task items --

[raymond]

is anyone asking for task items? we need the ability to create tasks (and groups of tasks) and bind them to a ticket so that we know where we are in a process... it would be good if we could assign specific tasks to various techs as well -- with the ability to have them be independent or dependent on other task items (e.g. 5 tasks could be created and each be worked on independently or each is held until the previous task is completed, etc.).

any work in this direction?

//ray

[Support Team]

You should probably consider using the Activity Templates (user guide feature).

[raymond]

Those are for "pre-programmed activities" -- we never do that... pretty much each and every ticket is unique with task items that need to be processed for the ticket to be completed. I was super surprised to find that this isn't already part of the system. It's ugly but what our guys have started doing is adding text into the notes fields like this:

Actions:
[DONE] Discuss w/ Ray the best way to enable RDP on PNGC-LAP-13 (e.g.: via group policy).
[] Enable RDP on PNGC-LAP-13 (and possibly others).
[] Set up GPO to open 3389/TCP in Windows firewall and enable RDP service (look for a pre-made GPO online or use SBS GPOs as templates).
[] Verify that Rick is now able to access PNGC-LAP-13 via RDP over VPN.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty crappy way to do this. Again, can't believe task items are not already built into CommitCRM...

Would love to know how others are dealing with task items within tickets, especially those that assign tickets to employees with specific task items that need to be completed (and tracked) before the ticket is closed or even re-assigned to another emplyee for additional followup.

Cheers --

//ray

[Support Team]

Tasks items ARE already built into RangerMSP. You can add them from the Pending tab of the Ticket. You can add a Task to each of the items you listed above, assign it to a technician (even a different one than the Ticket Manager) and set a due date for the task.

If you do have predefined sets of Tasks you can define them as part of the Activity Template feature I listed so they can all be applied to a Ticket at once, yet again, you can add tasks using the Pending tab on a one-by-one basis.

[raymond]

oops! a couple of years ago I hid the Pending tabs because I didn't want employees messing with them before I could assess... they are re-enabled and we are checking them out.

thanks!!

//ray

[raymond]

is there a way to daisy chain tasks (one task must be completed before the next task can be started)?

How about a way to inject history notes directly bound to the task (New history note FOR task)? Adding (dated) history notes directly to a task would be super useful in documenting each step along the way to completion!

Also, it would be super helpful if we could assign status and status extensions to each task.

And finally we need to be able to clear the date/time for a task...

thoughts and suggestions?

thanks!!

//ray

[Support Team]

ray - thanks for your suggestions here. Nothing to add on top of the items listed above and the other thread we replied to your questions. Thanks!

[raymond]

So some of our employees have been trying to use tasks but have only found limited success. not being able to attach separate history notes to a task, not being able to assign status/status extentions and not being able to clear the due date/time are three very large roadblocks. Adding to that list, it appears that once a task has been marked "done" there is no way to undo that... we are constantly finding situations where we need to resurect a completed task.

thoughts?

//ray

[Support Team]

Tasks are simply entities and is not meant to support all such functionality. It's kind of a supporting entity - that is attached to Tickets, Assets, Accounts, etc. and as such does not have the same level of complexity (like add History Notes under the Task, this is what a Ticket can be used for).

Try setting the system that on Done and History Note will be created from the Task. You can always add a new Task based on an History Note you have, so it's very close to reopen a completed task, except for the fact that you now have the history that the previous/original Task was done once.

Hope this helps. Thanks for asking and for sharing your thoughts.

[raymond]

that really doesn't help... in it's current format, tasks seem to be so limited in functionality as to be pretty much useless. It is frustrating to see "features" that are un-useable in production.

Tasks need to be overhauled -- some complexity needs to be added! At the very least, tasks should should be able to have history notes applied to them, update the status (and status extension) and assign a null due date.

For discussion, how would you propose creating a ticket for a project like rolling out a new server where product needs to be spec-ed and ordered by two different people, the server needs to be assembled by a third and finally the installation of the server needs to happen by a fourth. It's all about workflow and we don't have the tools to do this.

thanks --

//ray

[Support Team]

Thanks for your additional feedback. Tasks are actually widely used and while this may not be our final take on this, I do not foresee any near future changes that will make the Tasks feature more complex or migrate it to a situation where Tasks contain other objects under them.

In regards to the new server project you refer to - if you need to track every activity completely separately from the other (like a separate log for ordering parts, a separate one for server be assembled, another separate activity log for for server installation, server configuration etc.) then we would recommend adding multiple tickets for this project.

Otherwise, if you are OK with having a unified History for this project then we would recommend adding Tasks under a single Ticket for this project and assign each of the Tasks to a different technician. Everyone will log their activity under the same project/ticket and under their own name.

[raymond]

Unfortunately, having multiple tickets for a single project defeats the purpose of a centralized ticket focused on the project (which allows us to summarize and see everything that is going on). It would be a nightmare trying to track what is going on in the project if this were split over separate tickets.

I can appreciate that this is not on the near future roadmap but please make note that a few simple tweaks could increase the usefulness of task 10-fold. The “simple” additions would be:
1) allow history notes to be applied to tasks
2) allow us to assign status and status extensions to each task
3) let us clear the date/time for a task (assign no due date)
and if we are feeling extra good about this,
4) allow us to un-complete a completed task

these few items would go a loooooooooong way in making tasks way more useable!

thanks again --

//ray

[Support Team]

Thanks Ray. Another approach to this, that may and may not work for you, is to open a Contract for a bigger project. The Contract will then be the 'container' of all Tickets related to this project, this should be useful and let you see all tickets related to the project in one place. Another option would be to dedicate one of the Ticket's predefined custom field to hold a project ID, set it to all related tickets and then it's easy to filter the list of tickets to only show the ones related to a specific project. Anyway, thanks for your suggestions.

[raymond]

interesting... will think/look into contracts as a way to group tickets together although if the client is already using contracts then this wouldn't work.

Still, having the abiltiy to do options 1 through 3 to a task would go a long way to improving task functionality.

thanks --

//ray

[nattivillin]

It will get confusing for us to use contracts for projects and not for contracts BUT if CommitCRM would just duplicate the contract functionality and call it something else.....

That is a great idea using it for projects.....maybe we can call it just that "Projects"

Keeping up with the tasks is a bear, but keeping up with tickets under a "project" would be great