked for their approval when the status of the task is updated from “Registered” to “Assigned”.

The Approvers field is used to select the persons who need to be asked for their approval.

The Approvers field is available only if the category of the task is “Approval”.

The Required approvals field is used to specify the number of approvers who need to have provided their approval before the status of the task gets updated to “Approved”.

The Required approvals field is available only if the category of the task is “Approval”.

The Remaining approvals field indicates the number of approvers who still need to provided their approval before the status of the task gets updated to “Approved”.

The Remaining approvals field is available only if the category of the task is “Approval”.

The Workflow summary field provides a link to the most recent Workflow Summary PDF (Portable Document Format) file that was generated for the approver.

This field is available for the approvers after the task has been assigned.

The Supplier field is used to select the supplier organisation that has been asked to assist with the completion of the task.

The Supplier request ID field is used to enter the identifier under which the request to help with the execution of the task has been registered at the supplier organisation.

If the supplier provided a link to the request, enter its URL in this field.

The Anticipated assignment field shows the date and time at which the task is currently expected to be assigned.

This field’s value is automatically set to the latest completion target of the task’s predecessors. If the task does not have any predecessors, this field is set to the date and time specified in the Start field of the workflow to which the task is linked.

This field is hidden after the task has been assigned.

The Assigned field is automatically set to the current date and time when the task is assigned for execution.

The Planned duration field is used to enter the time it is expected to take for the task to be completed following its assignment, or following its fixed start date and time if the Start no earlier than field is filled out.

The Work hours are 24x7 box is checked when a 24×7 work hours calendar (without any holidays) is to be used for calculating the completion target of the task.

The Start no earlier than field is only used when work on the task may not start before a specific date and time (e.g. before the start of a maintenance window).

The Planned effort field is used to specify how much time the member is expected to spend working on the task. For an approval task, this field is available for each approver.

The Completion target field shows the date and time at which the task is expected to be completed.

This field’s value is automatically calculated by adding the planned duration to the value specified in the Start no earlier than field. If the Start no earlier than field is empty, however, the completion target is automatically calculated based on the moment the task was assigned plus the planned duration, taking into account the work hours of the task’s assignment team. If the Start no earlier than field is empty and the task has not yet been assigned, the completion target is automatically calculated based on the task’s anticipated assignment plus the planned duration, taking into account the work hours of the task’s assignment team.

The work hours of the workflow manager’s team are used for the completion target calculation of approval tasks, since approval tasks do not have an assignment team.

This field is hidden after the task has been completed.

The Status field is used to select the current status of the task.

The available options are:

• Registered – The task should not yet be executed.
• Declined – It has been determined that the task had better be assigned to a different team or team member as indicated in the Notes field.
• Assigned – The execution of the task can start, unless it should not be executed before a specific date and time specified in the Start no earlier than field.
• Accepted – The task will be executed as soon as the member to whom it has been assigned is ready to start working on it.
• In Progress – The task is currently being worked on.
• Waiting for… – It is temporarily not possible to make any further progress in the execution of the task. The reason for this is specified in the Notes field.
• Waiting for Customer – Until the requester has given additional information, it is temporarily not possible to make any further progress in the execution of the task.
• Request Pending – The task caused a request to be generated and will be completed as soon as this request is successfully completed
• Failed – An answer cannot be found for the risk & impact task or the objective of the implementation task cannot be achieved.
• Rejected – A person to whom the approval task was assigned has decided not to provide approval.
• Completed – The answer has been provided for the risk & impact task or the execution of the implementation task has achieved its objective.
• Approved – The required number of approvals has been provided by the approvers of the approval task.
• Canceled – The task should not be completed (e.g. because the workflow has been rejected, or the task was generated by a workflow template but does not apply to this specific workflow).

The Waiting until field is used to specify the date and time at which the status of the task is to be updated from “Waiting for…” to “Assigned”.

This field is available only when the Status field is set to “Waiting for…”.

The Time spent field is used to enter the time that you have spent working on the task since you started to work on it or, if you already entered some time for this task, since you last added your time spent in it.

The Effort class field is used to select the effort class that best reflects the type of effort for which time spent is being registered. This field becomes available only after a value has been entered in the Time spent field and the person who entered the time spent belongs to an organisation that makes use of a timesheet settings in which assignment time tracking is activated and to which two or more effort classes have been linked.

The Finished field is automatically set to the date and time at which the task is saved with the status “Failed”, “Rejected”, “Completed”, “Approved” or “Canceled”.

The Service instances table field is used to relate the SIs, which will be affected by the completion of the task, to the task.

The Configuration items table field is used to relate the CIs, which will be affected by the completion of the task, to the task.

As long as no CIs have been registered, this field remains hidden.

The Predecessors table field lists the other tasks of the workflow that need to have been completed or canceled before the status of the task will be changed to “Assigned”.

The Successors table field lists the other tasks of the workflow that may not be assigned until the task has been completed or canceled.

The Request template field is used to select the request template that must be used to generate a new request when the status of the task is set to “Assigned”, “Accepted” or “In Progress”.

The Service instance field is used to select the service instance that must be applied to the new request that is generated when the status of the task is set to “Assigned”, “Accepted” or “In Progress”.

The Request note field is used to provide information for the person or team to whom the request will be assigned.

This field allows basic text formatting.

The Request field is visible only after a request has been generated by the task. This field shows the request that was generated. As soon as this request has been completed with the completion reason “Solved”, the task’s status is set to “Completed”.

The Instructions field is used to provide instructions for the person(s) to whom the task will be assigned.

This field allows basic text formatting.

The Notes field lists all notes that have been added to the task. For each note, this field shows the name of the person who submitted it and when this was done.

The Note field is used to provide information for the person to whom the task is assigned. It is also used to provide a summary of the actions that have been taken to date and the results of these actions.

This field allows basic text formatting.

When the Copy note to workflow box is checked, the note (including its attachments, if any) will not only be added to the task, but also to the workflow that the task is a part of.

The Attach file... link is used to attach a file to a note. Multiple attachments can be added to a note.

The Time entries table field lists all time entries of your organisation’s account that have been generated for the task after it was saved with a value in its Time spent field. The time entries are grouped by Person.