The Task Templates This table holds records that serve as templates for automatically generated tasks. Each Template record specifies a Task related to one of the other tables. Task Templates Templates have a Related to To field, just as tasks do, and they may be linked to a specific contract, service, task workflow, or project type. They Task Templates define the method of assignment, the expected number of working hours to complete, and any prerequisite tasks.
Task Templates may be combined within a Task Workflow, or they may exist independently be independent of a workflow. They can be combined to form a set of "User Selected Tasks" linked to a service or project type. Or , or a single task template may be linked to a service for a change request.
Use Case
Task Templates are related to either the Contract, Project, Change Request, to be generated for each of the configuration items linked to the change requestor Service Request tables using the Related To field at the top of the Task Template record.
Whenever a Task Template is used to generate a Task, a conversion is done from the Task Template table to the Task table, mapping important information in the Task Template to the Task record that is generated. This Task record is linked to the Contract, Service Request, Project, or other process table that triggered it, as well as being linked back to the source task template.
Templates can be made inactive when they should no longer be used, and that will prevent them from being generated as tasks. When the Status is changed to Inactive, an edit rule called 'Edit: Other edit actions - unlink inactive task template, handle cloned templates' will blank out any link to a task workflow, project type, or service, so that it will no longer appear as available in those services or new projects.
Template Details Tab
All of the interactive fields that users can fill out are on the Template Details tab:
- The Task Title field should not contain commas, as this prevents errors when running the task automation rules. A rule prevents task titles from having commas in them, and if a comma is stripped out, provides a popup message alerting the creator that it has been stripped.
- The Related To field links Task templates
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- to Service Requests, Change Requests,
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The Task Usage may be Default or Conditional. If conditional, then a saved search condition based on metadata in the record where the task is generated should be defined. When the task is assigned, the condition is checked to see if it is met and the task's status is changed accordingly. If the condition is met, it is set to Assigned, otherwise it is set to Not Needed. Tasks can also be auto-completed by setting the Auto-Complete? field to Yes.
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- or Projects.
- The Task Type field is used to define how the task is used. The selected option can be used in filters, but there is no logic behind any options other than Notification. When Notification is selected, additional fields appear that allow the user to define the Email Subject and Body for notification. Notifications are also set to auto-complete.
- The Task Generation Type field defines how the task is generated. The options here may be restricted based on the value in the Related To field, as well as where the Task Template was originally generated. The Task Generation Type is set to Predefined Workflow when the Task Template record was created from a workflow. The option User Selected Tasks indicates that the task is available as a choice in a multivalue field on the Contract record. The user should define the Contract Type where this task will be available in the User Selectable for Contract Types field. The Contract Type Task Generation Method should also be set to User Selected Tasks.
- Task Usage may be Default, Conditional, or Optional. Both Default and Conditional tasks are created with a Queued status when tasks are launched. Default tasks are set to Assigned immediately when the Assignment Trigger is met. Conditional tasks are evaluated when the Assignment Trigger is met. If the condition is false, then the conditional task is set to Not Needed. For Conditional Tasks, the condition should be defined using the variables from the Tasks table since the evaluation takes place there. Optional is the default when the Task Generation Type is set to User Selected Tasks.
- The Number of Working Hours to Due Date field is used to set the task's Date Due once
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- the status is marked Assigned, by adding the defined number of working hours (for the assigned team) to the current time
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- .
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- The Assign Task Based On field
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- allows you to define a task template whose resulting task
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- is assigned to
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- the person defined in the
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- main record. The default of Assigned Team / Person lets you
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- add the assigned team or person in the task template. A different value allows you to choose a variable that has been
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- pre-configured in the Replacement Variables table. For instance, for
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- a task related to
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- a Change Request you will see
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- these options:
- The choices in the Assign
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- To field are set, edited, and created in the Replacement Variables table
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- .
Note that if you set a task to be assigned in this way, but there is no value in the selected field – for , then the task will not be properly assigned. For instance, there is no submitter manager defined in the service request – then the task will not be properly assignedService Request record. As a backup, such tasks are assigned to the 1st level 1st Level Support Team.
Setting up Prerequisites
You can add and remove prerequisite tasks from a task template record. To add a prerequisite task...
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Assignment Trigger
This section allows you to define the Assignment Trigger, which is used to set the status from Queued to Assigned. The options for this field are:
- Date: Choose from a fixed date or a relative date based on the contract. Choosing a fixed date may require the task template to be updated in the future.
- Status: When the contract changes to the selected status, the associated task created from the current Template is set to Assigned.
- Creation / No Open Prerequisites: The task is set to assigned as soon as it is created, provided the Task Usage is Default, Optional and selected, or Conditional and the condition is met.
Prerequisite Tasks
If the Task Template is associated with a workflow where Enable Prerequisite Tasks is set to Yes, and the Assignment Trigger is set to Creation / No Open Prerequisites, the Prerequisite Tasks section appears.
- The Choose a Task to Add field
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- is used to select a task for the same workflow to be a prerequisite task to this one.
- The
To remove a prerequisite task...
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- Prerequisite Task to Remove field
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- is used to remove a task that was previously defined as a prerequisite.
These fields are used in conjunction with the action buttons to their right. Note that prerequisite task setup is only visible and enabled if the task template is linked to a Task Workflow and if the linked field Workflow Enable Task Prerequisites is 'Yes.= Yes. Otherwise, these fields are not be visible.
Task Steps
At the bottom of the tab is the option to set up a task checklist. Checklist items appear as a set of checkboxes in Task records created from this template. If Yes is selected, then you can add individual steps and define the order of the task checklist items with the Task Step Numberthe checkboxes should use.
To add steps, first check the Create New Checklist Item? boxcheckbox, then fill out a name and the step number. Click the Step Name and Step Number, then click Create Task Step button to create a record in the Task Steps table.Creating a task checklist can . This is a handy way to provide a list of troubleshooting steps or a list of things to be done within a single task.
Related Information Tab
The Related Information tab shows other records that contain This tab may show the record that contains this task template. If the template is part of a task workflow, the workflow is listed in the Task Workflow Title fieldwill be listed. If it is linked to a particular service as a "User Selected Task", " then the linked service name will be displayed in the Related Service field.
Use Case
Task Templates are related to either the Project, Change Request, or Service Request tables using the 'Related to' field at the top of the form. Whenever a Task Template is used to generate a Task, a conversion is done from the Task Template table to the Task table, mapping important information in the task template to the task record that is generated. This task record is linked to the service request, project, or other table that generated it, as well as being linked back to the source task template.
Templates can be made inactive when they should no longer be used, and that will prevent them from being generated as tasks. When the status is changed to Inactive, an edit rule will delete any link to a task workflow, project type, or service, so the task template will no longer appear as available in those services or new projects.
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linked in:
Automation
The automation on the Task Template table includes rules to strip out any commas from the task title, a rule to update the sequence of task templates in relation to other templates for the same workflow, and a rule to unlink inactive task templates.
In addition, the system tracks the
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Using Tasks Just to Notify
You can use a task template simply to provide a notification at a particular point in the process, rather than to create a task that requires action to be completed. This is done by setting the Auto-Complete? field to Yes in the template record.
When the task is created from this template, it is marked Completed automatically at the appropriate point in the task workflow. For instance, if there are preceding or prerequisite tasks, the auto-complete task is not marked Completed until it is ready for assignment.
Automation and Workflow
The automation on the Task Template table is almost all designed to handle the conversion into tasks when triggered from elsewhere, rather than to manage a process within the Task Template itself. In general, there are "flag" fields in the task template that get set to Yes to trigger conversion for each of the different main record types, and linked fields to the source records so that the new tasks that are triggered can be linked to the correct service request, project, or change request. In addition, we keep track of all service requests and projects for which a task template based on user selection has been generated so that if a user tries to generate users are prevented from generating the same task for the same parent record, the system prevents it. Since change request tasks must be generated multiple times, one for each CIasset, we do not cannot block this in the same way.
Cloning Task Templates Along with a Task Workflow
Task workflows may be cloned and then modified, and when a task workflow is cloned, its task templates and any task steps are also cloned and linked to the new workflow.
Cloning reproduces all the elements of the original task template except any task steps. If task steps were involved in the task template, they will need to be recreated in the cloned template.