Process actions

Actions are activities that either progress the process to a new status or enable you to add data (such as a note) to the process, without changing the status. There are three types of action: manual, automatic, and optional.

For more information about manual actions, see Manual actions. For more information about automatic actions, see Automatic actions. For more information about optional actions, see Optional actions.

The actions that you include in a process appear in the Actions list in the workspace when the process reaches the appropriate status.

Generally, when you click optional or manual actions in the Actions list, the relevant window appears enabling you to specify the required information for that action, for example, an assignment. You can pre-populate these windows with static information, if required. Static information is a specific value for all instances of the process, for example, an assignment to the SA user at a particular stage, or a specific title for a note.

You can also create actions that do not display a window when the action is used. These are useful when you want a user to complete an action, but do not need them to record any additional information. For more information, see Creating a new action.

When you reach an automatic action, although a window still exists, it does not appear to the user. For example, you may not need a window to appear for an authorization, but you do want to record data about the action, such as the name of the person who authorized the process. This information can be automatically entered into the window, which you can view at a later stage if required. You can define the static or dynamic data that appears in that window. Dynamic information changes depending on some specific information already recorded for this instance of the process – such as assigning to the current user, or using the title of the current process as the title of a new task.

When you are designing a process, you sometimes need to make changes to either an object or a window that is used by the process. You can do this from the process diagram by right-clicking the required Action icon, then clicking either Modify Action Window or Modify Action Object. The object or window for the action appears in the appropriate designer. Some actions may have multiple windows associated with them. In this instance, a dialog appears from which you can select the required window.

Running actions on related processes

Usually, actions are run against the object that the process is based on (for example, adding a Note to a Request, or approving a Change). However, you can also use related actions to run actions on one or more related processes. For example, from a Change, you can use a related action to progress an attached Problem to a new status or to add a note to all attached Incidents.

For information about related actions, see Running actions on related processes.