An important aid to timely and smooth processing of the defect tracking process is automatic notification of events. Standard Internet email is the most widely accepted form of notification.

There are several events that could trigger notification:

• Adding a record
• Editing a record
• Deleting a record
• Performing the Task operation on a record
• Change of record state
• Change of assignment

• The user who is currently assigned to the record
• The user who reported the record
• The manager assigned to the state of the record when it is added
• User Groups within your database

When an edit or task operation is performed on a record, the following users may be interested:

• The user who is currently assigned to the record
• The individual assigned to the record if the Assigned To field is changed during the Edit / Task operation.
• The individual who was the previous assignee if the Assigned To field is changed during the Edit / Task operation.
• The individual who reported the record.
• The manager assigned to the process state of the record when the Edit / Task operation is performed.
• The manager assigned to the new process state of the record if the State field is changed during the Edit / Task operation.
• The manager assigned to the previous process state of the record if the State field is changed during the Edit / Task operation.
• User Groups within your database

When a record is deleted, the following users may be interested:

• The individual who is currently assigned to the record.
• The individual who reported the record.
• The manager assigned to the process state of the record when it is deleted.
• User Groups within your database

On a change of record state, the following users may be interested:

• The individual who is currently assigned to the record.
• The individual who reported the record.
• The manager assigned to the new process state.
• The manager assigned to the original process state.
• User Groups within your database

On a change of record assignment, the following users may be interested:

• The individual the record is being assigned to.
• The individual the record was assigned to before the change of assignment.
• The individual who reported the record.
• The manager assigned to the current process state of the record.
• User Groups within your database

Tracker can be configured to send email notification messages to unregistered users who submit records via the Submit Page or via Email. Details about configuring notifications for unregistered users can be found in the General Preferences section.

Determining which users and under what events notification should occur is really a trial-and-error process determined by the personal working habits and preferences of users of the system. The issue should be discussed and tested with the users in your organization until consensus is reached on the desired behavior.

Notification Rules are configured for each workflow and can be set differently based on each option menu item in a pulldown if desired. Details on setting your email notification rules can be found in the Workflows Help section.

The Alerts feature is another means of generating email notifications. Alerts are notifications that can be triggered relative to a date field in a record or based on a lack of change of status.

Alerts can be set differently for each individual record if desired. Alerts can also be set based on:

• The form that was used to submit the record
• Which item was selected in a particular pulldown
• The transition used to process the record

• The user who is currently assigned to the record
• The user who reported the record
• The manager assigned to the state of the record when it is added
• Other Users or User Groups within your database

The Discussion feature is a message board or news group feature where your users can have conversations related to a record. These conversations can happen in parallel to the record moving through a workflow. Notification messages can be sent for the following actions:

• Users or user groups can be invited to participate in a discussion via an email notification
• Users can subscribe to discussion threads so that they receive an email notification when a new message is posted to a thread

The next section provides more information about Security.