Adding a Task
We have already seen that workflow templates can be used to register new changes. When a workflow template contains task templates that are linked together in a specific workflow, then this workflow template can be used to create new changes for which tasks get generated that are linked together in the same workflow.
If such an automatically generated task is not applicable for a specific change workflow, then this task can be canceled (see Exercise 2 – Canceling Tasks). Sometimes it may be necessary to add tasks to a change workflow, for example because additional development work is required following a failed test of a new application release.
Manually adding tasks to a change workflow is easy and task templates can be used to do this efficiently.
In Barney’s inbox, you should be able to see task #21397, asking Barney to finalize the plan for change #1686. Open this change and review its details to find out:
- what the objective is of the change,
- what the result is of the risk & impact analysis, and
- what the steps are of the draft implementation plan.
You will notice that the risk & impact analysis suggests that it would be best to perform the upgrade in two stages. The first is to upgrade Exchange on the CMP00001 (the European email server). This upgrade should be performed during a weekend. The second stage is to upgrade Exchange on the CMP00002 and CMP00003 (the North America email server cluster). This upgrade should be performed on a Sunday, one week after the upgrade of the European email environment was performed.
The draft implementation plan currently has one task for the upgrade of Exchange on all three servers, however. To finalize the implementation plan, open the Gantt chart and do the following:
- Add a task using the task template “Install software patch” to the Implementation phase. In the Gantt chart, this can be done on the left side at the bottom of the list of tasks in the Implementation phase using the template
icon. - Use this task for the upgrade of the Email (Exchange) North America service instance.
- Assign it to Luis Thomas
- Ensure that the two tasks that now exist for each stage of the upgrade are related to the correct service instance and the correct CIs.
- Ensure that these two tasks have the correct impact level.
- Schedule the upgrade of the European environment for next Saturday and plan the North America upgrade for Sunday the following weekend.