Create Review Tasks

Use the SAP Analytics Cloud calendar to create review tasks. These tasks let you assign someone who shall check the work result of another task, like a general task or a process, for example.

Context

You can create a review task to let one or more assignees check the work result of another calendar event. You can even assign tasks to colleagues who are not yet members (do not have SAP Analytics Cloud accounts). Use their email address and they will receive information on how to get an account.

Note

In composite tasks, that include the review step, people who review the work result are called reviewers. In review tasks, the reviewers are assignees of the review task.

Task owners or assignees can add work files to a review task: These can be stories, analytic applications, or URLs. The assignees review the data directly in the story or analytic application and approve or reject the work result from there. If multiple assignees work on the task, only one of them needs to approve or reject the work to complete the task.

Review tasks can either start when the calendar events that comprise the work to be reviewed reach a certain status (Successful, for example), or – if the review tasks are grouped within a parent process – start at the same time as their parent process.

Learning Tutorial

Click through the interactive tutorial illustrating how to create a review task in step-by-step instructions (3:00 min); the tutorial is captioned exclusively in English:

[To start the interactive tutorial, click here or on picture]

Procedure

  1. In the Calendar, select Start of the navigation path (Create) Next navigation step  Review TaskEnd of the navigation path.
  2. Provide an Event Name.
  3. Select the start condition:
    Start By Description
    Dependency The start date of your task depends on other events and their status.

    1. Select Add Events to define which events your task shall depend on.

    2. Under Statuses, select which status these events need to meet before your task can start.

      Note

      All of the selected events need to meet any of the chosen statuses before your task can start.

    For more information, see Define Dependencies Among Calendar Events.
    Parent Process Your task will start at the same time as its parent process.
    Note

    If you haven't added a parent process to your task yet, you'll be asked to select one.
  4. Set the Due Date.
  5. Optional: To structure your workflow, you can add the task to a process:

    • Choose Add Parent Process and select the process.

    • If you selected a process in the calendar before creating this task, this process will be selected as a parent process by default. You can remove or edit it to add a different parent process if needed.

    Note

    You can select only the processes that you can edit. You need to be the owner or the assignee of the parent process.

    To see the relationship between tasks and their parent processes more easily, use the List workspace.

  6. Select Create.

    The task is added to the calendar and opened in the Details panel.

  7. Optional: In the title area, you can select a different style for the task or create a new style.

    The style is a user-specific setting. The selected style is only visible to you.

  8. Optional: Add work files (stories or analytic applications) to the task, or provide a URL.

    You can add a URL by selecting Add URL from the dropdown menu.

    Note

    The assignees can work in the attached story or analytic application and approve or reject the work, or decline the task directly from an integrated calendar task menu bar.

    In analytic applications and optimized stories, you can use the technical object CalendarIntegration to configure the application individually with calendar task APIs. For example, you could switch off the calendar toolbar and put the actions (decline, approve, reject) on separate buttons customized to your users' needs. For more information, see Use Calendar Integration Technical Objects and Calendar Task APIs.

  9. Optional: Under Description, you can add some details or instructions you'd like to share.
  10. Optional: To set reminders, select Add Reminders and fill in the required time settings.
  11. Optional: If you want the task to start automatically, select the appropriate option depending on the chosen start condition:

    • Activate the event at start date automatically: The task will be activated automatically at the selected start date.

    • Activate the event automatically once any status of the dependencies is met: Once all selected events your task is dependent on have met any of the selected statuses, the task will be activated automatically.

    • Activate the event automatically once its parent process starts: The task will be activated automatically at the start date of its parent process.

    If you want to edit your task before sending it out to others, do not enable this option.

    Note
    You must have one assignee before you can activate the task.
  12. Optional: Decide whether to set the task to status Canceled on the due date: If so, select Cancel the task on the due date automatically.
  13. Optional: With the context, you define which data your event refers to.In the Context section, select a planning model and some filters.
    The filters are applied to the work files of the event.
    Note
    The transfer of the filters has the following restrictions:

    • It is not supported for models with user-managed time dimensions.

    • It is restricted to the capabilities of the filter parameters provided by the SAP Analytics Cloud URL API. For more information, see Filter Parameters.

  14. Add one or more assignees. You may add additional owners for your task, or share the task with other users.

    • You can add individual users or teams that have been created in SAP Analytics Cloud:

      Adding teams instead of individual users may help save you time, and you don't need to define who's taking care of the task. You can choose to Resolve the team so the individual users are displayed, and adapt the list according to your needs.

      Note

      After you resolve a team, the reference to that team is removed. Instead, the system behaves like you added all the team members individually. Any changes to the team on the SAP Analytics Cloud Security page (like adding or removing team members) will not be reflected in the People section of your calendar task.

    • You can also add someone who isn't already a member:
      1. To add a non-member, in the appropriate People section, select the dropdown list and then select Invite Non-Member by Email.
      2. Type the person's email address.

    • To add yourself as assignee, select the dropdown list next to Add Assignees and then select Add Myself.

    Tip

    If you add an assignee and then decide to substitute yourself or someone else for this role, select the user name or the team name, and then choose Change from the dropdown menu. In the Change User dialog, select the new name for the role.

    If you add 7 or more users or teams as owners, assignees, or viewers, only the first 5 user or team names are displayed and a link (... 3 More, for example) lets you access a dialog with the complete list of added users and teams. In this dialog, you can can search for user or team names, and you can add, change, or remove them.

  15. Optional: If you haven't done so already, you can add the task to a process in the Hierarchy section.

    • Choose Add Parent Process and select the process.

    • If you've already set a parent process, it is displayed as the parent process. You can select it to see its details. You can remove or edit it to add a different parent process if needed.

    Note

    You can select only the processes that you can edit. You need to be the owner or the assignee of the parent process.

    To see the relationship between tasks and their parent processes more easily, use the List workspace.

  16. Optional: Provide further information by adding additional files.

    Everyone involved in this event can view the files. These can be stories, analytic applications, or PDF documents with further instructions or references, for example.

  17. Optional: Under Private Memo, you can add personal notes that are only visible to you.
  18. When you're finished filling in the details and are ready to send the task out, do one of the following:
    • If the status is Inactive, select Activate or Activate & Notify.

      This option is also available when you click on the arrow next to the status in the header section.

      When you activate the task, and you've added some teams that haven't been resolved yet, the teams are resolved automatically. You can remove individual users of the team, for example. Users assigned to multiple teams are only counted once.

    • If the status is In Progress, select Update or Update and Notify.
    • If you've adapted an existing review task, select View Changes to review all the changes that have been applied; decide whether to send them out or delete any of the changes, and then select Update.
  19. Optional: Once you've activated the task, you may want to send an immediate reminder to the assignees: In the Time section, select Send Immediate Reminder and enter some text as message.

    The assignees will be notified right away.

Results

Notifications are sent to the applicable people.