Ketura Tour Step 3: Tasks

A software company using Ketura might create an issue if a customer reports a bug in one of that company’s products. But what work needs to be done to fix the problem? A task is added to an issue for each work item. Typical tasks for fixing a software defect might include:

• Identify the scope of the issue and estimate how much work will be required to fix it;
• Fix the problem;
• Update the issue with a description of the changes undertaken;
• Update any product documentation affected by the issue;
• Test thoroughly to ensure that the issue is fixed;
• Have a colleague perform a review of the changes undertaken;
• Submit the changes to the source code repository;
• Record the issue as being complete by changing the issue’s state to ‘Resolved’.

Note that you could just have a single task for the issue, called something like ‘Fix the issue’. Indeed, that might be appropriate for some types of issue. But, using a list of tasks like the example given here has several potential benefits:

• The work required, and the people who will do it, can often be described more accurately using several tasks instead of one. This makes it easier to estimate the amount of work required and helps Ketura to give more accurate schedules for a project containing the issue.
• Many organizations will wish to define set procedures for dealing with issues. These procedures can be described using tasks. When someone finishes a task, he or she marks it as complete, thus indicating formally that the procedural step represented by the task has been completed.
• Many issues require work by several people. The only way to describe this in Ketura is by using different tasks, each one assigned to a particular individual.

Most organizations will find that they end up with a few different sets of tasks that they wish to use over and over again. Such lists of tasks can be stored as task sets in Ketura. All the tasks in a task set can be added to an issue in a single operation. It is also possible to have Ketura add a task set to an issue automatically when an issue is created or changes its state. This is discussed further in Ketura Tour Step 8: Workflow.