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Task Management System

Task Management System (TMS) is a tool that manages the workflow of tasks as they are implemented in an application. TMS provides support for simple and complex business processes as well as integration with automation tools needed for change management execution and verification. The primary goal of the Task Management System (TMS) module is to provide a mechanism to support repeatable processes. The result is improved productivity, reduction in novice errors, and a clear way to define business processes.

The TMS module significantly enhances the capability of the task operation. In addition to the predecessor and successor relationship, TMS supports branching and multiple paths, along with data exchange between tasks.

TMS is used in BMC Change Management, BMC Service Desk, and in the Activity subsystem. It integrates with the Change and Configuration Management (CCM) solution through the Command Automation Interface (CAI). 

In the BMC Change Management and BMC Service Desk applications, support staff can create tasks by using TMS directly. Additionally, administrators can create task templates and task group templates that can be used in change, release, and incident management. For problem management, problem analysts can create only ad-hoc tasks directly from TMS.

The following illustration shows the relationships between TMS and Change and Configuration Management.

TMS and Change and Configuration Management

Click the following figure to expand it.

TMS components

TMS consists of the following primary components:

  • Container objects — Manage all the related associations and flows of its children objects. During the definition stage, container objects are task group templates. During the runtime stage, container objects are task groups.
  • Task templates — Let you create predefined templates for individual work items that you can reuse
  • Task group templates — Let you create predefined templates for collections of individual task templates
  • Associations — Define what task templates or task group templates are related to or grouped together under the task group template
  • Sequencing mechanism — Lets you define associations and sequences with task group templates and task templates. This mechanism is used with basic task group templates. For more information about sequencing, see Sequencing mechanism.
  • Flow mechanism — Lets you qualify the dependencies between the associated task group templates and task templates. This mechanism is used with advanced task group templates. For more information about the flow mechanism, see Flow mechanism.
  • Variable templates — Provide the structure that is used to facilitate the passing of information from task group and tasks to flows. These templates are used to create a variable pool for data exchange.
  • Web services — The TMS_TaskInterface web service performs task queries, and updates operations, including relationships and work information.
  • Task viewer — Lets you easily see the sequence between tasks as task implementers work on their tasks. The task viewer provides visual context to understand tasks and their relationships to each other. It improves productivity and reduces errors because you now have a clearer understanding of the business process.
  • Task assignment — Configures assignments for tasks, based on company, and product and operational categorization.

Recommendation

BMC Configuration Management integration - Best practice templates are installed to integrate TMS and BMC Change Management with BMC Configuration Management. Many of these templates illustrate important task administration concepts.

TMS supports integration with external applications, primarily using the Command Automation Interface (CAI) module. TMS supports integration with the BMC Configuration Automation for Clients application through a launch mechanism.

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