The Task Management feature streamlines the assignment, allocation and tracking of tasks, allowing campaign managers and decision-makers to ensure the innovation process is efficient and effective, involving all relevant stakeholders in the organization.
The process allows defining clear responsibilities, deadlines and notifications, ultimately driving successful outcomes and timely decision-making.


The Task Management feature is part of our template, but recognizing that different teams have unique needs, we offer extensive configuration options to maximize the success of your operation.

Pls note we also offer an automatic task creation feature. See more details here and contact your CSM if relevant.

You can learn more about how it works here


 

Below is a detailed guide on how to configure the Task Management feature:


    1. What should be included in the task description?

        i.e. Configure the form that define the task and allocate responsibility.

    2. How to Change the Default Due Date for a new task?

    3. What information should the task owners provide?

        i.e. Configuring the form that the task owner should fill.

    4. Adding more states to the workflow (like a supervisor approval, an additional gate, etc.)

    5. Defining the notifications to the task owners and/or other roles that are involved in the process.

    6. Customizing the task view within the idea/company page.

    7. Do you want to allow state owner to clone existing tasks (vs. creating new ones from scratch)?

    8.  Assigning points to task owners once they complete their task.

    9. Whether to see clever recommendation when selecting a task owner



To start go to: Settings > Features (<site url>/self-admin/sys-components/features/) and then select  Task Management.
You will get to this page:



1. What should be included in the task description?

        i.e. Configure the form that define the task itself and how to assign the task owners


Configuring the form that state owners fill when submitting a new task is crucial for providing internal context and clarity. The fields included in the form help define the task's scope, set clear expectations, and ensure everyone involved understands the requirements.


To customize the form, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Submission Form option.
  2. In the Submission Form, you can add or remove fields according to your needs.
  3. Default fields include options like Description, Task Owner, and Due Date.
  4. To add new fields, simply click on "Add a New Field"
    Multiple field types are supported:
    To learn more about the uniqueness of each field, please watch this tutorial.


2. How to Change the Default Due Date?


The feature settings include a default due date. The default due date will automatically be set to 1 week from the current date.
If needed, you can easily modify the due date from the subsystem setting > workflow > features > Task Management.



This setting is located on the subsystem level, since it makes sense that different subsystems/use cases will require different default settings based on content and complexity of the tasks,


3. What information should the task owners provide?

        i.e. Configuring the form that the task owner should fill.


Configuring the form that task owners complete is important because it helps clearly define the task, ensuring all necessary details are provided for efficient execution and successful completion.

 

To add more fields for the task owners to fill out:

Go to Task Management setting page, and select the Workflow option, and then navigate to the "Done" state (or any other relevant state).
If you would like the fields to be filled when the idea moves to this state, click on the "Prerequisite Fields" icon.
If you would like the fields to be filled when the idea is in the state (regardless to which state it will move) click on the "Workflow Fields" icon.
In both cases, the fields can be defined as required or not.


 From there, you can add new fields as needed.



4. Adding more states to the workflow

You can easily add more states to the workflow as needed, enabling you to capture additional steps, such as supervisor approval of the task before it be marked as completed.


Go to Task Management setting page, and select the Workflow option.
Then click "Add a State".


Locate the state in the relevant place in the workflow, and complete the relevant settings, including who is the state owner, what are the allowed transitions etc.

To learn more about the setting options of each state, please watch this tutorial.




5. Defining the notifications to the task owners and/or other roles that are involved in the process


In processes involving multiple stakeholders, it's essential to ensure tasks are progressing as expected and that the workflow remains efficient. Notifications serve to alert task owners to act promptly, keep relevant stakeholders informed when tasks are completed, and notify others if there are delays or issues in task execution.
Please note you can also send the notification/reminders to any role/stakeholder that is involved in the process of the idea itself, in the campaign, or to the moderators.



Notifications can be triggered for every state change or whenever the task owner changes (e.g., when a new task owner is assigned to replace the existing one).

Reminders to the task owner to complete their task based on one of the following triggers:
  •  After a X days without a response OR
  •  Before/After X days from the due date
Consider creating a series of reminders, and if needed, add other stakeholder on cc/bcc for escalation.

They can also be included of course as cc/bcc.



To do this, go to the Workflow of the feature and click on the mail icon in the relevant state. For example the "In Progress" state:

 


Next, click on "Add a new E-mail/Notification" and customize your email.
First select the email type, and the fill the other parameters.


To learn more about How to configure workflow email notifications/reminders, watch this tutorial.




6. Customizing the task view


If you'd like to modify the display within the idea, by adding more columns or making other adjustments, please contact your CSM.

 

7. Do you want to allow state owner to clone existing tasks (vs. creating new ones from scratch)? 


This capability is not enabled by default but can be easily enabled by the sysadmin.
It can be beneficial and increase efficiency in case the tasks repeat themselves within the same idea/company.

In order to do that, the sysadmin needs to go to the General Setting section and define which fields should be cloned:

(Self admin > features > Task Management > General)

For example: here we want to clone only the Title and Description fields.




Once at least one field is selected, authorized users will be able to clone any existing expert request by clicking the new icon:



8. Assigning points to task owners once they complete their task 


This capability is not enabled by default but can be easily configured by the sub sysadmin in order to encourage the task owner to complete their tasks.

If needed, go to the subsystem setting > workflow > features > Task Management and define the relevant number of points that the task owner will get when the task reaches each one of the states.



9.  Whether to see clever recommendation when selecting a task owner

Instead of selecting a task owner based on knowing him/her or his/hers profile information, you can utilize the system recommendations on task owner you might not know BUT have been involved in similar ideas to the one you are dealing with.
You can always choose not to follow the recommendation and select manually, so as we see it you got nothing to loose :-).

This is how it will look: