Item Types#

Items have a type, such as “Milestone”, “Error Message”, or “Action Point”. For each item type, you can configure your own input masks, permissions and workflows. After the initial installation, the system offers a range of item types.

You can rename or remove the supplied item types if you do not need them. The following explains the meaning of the proposed item types.

Project and Task Management#

The following item types are useful for general project and task management:

  • Task: Tasks are planned and have a start date and an end date. They often also have a budget. Tasks have the type flag “Task”. Only tasks can be synchronized with MS Project files.

  • Action Point: In contrast to tasks, action points are not planned, but arise ad hoc in meetings or due to external events. Action points usually have an optional completion date, but no budget. It is advisable to keep tasks and action points separate, i.e. not to place them in the same hierarchy tree.

Helpdesk and Service Management (ITIL)#

The following item types are useful for helpdesk and service management. They are derived from the ITIL standard:

  • Ticket: Generally the report of an incident, a question or request for support.

  • Problem: the cause of one or more incidents. Not every problem leads to an incident. A server crash after office hours is a problem, but it only becomes an incident, if it has not been resolved the next morning when people are back in the office. An incident can reveal a problem.

  • Incident: an unplanned disruption or impairment of a service, caused by a problem. To become an incident, the service failure must disrupt operations. Therefore, failures outside operating hours or maintenance work would not count as incidents.

General Document Management and Wiki#

The following item types are useful for managing documents held in the wiki such as requirements documents meeting minutes or project applications. Document folders, documents and document sections are usually invisible in other perspectives:

  • Document Folder: A folder for organizing documents in the wiki.

  • Document: Any document in the wiki, consisting of document sections.

  • Document Section: A section in a document, can itself contain sections.

Agile Project Management (Scrum)#

The following item types are used for projects according to the Scrum methodology:

  • Epic: A rough description of requirements. Epics could also be depicted as wiki documents.

  • User Story: A specific description of requirements. Stories could also be depicted as wiki documents or sections in wiki documents.

  • Task: A task that arises when implementing a user story.

  • Problem Report: Errors that have arisen in the implementation of a user story or a task.

Requirements Management#

The following item types are useful for managing documents held in the wiki

  • Requirements: A document that contains links to requirements in the task management perspective.

  • Document Section: A section in a requirements document that can itself contain sections.

  • Requirement: A single requirement that can be referenced in multiple requirement documents.

Meeting Management#

The following item types are useful for managing meeting agendas and minutes in the wiki:

  • Document Folder: A folder for organizing meeting minutes in the wiki.

  • Meeting: A document with links to task management.

  • TOP: Agenda items that are collected in the task management perspective.

  • Action Point: Open points from a meeting that are managed in task management.