Manage an issue through a workflow

Your company’s business processes might require that you complete certain tasks at each stage of an issue. After completion, the tasks must be reviewed and approved before the assignees can proceed to the next stage. Reviewers can approve the tasks, or they can reject the tasks. They can also ask for more information or additional work to be done before approval.

Quality Issue Management provides workflows to ensure that the business processes are implemented correctly with the appropriate tasks and approvals at each stage. Workflows guide an issue through the different phases of the issue: authoring, review and approval, execution, and closure.

For more information about workflows, see Workflow Designer for Active Workspace.

Quality Issue Management provides the following workflows:

Workflow	Description
Quality Issue Process	Verifies that the issue is completed successfully through all the stages from creation to closure. When you complete a stage and receive approval, the next task or notification is automatically triggered to ensure that the issue moves to the next stage.
Quality Issue Reopen Request	Sends a notification to the assigned Issue Approvers to reopen a closed issue when the Issue Owner submits a closed issue to this workflow. If an Issue Approver approves the reopening, the workflow sends a notification to the issue creator that the issue is reopened for updates. Note If an Issue Approver submits a closed issue to this workflow, the workflow automatically reopens the issue for updates.

At each stage of the issue, the workflow updates the Closure, Disposition, and Maturity properties of the issue to indicate the progress. You cannot edit these properties. These properties are updated only by the workflow.

Stage	Closure	Maturity	Disposition
Create an issue.	Open	Initiated	None
Establish the team.	Open	Elaborating	None
Define the symptom defects.	Open	Reviewing	Investigate
Create the containment actions.	Open	Reviewing	Investigate
Close the issue.	Closed	Closed	Approved
Cancel the issue.	Cancelled	Rejected	Disapproved
Put the issue on hold.	Hold	Reviewing	Deferred

You can use the Quality Issue Process workflow as an end-to-end workflow to complete all the stages of an issue.

Procedure

1. As an issue creator, create an issue.

2. On the Team tab of the issue, assign an Issue Owner.

Example The creator assigns ed as the Issue Owner.

3. As an Issue Owner, open the issue and assign an Issue Approver.

Example The Issue Owner, ed, assigns alice as an Issue Approver.

4. Submit the issue to the Quality Issue Process workflow as follows:

Choose More Commands > Manage > Submit to Workflow.

In the Submit to Workflow panel, select Assigned to view the available Quality Issue Management workflows.

From the Template list, select Quality Issue Process.

Specify a Name or accept the default.

(Optional) Enter the Description.

Click Submit.

Example The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner, ed, to create the required symptom defects of the issue.

The workflow also adds the Task to Perform section in the Overview tab to track the progress of completing the tasks in the workflow. This section displays information about the next task to be performed in the workflow. As you progress through the various workflow tasks, this section displays information about the upcoming task.

5. As an Issue Owner, open the issue in the notification, create the required symptom defects of the issue, and set their Evaluation status to Investigating.

Optionally, the Issue Owner can also add problem items, affected items, reference items, and internal and external links that provide supporting information to resolve the issue. Example The Issue Owner, ed, opens the issue in the notification, creates the required symptom defects, and sets their Evaluation status to Investigating.

6. After creating the symptoms defects and setting their Evaluation status to Investigating, click Complete to mark the task as Complete.

You can mark the task as Complete in the Inbox or in the Workflow tab of the issue.

The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner to review the issue and symptom defects, and verify the validity of the issue.

Example The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner, ed.

7. As an Issue Owner, review the issue and symptom defects and verify the validity of the issue as follows:

In the Inbox, select the task for the issue.

You can also verify the validity of the issue in the Workflow tab of the issue.

On the Overview tab, under Targets, view the issue for review.

Under Action, provide your Comments related to the review task.

Example The Issue Owner, ed, reviews and verifies the validity of the issue.

8. As an Issue Owner, to resolve the issue by deriving a Problem Solving process, do the following:

Click Valid to determine if a Problem Solving process must be derived to resolve the issue.The workflow creates a task for the Issue Owner to determine if a Problem Solving process must be derived to resolve the issue.

As an Issue Owner, if you decide to derive a Problem Solving process from the issue, open the assigned task, and click Complete to mark the task as Complete as follows:You can mark the task as Complete in the Inbox or in the Workflow tab of the issue. The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Approver to review and approve whether the Issue Owner must derive a Problem Solving process from the issue to resolve the issue.

As an Issue Approver, open the task and review the issue before approving or rejecting it.Click Approve to approve the issue in the Inbox or in the Workflow tab of the issue.

The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner to select how to derive a Problem Solving process from the issue.

As an Issue Owner, open the task and select the type of derivation to be performed on the issue as follows: In the Inbox, select the task for the required issue.

On the Overview tab, under Targets, view the issue for review.

Under Action, provide your Comments related to the review task.

Click one of the following to derive a Problem Solving process from the issue:

Click As Carryover to link and use the issue's symptom defect as the problem description defect in the Problem Solving process. If you edit the defect in the Problem Solving process, the updates are reflected in the issue's symptom defect as well.

Click As Duplicate to create a copy of the issue's symptom defect as the problem description defect in the Problem Solving process. If you edit the defect in the Problem Solving process, the updates are not reflected in the issue's symptom defect.

Example The Issue Owner, ed, specifies the type of derivation to be performed on the issue.

The workflow derives a Problem Solving process from the issue. It also closes the issue. You cannot add, edit, or delete any objects in the issue. You can generate a report of the issue or reopen it by submitting it to the Quality Issue Reopen Request workflow. You can also create a new issue from the closed issue by choosing More Commands > New > Save As. The workflow also updates the Disposition as Approved, Maturity as Closed, and Closure as Closed in the issue.

9. As an Issue Owner, to close the issue by either canceling, reworking, or putting the issue on hold, do the following:

Click Invalid to either cancel, rework, or put the issue on hold.

The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Approver to review and reject the issue.

As an Issue Approver, open the task and reject the issue to allow the Issue Owner to either cancel, rework, or put the issue on hold.Click Reject to reject the issue in the Inbox or in the Workflow tab of the issue.

The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner to either cancel, rework, or put the issue on hold.

As an Issue Owner, you can choose to either cancel, rework, or put the issue on hold. Do one of the following:

Click Cancel to pause work on the issue. The workflow also updates the Disposition as Disapproved and Closure as Canceled in the issue.

Click On Hold to pause work on the issue. The workflow also updates the Disposition as Deferred and Closure as On Hold in the issue.

Click Rework to ask the Issue Owner to provide additional details and perform the required rework on the issue. The workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner to rework the issue. After the Issue Owner completes the required rework on the issue, the Issue Owner marks the task as Complete.

After the Issue Owner marks the task as Complete, the workflow sends a notification to the Issue Owner to review the issue and symptom defects, and verify the validity of the issue.