Managing tasks related to a request

In addition to accepting assigned tasks, you can modify, close, or cancel a task. Additionally, you can also add financial information to a task or send an email note from a task.

The task management subsystem enforces the dependencies between tasks. These dependencies relate to any Sequence order you might have specified in the Change form. For more information, see Creating-and-managing-relationships-between-change-requests.

When you include task group templates, task templates, or ad hoc tasks in a change request, they are automatically assigned a sequence number in the order in which you add them to the change request. More than one task can have the same sequence number. Tasks with the same sequence number are considered peers, which can be completed in any order among themselves.

Tasks must be completed sequentially. When the change request's status is set to Scheduled, the task with sequence number 1 is activated and its status is set to Assigned. When the last task is completed, the change request is closed.

To renumber a task group or task, use the arrow buttons next to the Tasks and Task Groups table on the Tasks tab of the change request. Tasks with lower sequence numbers, for example 1, must be completed before those with higher numbers, for example, 2, 3, or 4.

To modify a task

1. Select a change record and click Show Tasks under Details and Tasks.
2. From the Assigned Tasks table in the Change Management console, select a task, and then click View.
3. On the Task Management form, update the fields.
4. Click the Work Info tab.
5. Define a work info history entry for the task, and then click Save.

To close a task

1. Select a change record and click Show Tasks under Details and Tasks.
2. From the Assigned Tasks table in the Change Management console, select a task, and then click View.
3. Click the Assignment tab, and then update the time that you have spent on the task.
4. Click the Work Info tab, and then define an entry in the Work Info History field.
5. At the top of the Task form, set the Status to Closed. 
6. (Optional) Send an email notice to notify the task requester that the task is complete. Use this notification to ask the task requester to review and validate the work that you performed. 
7. Select a status reason to describe how the task was closed, and then click Save.

To cancel a task

1. In the Change form, open a change request.
2. Click the Tasks tab.
3. Select a task, and then click Cancel.
   The task status is set to Closed.

If the task has related configuration items (CIs), you can update any CI costs that are affected by this cancellation. For more information, see Relating-and-managing-configuration-items-and-impacted-services-for-a-change-request.

To add financial information to a task

1. Select a change record and click Show Tasks under Details and Tasks.
2. From the Assigned Tasks table in the Change Management console, select a task, and then click View.
3. Click the Financials tab, and then enter the budgeted estimated total time in hours.
4. When you finish the task, enter the actual total time.
5. Enter your calculation unit type; for example, flat rate.
6. Save the change request. 
   The information is calculated and rolled up into the change request. 
   When you are assigned a task, you can contribute financial information for the task. However, you can only calculate charges for the change inside the change request.

To automatically copy parent categorization information to the task

You can create a task by using an existing task template, or add an ad hoc task to a record. For work orders, change records, and incident records, the Summary and Priority information on the task is prepopulated with the values of the parent record.

Additionally, you can also copy the categorization information from the parent record.

1. Open the record and click the Tasks tab.
2. Add an ad hoc task to the record manually or by using an existing task template.
   The Summary and Priority information is automatically populated with the values defined in the parent record.
3. Add other task details on the Task form.
4. On the task form, click the Copy Parent Data option to copy the parent categorization information to the task.

The task categorization values are populated with the values from the parent record.

For additional information about adding tasks to a record, see the following topics in the application online documentation:

• BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk (for Incident Management)—Using tasks to manage work on an incident request.
• BMC Service Request Management (for Work Orders)—Managing the assigned tasks.