Activity overview
The Change Management and the Release Management module provides the capability of creating and assigning specific units of work called activities. Activities have their own lifecycle, with a series of status transitions, for example, Draft and Assigned. You can also establish a sequence of tasks in your activities. Activities are useful when you need to create a structured sequence of tasks that you must complete to fulfill the release, but these tasks should not be classified as a change request. For example, if you must release a new version of the Calbro marketing application, one of the work items that must be completed in the release cycle is training users on the new marketing application. Because training is not a change request that the Change Management team would complete, you decide instead that the training should be an activity that is assigned, tracked, and completed by using the Activity form.
Activity statuses
An activity can go through the following statuses:
Status | Description |
|---|---|
Draft | When an activity is created, it is in the Draft status. |
Assigned | When the activity is assigned, it moves to the Assigned status. |
Pending | If the activity is not assigned, it moves to the Pending status. It can be moved to the Pending status for any reason, such as pending for information. |
In Progress | When work on the activity is started, the activity status moved to In Progress. |
Completed | When work on the activity is completed, change the activity status to Completed. The actual start dates and actual end dates must be entered before the status is changed to Completed. Important: An activity with a status of Completed can be reopened by changing the status to Pending. |
Cancelled | If for some reason the activity is abandoned, change the activity status to Cancelled. |
Closed | When the work on an activity is completed and you want to close the activity, change the activity status to Closed. After the activity status is set to Closed, the activity cannot be reopened. |
The following table describes the valid status transitions for an activity:
Draft | Assigned | Pending | In Progress | Completed | Cancelled | Closed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Draft | NA | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Assigned | No | NA | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Pending | Yes | Yes | NA | Yes | No | Yes | No |
In Progress | No | No | No | NA | Yes | Yes | No |
Completed | No | No | Yes | No | NA | No | Yes |
Cancelled | No | No | No | No | No | NA | Yes |
Closed | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
Tasks
You can define multiple tasks for each activity. The out-of-the-box settings define that tasks are activated in the sequence assigned to them. All tasks with sequence number 1 are activated when the activity record reaches the Assigned status. The status of the activity can be changed to Completed when all tasks defined for that activity are closed. You cannot complete an activity if all the tasks associated with that activity are not completed.
Task status transitions
After you begin working on a task, you must manually update the status of the task depending on the work done related to that activity. You have the option to define multiple tasks for an activity.
To define the order in which tasks or task groups should be executed, you can use sequence numbers. Multiple tasks can have the same sequence number. This sequencing mechanism saves time by eliminating the need to manually define the flow between tasks or task groups.
- When the parent activity is moved to the In Progress status, tasks are activated in the sequence assigned to them. For example, all tasks with sequence number 1 are activated first. When all the tasks with this sequence number are Closed, all tasks with the next sequence number are activated simultaneously.
- After a task is activated:
- If assignments are defined for that activity, the task moves to the Assigned state.
- If assignments are not defined, the task moves to the Pending state. After assignments are defined, it moves to the Assigned state.
- When you start working on a task, you need to change the task status to Work in Progress.
- If you require additional information, change the status to Pending. When the required information is provided, update the status to Work in Progress.
- If you choose not to perform a particular task, you can change the status to Bypassed. A task can move to Bypassed automatically depending on the sequence.
- After the task is completed, change the task status to Closed.
- If multiple tasks are defined for the activity, when you close all tasks with the same sequence number, all tasks with the next sequence number are activated. After all the tasks within an activity are completed, status of the activity is changed to Completed. When all the activities defined for a milestone are completed, the release record can be moved to the next milestone.