Adding tasks to tickets in Smart IT

A task is a unit of work that needs to be completed as a step in resolving a ticket. If the solution to a ticket involves more than one action, procedure, or process, consider dividing the solution into separate tasks. Dividing the solution into separate tasks can help you to better manage and monitor the ticket as it moves toward resolution. Smart IT allows you to add tasks to incidents, work orders, change requests, problem investigations, known errors, and activity tickets.

For the Progressive Web App screens, the process of adding tasks remains the same as Smart IT except for a few changes, as described in this topic.

BMC Change Management provides the Task Phase Management feature that allows implementation of phase-related task completion. For more details about task phase management, see Task Phase Management in the Change Management online documentation.

While adding tasks to problem investigations and known errors, you must consider the following points:

• You can add tasks by using the From Scratch option. The option to add tasks by using templates is not available.
• The sequencing and activation process does not apply to a task from problem investigations and known errors.

To add a task to a ticket, you can:

• Use a task template, which includes predefined tasks that you can quickly add to an incident request. When using task templates, you can also add tasks that are divided into subtasks.
• Add an ad hoc task, which is added manually without a template.

A task that has subtasks is called a task group. Subtasks in a task group are called children of the task group. To view the task group, select the arrow (>) next to the task.

Although tasks and task groups are related to specific tickets, information about the tasks and task groups is stored on a separate Task form. You can relate an unlimited number of tasks or task groups to a ticket.

• You must have the User or Master permissions for the parent ticket type to add a task to it or modify an existing task.
  For example, to add a task to an incident, you must be an Incident User or Incident Master.
• You must also belong to the support group assigned to that ticket.

Task user and Task manager permissions are included with other BMC Helix ITSM permissions, such as Infrastructure Change User.

On the tasks section on the ticket, users can perform the following actions from the Actions menu:

• Filter tasks—Displayed if task phasing is enabled; allows you to select the phases for which tasks must be displayed.
• Add Blank Task—Add a new task.
• Add Task from Template—Add a task by using a task template.
• Reorder Tasks—Reorder the tasks listed in the tasks section.

You add tasks directly from the ticket.

1. Open the ticket to which you need to add the task.
2. On the Tasks tab, select Add Task.
3. Select one of the following choices. 
   • From scratch—Select this option to add a task from scratch, or to add an ad hoc task. For an ad hoc task, provide a task title and description.

   • From template—Select this option to add a task from a single task template or task group template. Problem investigations and known errors do not support the use of templates.
     If you are adding tasks from a template in the Progressive Web App work order and incident screens, you can add multiple tasks to an incident or a work order ticket. If you add multiple tasks to a ticket, these tasks are assigned the same sequence number.
     

     Select task template (Smart IT screen)	Select task template (Progressive Web App screen)

4. (Optional) If you are using a template, you can search for a template by typing part of the name in the search field or filter the list of templates by using the following criteria:
   

   Type	Activity type
   Single Tasks	Manual—An action (for example, replacing a cable) is performed by a person Automatic—A predefined instruction is automatically executed by the task
   Task Groups	Standard—A flow mechanism establishes how the tasks relate to each other Sequencing—Sequencing strictly specifies the order of tasks

   In the Progressive Web App screens, the tasks in a task group are displayed as a nested table in the Select task template pane. After you add a task group to a ticket in the PWA screens, the child tasks are not displayed under the task group. You must expand the task group to view the child tasks.
   
   

   Task groups (Smart IT screen)	Task groups (Progressive Web App screen)

5. From the template tasks, from the search results, select the task that you want to add.

6. Save the task.
7. After you add a task, update the task details.
   For example, schedule a start and stop time, add attachments, or select an assignee. If the ticket is auto-assigned, the task uses the assignment rules of your organization. You can also add attachments to the tasks.

When using Smart IT on mobile devices, you can attach files from the following locations:

• Files stored on the local devices
• Files stored on cloud storage such as, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.

You can use the following options to add attachments when you create or edit change requests, and when you add a comment:

• (iOS devices) Add Attachment
• (Android devices) From files and Dropbox options

You can assign tasks to the same person, to several people, or to a support group. The person or support group to whom the task is assigned is the task implementer. After a task or task group is assigned to a task implementer, the task implementer receives notifications to perform each of the assigned tasks. Task implementers can log their progress as they complete each task.

When you add or edit a task, you can quickly assign it to yourself by using the Assign to me link. You will see the Assign to me link only if you belong to the same support group to which the task is assigned.

• If you are part of only one support group, after you click the Assign to me link, the task is assigned to you without opening the Update Assignment pane.
• If you are part of multiple support groups, when you click the Assign to me link, the Update Assignment pane is displayed on the task profile. The system searches for support groups to which you belong across all support companies, support organizations, and support groups. You must select one of the search results and save the selection. For more information, see Overview of information displayed on a ticket in Smart IT.

When a task is assigned to you, it appears in the Ticket Console as separate ticket. When you open the task, it has a link back to the parent ticket, which you can open to see the full context of the task.

If there is a change in the priority of planned tasks, you can change the task sequence as required. Smart IT provides the capability to change task sequences of Staged tasks by dragging them from within the task list or by manually updating their sequence number. Smart IT allows you drag and move tasks in the Tasks section of the ticket. For Progressive Web App screens, you can change the task sequence only by manually updating their sequence number. Task sequencing is available for incident, work order, change requests, and activity (from release) tickets. Task sequence is not supported for Problem or Known Error records.

When reordering tasks, consider the following:A logged in user who can add tasks can also change the sequence.

• Only Staged tasks can be reordered.
  
• A task that is a part of a task group cannot be moved outside the parent task group. However, the entire task group can be moved as a single unit.
• A task cannot be moved above a task or task group that is closed or bypassed. 
• Child tasks with the Standard task group cannot be moved. Only child tasks with the Sequencing task group can be moved internally.
  
• Nested tasks are read-only and cannot be reordered. 
• Nested task groups can be reordered, but tasks within nested task groups cannot be reordered.
• For change management tasks, when task phasing is enabled, you cannot drag a task from its existing phase to another phase. The same rule applies to task groups.

Moving a staged task above an active task or task group, changes the sequence number of the staged task to the same as that of the active task and updates the status to Pending.
For example, you drag a staged task above an active task with a sequence of 3, the status of the staged task is changed to Pending and its sequence is updated to 3.

When you move a task group above an active task or task group, the status of the first task in the task group is changed to Pending, and the sequence of the task group is changed to the same sequence as the active task or task group.

You can reorder tasks by using two methods:

• Drag a task to the new location.

• Enter a sequence number in the input box displayed.
  

The drag-and-drop functionality allows you to drag the existing task and move it to the desired sequence in the task list. The sequence of all tasks is updated when you move the task. However, entering a number in the input box will only move that task to the logical location in the sequence. If your task sequence follows a progression, for example 10, 20, 30...n, tasks are renumbered in a regular numerical sequence, starting with 1. Do not use the drag and drop functionality to reorder tasks if the numbering follows a progression. 

The sequence input box allows you to manually update a task sequence by entering the new sequence number for a task. The task is moved to the logical place in the task sequence and the sequence numbers of other tasks are not changed. Use this method to reorder tasks if the numbering follows a progression because using the drag and drop functionality updates the sequence number to a regular numerical sequence of 1, 2, 3...n.

1. From the Actions menu, select Reorder tasks.
   A sequence number input box is displayed for each task. 

2. Click or tap the drag-and-drop icon and move the task to the desired place in the task list.
   When you drag a task to a new position in the task list, the sequence of all tasks is automatically updated.
   To run two tasks in parallel, manually enter the sequence number for the tasks in the input box provided.
   The Save and Revert options are enabled when you move any task.
   
   

   Important

   Reordering can move a staged task to an active state, for example, to the Assigned state. As long as you are in the Edit mode, you can continue to reorder this task. After you save your changes, you cannot reorder these tasks as they are now active.

3. Click or tap Save after you have completed reordering your task list.

In change requests, you can add tasks and specify the phase in which you want to run them. To do so, the administrator must enable Task Phase Management in BMC Helix ITSM.

Consider the following example:

On the TMS:ConfigPhaseManagement form, the administrator has configured the following phases for tasks that are added from change requests.

If the sort order is not configured according to the status flow, the phase management does not work correctly in Smart IT. When configuring sort order, ensure that the status flow is in ascending order:

On the Change Configuration Rules form, select a company and specify the following options:

• Enable Task Phase Management—Yes
• Enforce Task Closure at Each Phase—No

As a service desk agent, create a change request in Smart IT or by using the Progressive Web App screens. The change request is created in the Draft status. From the change request, add a task from scratch or by using a task template. On the task profile, you can specify the task phase from the Phase list. Based on the phases specified on the TMS:ConfigPhaseManagement form, you can select one of the four phases—Review, Planning, Implementation, and Completed. The task is added for the specified phase of the change request. Similarly, you can add tasks for each phase.

When Task Phase Management is enabled, on the Tasks tab of the change request, you can select an option from the Phase list to filter tasks for a particular phase. The default filter is based on the current active phase.

On the Change Configuration Rules form, if the Enforce Task Closure at Each Phase option is set to Yes, then the system functions as follows:

• If tasks are pending in the current phase, you cannot move the change request to the next phase.
• When the change request is moved to the Completed phase, you can add tasks only for the Completed phase.

For more information, see Knowledge Article number 000299583 (Support logon ID required).