CA Service Management

  • 1.  Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 21, 2016 01:24 PM

    Our change categories are set up such that email notifications are sent to the assigned group of each workflow task when the status of the task changes to "pending". I noticed that if a task status has been changed to skip/complete, any preceding tasks that are in "wait" status will not receive a notification when the status changes to "pending".

     

    For example: A change order with 5 tasks is created. Task #1 is automatically set to pending and a notification for that group is sent. When Task #4 is completed before Task #2 or #3, the group assigned to Task #2 will not be notified when Task #1 completes and the status changes to "pending".

     

    Can someone confirm this? If this behavior is not correct, how do I fix this?



  • 2.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 21, 2016 02:50 PM

    Hi Marc, 

    This seems like it could possibly be a bug.  I would suggest that you open a support case so we can take a look at it with you and test the same scenario in-house to see if we get the same behavior, and then engage our engineering team if necessary.

    Thanks,

    Jon I.



  • 3.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 21, 2016 09:25 PM

    I'm a bit puzzled by your description - it seems as though you want tasks 1-3 to be sequential but task 4 to be able to be updated before tasks 1-3 are completed?  How have you configured your workflow and task status values?  Can you supply some screenshots?

    Regards,

    James



  • 4.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 22, 2016 10:43 AM

    camja06, The tasks are sequential (1-5), but sometimes some people want to complete their tasks before a notification comes to them. All tasks are configured with all task values. The task value, pending, is the only one configured for "Actions on True Macro List" = Task notification.

     

    Jon_Israel, I'll open a ticket today.



  • 5.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 22, 2016 01:05 PM

    In the scenario you describe I assume task #4 is in 'Wait' status before someone completes it out of order. Are you allowing your users to update tasks in 'Wait' status?



  • 6.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 22, 2016 02:29 PM

    Lindsay_Estabrooks, That's right. Task #4 is in "Wait" status. We are allowing users to update tasks because some tasks are not dependent on others.



  • 7.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks

    Posted Sep 22, 2016 02:53 PM

    If the tasks can be completed in any order then they are not sequential but parallel. Allowing users to complete tasks in 'Wait' status is not a good idea. 'Wait' is how you communicate to users that a task is not ready to be acted upon.

    Surround the tasks that can be completed in any order with a 'Group Start' and a 'Group End'. That way, all the tasks that can be completed in any order go to 'Pending' status at the same time.



  • 8.  Re: Classic Workflow Notification, skipped tasks
    Best Answer

    Posted Sep 22, 2016 02:47 PM

    Sorry guys, this one is due to human error. Misunderstanding on my part. I was expecting to get a notification on a task that was already completed. My excuse.. I didn't have coffee this morning