Overview

ProblemTracker helps you to track the progress of a problem incident through a series of steps within your organization. The order in which a problem incident can move between these steps is called the workflow.

At each step in the workflow, some work is done by an individual to complete the step, and then the problem incident is advanced to the next step. This process is repeated until all of the steps are completed. For instance, in a typical organization, the follow series of steps might take place once a problem is reported...

1. Customer reports a problem
2. Customer support engineer verifies the problem and creates a record in the defect tracking system.
3. Engineering Manager assigns the problem to an engineer to fix.
4. Engineer fixes the problem
5. Quality Assurance Manager assigns the problem to an engineer to verify the fix.
6. QA engineer verifies the fix
7. Fix is incorporated in the product

Issues to consider when designing a workflow include identifying the steps in the process, the key individuals in the process and events that they should be notified of, the data that is required at each step in the process, and who should handle each step.

ProblemTracker Workflow Customization

ProblemTracker supports full customization of workflow for any number of individual process states. This customization includes state names, forward and reverse transitions, assignments and email notification.

ProblemTracker Automatic State Advance

To aid in the process of advancing the state of a problem record in the process flow, ProblemTracker includes the Task feature. This feature allows the currently assigned individual to indicate that he/she has completed the task assigned to him/her and enter the information appropriate to completing the work. ProblemTracker then automatically advances the problem record to the next appropriate state, and changes the assignment to the next appropriate individual (as defined by the ProblemTracker administrator).

With the Task feature, it is only necessary for each individual to log into the system, identify the task (record) that they have completed, and use the Task operation. They are prompted for all the information required and the record is sent on to the next individual automatically. All users follow the defined process without needing to know the process as a whole.