Setting up the workflow

Each issue in WebAsyst Issue Tracker can only be assigned to a single person. This ensures unambiguous division of responsibility between employees for the completion of issues. But what if an issue needs to be completed by several persons at different stages? It is feasible – just allow your employees to forward an issue to each other to make it go through another stage of completion. Along with the ability to forward an issue, the current person in charge may also change its status, e.g. from "Development" to "Testing" or "Complete" depending on the available list of statuses.

To forward an issue to another person, use menu file "Issue... -> Forward Issue(s)...", or the "Forward" that appears when you move the mouse cursor over the issue description.

The list of persons whom you are allowed to forward an issue to as well as the available list of statuses are individually configurable for each task.

Changing the status of an issue is a part of the workflow. The workflow depends on the nature of works executed within a task. For instance, during creation of a website the workflow may have the following structure: "Start -> Concept creation -> Consultation (with customer) -> Development -> Testing -> Complete". Within such a workflow an issue, after a certain stage of development, can be forwarded either for additional consultation with the customer, or to the testing department. After the testing is done, it can be either returned to the developers or forwarded to the "Complete" status.

To set up such a workflow, click on menu item "Workflow... -> Customize Workflow". On the page that opens select the necessary project, and click on the workflow description in column "Workflow Summary" of the task list table. The page will reload and display the graphical representation of the workflow as shown in the picture:

Each newly created task allows forwarding issues to the single status In Progress. Within such a workflow an issue can only be forwarded from the "virtual" status Start to In Progress, and from In Progress only to Complete (this last status is obligatory for all kinds of workflow).

In order to create your own workflow from scratch, click on the name of the In Progress status and delete it by clicking on "Delete". Then add new statuses to the workflow in accordance with the specifics of your task – just click on "Add State":

• enter a name for the new status;
• specify whether employees should be able to edit or delete issues in this status;
• choose the appropriate assignment option from the list provided:
  • required/selectable: a person in charge must be selected when forwarding to this statue;
  • required/not selectable: the only person in charge for the issue completion in this status can be the user selected in the Assignee (default) dropdown list below;
  • not required: specifying a person in charge is not required when forwarding to this state;
  • not applicable: specifying a person in charge is not allowed when forwarding to this state.
• choose the default person in charge for the required/not selectable option above;
• choose the font color for this status to be displayed in the workflow scheme;
• mark checkboxes next to the statuses that would be available for choice when an issues will be forwarded from the current status; in the second table column select the status that will be automatically chosen by default.

Example of creation of the Consultation status:

After you save the properties of the new status, it will appear in the graphical workflow scheme. For the simple website creation workflow described above the status list may look as shown in the picture below: