Task lifecycle

As a case agent, when you add tasks to a case, they go through multiple statuses from Staged to Closed throughout their lifecycle. You can change the status of a task to reflect its progress. By default, a task is in the Staged status when it is queued for execution.

Based on the task type, the default lifecycles of tasks also differ. If a case business analyst modifies the default lifecycle of tasks, then tasks follow the modified lifecycles. For more information, see Modifying the lifecycle of cases, tasks, and knowledge articles.

To change the status of a task after it is created, you must have access to the task. For more information about permissions to access tasks, see Data access model.

Default lifecycle of a manual task

Tasks go through different statuses in their lifecycle. A case business analyst can change the default lifecycle of tasks. The case business analyst can also change the lifecycle by defining status changes according to the actions taken on the tasks.

When you change the status of a task, notifications are sent to the assignee of the task and the parent case. For more information about notifications, see Creating custom notifications.

The following workflow shows the default lifecycle of a manual task:

Status transition for tasks

The following table shows how the the task status changes based on the actions:

StatusActionStatus changes to
StagedCase agent cancels the task.Canceled
Assigned

Case agent starts working on the task.In Progress
Assignee needs a response from the requester or contact in case of queries.Pending
Case agent completes the task.Completed
Case agent cancels the task.Canceled
Task is completed and no further action is required.Closed
In Progress

Case agent assigns the task to another user.Assigned
Case agent completes the task.Completed
Task is not completed.Failed
Case agent cancels the task.Canceled
Task is completed and no further action is required.Closed
PendingInformation is received for a pending task. Case agent starts working on the task.In Progress
Approver rejects the task.Approval Rejected
Case agent assigns the task to a user.Assigned
Case agent completes the task.Completed
Case agent cancels the task.Canceled
Task is completed and no further action is required.Closed
Approval Rejected

Case agent starts working on the task again to rectify the problem and resend it for approval.

In Progress
Case agent makes appropriate changes and assigns the task to a user.

Assigned

Case agent cancels the task.Canceled
FailedCase agent reassigns the task to another user.Assigned
Case agent completes the task.Completed
CompletedCase agent cancels the task.Canceled
Task is completed and no further action is required.Closed

Lifecycle of an automated task

Automated tasks can be completed successfully or fail. If an automated task fails, you can either rerun the failed task, or manually change its status to Completed, if required. For more information, see Updating tasks and tracking progress

The following figure illustrates the lifecycle of an automated task:

Case business analysts can configure approvals for automated tasks before an automated task starts or after it is completed. Learn more about it in Approvals for automated tasks.

Lifecycle of an external task

Tasks that can be associated with an external application or service are external tasks. The lifecycle of external tasks is the same as that of manual tasks. You can integrate the tasks in your application with an external application. For the integration with an external application or a system, the case agents select task type as external.

For more information about integration of third-party application with your application, see Integrating BMC Helix Business Workflows with other applications.

Task status and associated status reasons

Out-of-the-box, a task status has associated status reasons. A status reason determines why a task is set to a status. 

The following table lists the task statuses and associated status reasons for manual and automated tasks:

Task typeTask statusStatus reason

Manual

Completed




Successful

Failed

Workaround applied

Execution Skipped

Automated Task

Failed

Error

Incomplete Task

Completed




Successful

Failed

Workaround applied

Execution Skipped

Where to go from here

Updating tasks and tracking progress

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