Case lifecycle
Cases that are created in BMC Helix Business Workflows go through multiple statuses throughout their lifecycle. As an agent, when you create a case, you change the case status to reflect its progress until it is closed.
By default, the status of a case is New, when you do not use a case template. To move the case to any other status after it is created such as, Assigned, In Progress, Pending, Approval Rejected, Resolved, Canceled, and Closed, you must have the required permission.
If a case business analyst modifies the default lifecycle of cases, then cases move through that lifecycle. For more information, see Modifying-the-lifecycle-of-cases-tasks-and-knowledge-articles. Also, BMC Helix Business Workflows enables the case business analyst to define processes for status transitions related to a particular line of business. The case business analyst can define a process that is run when a case is set to a custom status. For more information, see BMC-Helix-Business-Workflows-for-a-line-of-business and Defining Flowsets for a line of business.
Case status transition
When you change the status of a case, the following events take place:
- The service target associated with the case gets triggered. For more information about service targets, see Configuring-service-targets-for-tracking-case-progress.
- The assignee of the case is notified about the status change. For more information about notifications, see Creating-custom-notifications.
For more information about the status transition, see Changing-case-statuses.
The following workflow shows the case status transition:
A case can also contain tasks as its child records. Agents add tasks to a case to split it into actions and focus on one action at a time. The tasks in cases also go through multiple statuses similar to cases.
When the case is in the following statuses, you can run tasks in it:
- Case is in In Progress.
- Case is in In Progress and then in Pending.
When a case is canceled, the tasks in it are also canceled.
Case status for associated actions
If you need to perform an action to proceed with a user issue, you can change the case status to support that action. For example, when you require additional information from the requester of the case, you change the case status to Pending, and update the status reason to Customer Response.
The following table lists the required status change based on actions you can perform on a case:
From status | Action | Change to status |
|---|---|---|
New | Case agent assigns the case to another agent. | Assigned |
The case is pending for one of the following reasons:
| Pending | |
Case assignee starts working on the case. | In Progress | |
Case agent cancels the invalid case. Canceled cases are searchable in the workspace, but can be incomplete. | Canceled | |
Assigned | Case agent starts working on a case. | In Progress |
The case is pending for one of the following reasons:
| Pending | |
Case agent resolves the case. | Resolved | |
Case agent cancels the invalid case. Canceled cases are searchable in the workspace, but can be incomplete. | Canceled | |
In Progress | The case is pending for one of the following reasons:
| Pending |
Case agent resolves the case. | Resolved | |
Case agent cancels the invalid case. Canceled cases are searchable in the workspace, but can be incomplete. | Canceled | |
Pending | Case agent assigns the case to a user for further action. | Assigned |
Case assignee receives the required information and starts working on the case. | In Progress | |
Case agent resolves the case. | Resolved | |
Approver rejects the case. | Approval Rejected | |
Case agent cancels an invalid case. Canceled cases are searchable in the workspace, but can be incomplete. | Canceled | |
Approval Rejected | Case agent restarts the case. | New |
Case agent reassigns the case to another agent. | Assigned. | |
Case assignee starts working on the case again. | In Progress. | |
Case agent cancels the invalid case, because approval is rejected. Canceled cases are searchable in the workspace, but can be incomplete. | Canceled | |
Resolved | Case agent reassigns the case to another user. | Assigned |
Case assignee starts working on the case. | In Progress | |
The case is pending for one of the following reasons:
| Pending | |
No further action is required on the case, and the case agent closes the case. Closed cases are searchable in the workspace. This is the end-of-life of a case lifecycle. | Closed |
Video
The following video (3:04) shows how to quickly create a case and move the case through its complete lifecycle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2KUD0fjxkDg