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Tasks and the fields for generating them are also shown within Projects and Assets. Projects allow the same methods of task generation as service requests. Assets allow single tasks to be created and linked to the asset, and show all tasks that have been created from other records, such as change requests or service requests, that relate to that asset.

Layout

We'll begin with an overview of the important tabs, and some of their fields, of a Task record.

  • Task Details: Contains fields defining the nature of the task, such as Task Type, Task Summary, and the task Description. It also shows task Status, Assigned Team, Assigned Person, and the Date Due. The main task screen also includes an area for managing the related asset, if any. Tasks based on a template may be defined to have specific task steps, and if the task has such steps, they appear with checkboxes in the Working Notes section. There are no default rules enforcing that all checkboxes are checked before completing a task, but such a rule could be added. The user can add working notes at any time, and these will be added to the running history of all working notes: When working on an asset-related task, the technician can click one of the buttons shown above to update the Operational Status of the asset to reflect that it has been taken offline or brought back online.  
  • Related Tasks Tab: Shows the prerequisite tasks, if any, and allows the current task to be related to prerequisite tasks within in the same parent record. It also shows any dependent tasks, that is, tasks for which this task is a prerequisite. When a task has two prerequisites that are already defined, the Trigger Condition defines whether this task will be set to Assigned only when both prerequisites are done, or as soon as any of them are done. Additional tasks associated with the same Service Request can be added to the prerequisites by selecting the task and clicking the Add to Prerequisites button. Either of these two tasks could be removed by selecting it in the Remove Task from Prerequisites field and clicking the Remove from Prerequisites button. The default Status for a task is Queued when it is created. When tasks are launched, any task without a prerequisite is automatically set to Assigned (see below for more details).
  • Related Info Tab: Shows details about the record linked to the task, which will typically be either a Project, Service Request, or Change Request. It provides hyperlinks to get to the source request to see more information.

Use Case

Task records can be created by users in the Admin, Admin Import, Base ServiceDesk, Business Admin, Internal Customer, Marketing, Project Manager, Sales, and Service Managers groups. Although Tasks can be linked to one of several other tables, they are generally all created and processed in similar ways. When Task records are created, several automated actions occur. Task records are created:

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These fields can be used in reports to see the average amounts of time tasks of specific types are taking. They can also be compared against the Template Number of Hours to Due Date value, which sets the expected working hours that should be needed for the task.

Workflow

There is a simple workflow for tasks that currently executes no actions:

Automation

The following is a summary of the rules and validations that run when new tasks are created, either manually or from templates:

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