Using Collaboration Tasks  

Use

Collaboration Tasks provides the ability for a user to build and initiate custom workflow processes. Each workflow process potentially produces work items which are displayed in the Universal Worklist (UWL). The user can:

·        Create processes consisting of a number of tasks that persist until done

·        Assign individual tasks to separate users

Specifically, Collaboration Task is deployed as a portal service and is packaged as part of the Knowledge Management (KM) platform. It uses some KM components including the Scheduling Service and the Notification Service. Leveraging the KM platform, Collaboration Task acts as a sub-component of the UWL. Accessed through the UWL, you can build and initiate workflows easily through the wizard, track them, and receive work items generated by ad hoc processes.

Through the Collaboration Task process you can create the following tasks:

·        Standard Task

·        Request for Feedback

·        Request for Nomination

·        Universal Worklist Sub Process

You can also create custom tasks in which you specify the number, type, and flow of the steps.

Prerequisites

·        You must be a portal user with assigned appropriate portal role to access the Universal Worklist.

·        You must also know what process you are trying to implement and who the participants are.

·        As a process initiator your Email address must be properly configured in your User Management Engine (UME) data.

Accessing the Collaboration Task Wizard

The following figure shows the different applications on the portal from where you can access the Collaboration Task.

 

The following table shows the procedure for creating a task form the different applications on the portal.

Creating a task	Procedure
Creating a Task from UWL Task List, Collaboration Launchpad, Collaboration Room	To launch the collaboration task wizard from UWL and Collaboration Room, choose: ·        Create Task From the Collaboration Launchpad, choose Create Task, you have the following options from this function: ·        Single Step (Task) ·        Task List ·        Request for Feedback ·        Request for Nomination If you launch the wizard from the Collaboration Launchpad or from a Collaboration Room, the information about which users have been selected is propagated. The names of the selected users appear in the field Assigned to. If you launch the wizard from a Collaboration Room, the Collaboration Room Id is propagated to the workflow wizard and to the workflow instance. On the Workflow wizard screen, the name of the Collaboration Room is displayed.
Creating a Task from UWL Task Detail Area	From the UWL task detail screen, choose Create Ad-Hoc Request. The UWL task Id/work item Id is propagated to the workflow wizard and to the workflow instance On the Workflow wizard screen, the name of the Collaboration Room is displayed. For more information, see Sub Process.
Creating a Task from Within Guided Procedures	From the You can area of the Guided Procedures UI, choose New Ad hoc Process. Collaboration Task instance that the wizard creates serves as a sub process of the Guided Procedures and gets access to the Guided Procedures process context. Additionally, the UWL task Id/work item id is propagated to the workflow wizard and to the workflow instance. On the Workflow wizard screen, the name of the Collaboration Room is displayed. Work items created by Java Workflow Tasks from the Guided Procedures are not Collaboration Tasks. They will not show up in the UWL if Collaboration Tasks is the filtering criterion is used for the sub-view.

Result

The process participants (assignees, recipients, nominators, approvers) see the workflow item in their task list.

When the recipients execute work items, notifications are sent to those users who were specified as Trackers when the task was created. The trackers can also view the status of an workflow under Tasks in the Universal Worklist and view details of the appropriate process.

Along with the comments entered by the process participants, all steps that have been executed in the process so far are displayed.

After completion of a process all steps along with the comments entered by the process participants are displayed under Completed Tasks in the Universal Worklist of the initiator of the process.

Example

A user collaborates with other users by assigning tasks to them. Instead of sending Emails to other users, the user uses the Collaboration Task wizard to create a task list and assigns the tasks to several users. Task assignees access and complete the tasks through the UWL.

In another scenario a user selects an approval work item from Business Workflow. By using the Collaboration Task the user creates on the fly a workflow consisting of an action item step and an approval step. The approval step will automatically perform the approval action on the Business Workflow work item.

Exporting Room Tasks to Microsoft Excel Sheet

Through this feature you can export all tasks belonging to a collaboration room to Microsoft Excel sheet.

...

       1.      Go to the Collaboration room. Choose Tasks. The task list displayed.

       2.      Choose Export to Excel on the All Tasks  tab.

       3.      A new browser window is launched with MS Excel sheet embedded. 

       4.      You can save the data (tasks) in Excel format by File ® Save As...