Task Management

In BMC Helix Business Workflows, as an agent you can create and manage tasks to resolve cases. Tasks are child records of cases that enable you to split the cases into individual assignments so that you can focus on one assignment at a time and achieve the required results efficiently.

Tasks provide the following benefits:

• Transparency—Each task is an assignment on which an agent needs to work. Therefore, agents are clear about the tasks they need to perform. In this way, the tasks to resolve a case are explicit and cannot be missed.
• Systematic execution—Tasks are performed in a sequence, which enables systematic and logical execution.
• Reduced manual intervention—Automated tasks result in reduced manual intervention by agents.
• Extended case knowledge—Different agents work on different tasks, which results in shared and extended knowledge among agents.
• Efficient case execution—Cases are divided into multiple assignments on which agents work and provide resolutions. When these individual resolutions are combined, they provide a single and efficient resolution for the case.

Task management

To ensure effective management of tasks in a case, the following task management capabilities are provided:

• Template—Provides consistent structure, formatting, and predefined information for tasks.
  For more information, see Creating case templates and task templates.
• Lifecycle—Reflects at which stage a task is during its execution. For more information, see Task lifecycle.
  Case business analysts can also modify the default task lifecycle to suit their business requirements. For more information, see Modifying the lifecycle of cases, tasks, and knowledge articles.
• Activity feed—Displays different activities that agents perform on tasks.
  For more information, see Associating cases, knowledge articles, and related users to cases.
• Sequence—Enables logical execution of tasks in a case.
  For more information, see Task flow.
• Automation—Enables automatic task execution and eliminates the need for manually executing tasks.
  For more information, see Task automation.
• Attachment storage and retrieval—Enables the case agents to add attachments to a task.
  For more information, see Updating tasks and tracking progress.

• SLA progress bar—Enables case agents to view when a task is due for resolution.
  For more information about SLAs, see Service Level Management.

Task types

Tasks are categorized into the following types:

• Manual tasks—Tasks that agents need to work on and manage. These tasks guide agents to resolve a case in a particular order. An agent can create manual tasks by using task templates or by entering the task information on the task create screen, when required.
  For more information about creating manual tasks, see Associating cases, knowledge articles, and related users to cases.
• Automated tasks—Tasks that are executed without any manual intervention by agents. Agents only need to perform follow up actions if this type of task fails. These tasks can be routine tasks that agents can automate and then focus on more critical tasks. An agent can create automated tasks only by using the predefined task information from the task templates.
• External tasks—Tasks in BMC Helix Business Workflows which can be associated with an external application or service. In an external application, when someone creates or updates an action similar to creating or updating a task, a task gets created or updated in BMC Helix Business Workflows. This task in BMC Helix Business Workflows has task type as external. External tasks function similar to manual tasks. 
  For more information about integrating third-party application with your application, see Integrating BMC Helix Business Workflows with other applications.

Task creation

As a case agent, when you create a case by using a case template, tasks defined in the template are added to the case. When working on a case, you can add tasks to a case in the following ways:

• Create adhoc tasks—Create tasks by entering the task information. You cannot create automated tasks by using this option. 
• Create tasks by using task templates—Create tasks by using predefined information and edit them as required. 

The following table lists the topics that provide more information about different concepts that are related to tasks: