Typical process components

Each process (Incident, Request, and so on) can have many different components, depending on the exact requirements of the process and your organization. Some of the more common components are described below. Your processes may use some or all of these. The actions to add these components might not be available at all statuses in the process, and the required privileges might not be available to all users.

Notes – Notes provide a convenient way to add information to a process or one of its components as the process progresses towards closure. A note does not usually affect the current status of the process. You can attach any number of notes to a single process, or a process component.

Attachments – Attachment controls, including the Multiple Attachment control, are available in Workspaces. You can add any type of attachment to a process, such as spreadsheets, text documents or image files using Workspaces. When an attachment is available to download from a saved window, its file name and size appear on the control. You can remove an attachment by clicking alongside it.

You can restrict the types of file that users can attach to processes by configuring whitelisting for the instance using Configuration Center. This can help to prevent potentially harmful files, such as executables, from being uploaded. For more information, see Creating an instance.

You must have the relevant application installed to view attached files.

When you download files with names containing multi-byte characters (such as Japanese or Chinese letters) on iOS and certain desktop browsers, the file names are corrupted. We recommend avoiding file names containing multi-byte characters when using Workspaces.

Tasks – If a process incorporates a number of activities, the process can be subdivided using one or more tasks. Tasks contain actions that typically must be resolved before the process can be closed.

Tasks are assigned to only one analyst, group or role at a time. If a process contains many tasks, each of them can be assigned to a different person.

You can add notes to a task. Task notes are separate and different from the process notes stored for the process. Task notes are often used to describe the results of problem analysis and diagnosis steps that are embodied by the task.

Reminders – As a process progresses, there are often times when you or another user needs to be reminded of something. Using reminders, you can send a message to yourself or to other users that appears at a specified time and date. You do not need to have the Process visible for a reminder to appear.

Reminders are related to processes – any number of reminders can be associated with a single process, and a reminder can be set for any number of individuals, groups or roles.