Creating and modifying tasks

To modify a task

1. Select a change record and under Details and Tasks, click Show 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-items-to-the-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.

To relate an ad hoc task to a change request

You can relate an ad hoc task to the change request. The status of these tasks can be Staged, Assigned, Pending, Work in Progress, or Closed. You can manually set the assignment for any task. Finally, if you close the task, you must select whether you are canceling the task or completing it as a success or failure.

When you relate an ad hoc task to a change request, the following information from the change request gets populated in the task.

• Summary
• Change location
• Requester
• Requested by

1. Open the change request, and then click the Tasks tab.
2. In the Request Type field, select Ad hoc, and then click Relate.
   The Task form is displayed with certain fields in the form completed with the data from the change request. You can click the Open link next to the Request ID field to open the parent change request.
3. Enter the values in the following required fields:
   • Name—Enter a descriptive name of the task.
   • Summary—Enter a brief description of the task.
     The Type field is set by default to Manual when you create an ad hoc task.
4. In the General tab, enter information about the company.
   The default value for the Company field matches the contents of the Change Location field in the Change form. Your task can be assigned to a different department or company.

5. On the Requester tab, enter the information about the user who is defining the task (Requester) and the intended target of the task (Requested For).

   Important

   If you update the Requested For information after creating a task for the change request, the information is not updated in the task.

   However, any new tasks after the update, include the updated Requested For information.

   Some information is completed by default from the Requested By information of the change request. For example, the Requester Company field is automatically populated based on the default support group of the user who is creating the ad hoc task.

6. In the Categorization tab, enter the information about the product and operational categorizations.
7. In the Assignment/Dates tab, enter values in the following fields to assign the task:
   • Assignee Group—Optionally, select a task implementer group from the list.

   • Assignee—Optionally, select a task implementer from the list.
     The assignment engine automatically assigns the task when the task is generated, but you can override this assignment by manually assigning the task.

     Important

     When a task is assigned to a user, the task is staged, but the notification is not sent to the assignee until the task is activated.

     For more information about assignment configuration, see Configuring-task-assignments.

   • Scheduled Start Date—Optionally, enter an estimated start date.
   • Scheduled End Date—Optionally, enter an estimated end date.
     Set the Start Date and End Date to be different from the dates of the parent change request.
8. In the Relationships tab, search for and then relate configuration items, LDAP objects, and software library items that are needed with this task.
   Additionally, you can execute any quick actions like Update Attributes, Explore CI, or get Related Relationships for the task.
9. Click Save.
10. To notify the assignee, reopen the task and in the Assignment tab, select the appropriate option from the Notify Assignee field.

To automatically create tasks by relating a task template to a change request

You can relate a predefined task or task group template to the change request. The Calbro Services sample data includes a best practice task group and task templates that you can use.

In addition, special templates were created for the integration with BMC Configuration Automation for Clients (previously known as BMC Configuration Management). Other templates might have been added by your application administrator.

1. Open the change request.
2. Click the Tasks tab.
3. Select Task Group Template or Task Template from the Request Type field, and then click Relate.
   All template types for all categories are listed in the Select Template dialog box.
4. From the hierarchical list of tasks in the Select Template dialog box, select the appropriate template for the task that you are adding, and then click Relate.

1. • To expand a category in the hierarchy, click the arrow beside the category name. 
   • The list of templates that you see in the Select Template dialog box represents all of the templates that are associated with the category that you selected earlier. For example, if you select Change Management System (the default top-level category for Change Management), the system displays all of the Change Management task templates in the list. If you highlight a second-level category, the list in the dialog box displays all of the templates available under that level.
2. (Optional) You can filter the list by selecting the type or category of the template. You can also select both these options. To filter the list:
   1. Select the type of template:
      • With task group templates, select Standard or Sequencing.
      • With task templates, select Manual, Automatic, or ALL.
   2. (Optional) From the Category list, select which application the task belongs to, for example, Change Management System.
      The available task groups or tasks for that selection appear in the list. The categorization of the change request determines which list items appear.
3. (Optional) Click View to see more details about the task group or task template.
4. If a relevant task set is displayed on the list to include with the change request, select it, and then click Relate.
5. Define a numerical sequence of the tasks.
6. When you finish adding the templates, save the change request.

To enable all the task templates for change-initiated job

You can select a task template specific to change-initiated job use case.

In the Select Template dialog box, you must enable the following criteria: 

• Type as Automatic
• Automatic Command as Scheduled Job

To automatically create tasks to check whether a change has been approved

Create an automatic task that polls a specified field on a specified form (the TMS:SampleApprovalForm is provided out-of-the-box) to see whether an approval has been obtained. If the field on the form is not NULL, an approval has been obtained. The automatic task that is created is closed after the approval is obtained (Status = Closed and Status Reason = Success).

After the automatic task is instantiated and becomes active, an initial check is done to see whether approval has been obtained. Approval checking is done through filters that set zTmpExecuteTask to CHECKAPPROVAL on the Task form. At the same time, the AutomaticIntervalTime is also set based on the Automatic Interval and Unit fields from the Task Template form.

If an approval is obtained, the task is closed, and the AutomaticIntervalTime is set to NULL.

If an approval is not obtained, a TMS:TAS:GetDataInterval escalation is sent every fifteen minutes to check whether the AutomaticIntervalTime is greater than (or equal to) the current time. If it is, the escalation sets zTmpExecuteTask = CHECKAPPROVAL on the Task form, which starts the approval checking process. This process is repeated until the approval is obtained or the task times out. The timeout values must be set on the Task Template form for the timeout to occur.

The example used in the following procedure is provided out-of-the-box for Change Management:

1. Create a change request.
2. Click the Tasks tab.
3. Select the Task Template request type, and then click Relate.
4. Relate the Check Approval automatically task template to the change request.
5. Use the Process Flow Status bar to move the change request to the Implementation In Progress status. 
   The status of the task is set to Waiting.
6. Open the Sample Task Approval form and search for the sample approval record.
7. Update the record (for example, In the Approved By field, enter your name).
8. Wait at least 15 minutes until the TMS:TAS:GetDataInterval escalation fires. 
   This escalation checks the Automatic interval.
9. Refresh the change request until the status of the task is set to Closed.

To assign a task

1. On the Tasks tab of the Change form, select a parent task or child task that is related to the change request, and then click View.
2. On the Assignment tab, select the group or person to work on the task, and then click Save. 
   The implementer for that task is notified of the task assignment.

To assign all tasks in a change request

1. Open the change request in the Change form.
2. Set the Status field to Scheduled. 
   The change request is set to Scheduled and the status of the first task is set to Assigned.

To reassign a task

1. To view a list of tasks, click Show Tasks under Details and Tasks.
2. In the Assigned Tasks table on the Change Management console, select the task to reassign, and then click View.
3. On the Assignment tab, select the group or person to whom you want to assign the task in the Assignee Group or Assignee field.
4. Ensure that the Notify Assignee field is set to Yes, and then click Save. 
   Until the new implementer accepts the task assignment, you are assigned to the task and have responsibility for it.

To track the time you spend on a task

You can track the time and efforts spent for tasks by using the Dates tab.

The following fields are displayed on the Dates tab:

You can track the time that you spend for tasks. For example, you are assigned to multiple tasks and want to track the time that you spend on each task to know on which task you spend the most time. 

1. Open the task.
2. Click the Assignment tab on the Task form.
3. To automatically track the time spent working on tasks, use the Start Clock and Stop Clock options.
   1. When you start the task, click Start Time, and then click Save.
   2. When you finish working on the task, click Stop Clock, and then click Save.
      You can use the start and stop clock buttons as many times as required. Each successive time, the new time is added to the value in the Total Time Spent field. The time is automatically calculated, based on when you click the buttons.
4. To manually track the time spent working on tasks, enter the number of hours or minutes in the Time Spent field, and then click Save.
   The time that you enter is added to the value in the Total Time Hours and Minutes fields.
5. To add the tracking information to the log:
   1. After you save the information for tracking the time spent on the tasks, click the Assignment tab on the Task form.
   2. Click Effort Log.
   3. Enter information in the effort log, and then click Add to Effort Log.