Attributes: a vocabulary
A Request has a number of attributes:
-
Serial Number, Queue, Area, Requestors, Owner, Subject, Final Priority,
Current Priority, Status, Created, Last User Contact, Last Contact, DueDate,
and Age.
- What is the Serial Number?
- The Serial Number is a unique number within a given instance of RT used to
refer to that Request. They are not recycled.
- What is a Queue?
- A Queue is a grouping of Requests designated for a particular group of people
to access a/o address. Queues can have distinct access mechanisms,
permissions, responsible persons, and names.
EX: Sam E's Circus sets up &RT& to track issues. Issues regarding
setup and takedown go to the "roustabouts" queue, while issues
regarding food and drink sales go to the "concessions" queue.
- What is an Area?
- An Area is used for further grouping Requests in a single Queue. The same
people will be responsible for the Requests, but will categorize them for the
sake of convenience. Areas can also have distinct access mechanisms (e.g. different mail aliases). Areas do not have ACLs seperate from those of the queue
they are a part of.
EX: The "concessions" area will have several Areas, including "cotton
candy," "popcorn," and "watered-down-soda." The same vendors will
be reading and addressing issues in all three of these areas, but will
be able to sort the incoming Requests on them.
- What is a Requestor?
- A Requestor is the person who opens a Request by sending in the first
Transaction on the subject. &RT& has configurable options for keeping this
person automatically informed as to the progress of their request.
- What is an Owner?
- The Owner of a Request is the person who is taking responsibility for the
issue or question raised therein. They will very likely be the primary
person to make updates to the Request and change its state as it matures.
- What is the Subject?
- Much like the "Subject:" line in email, the Subject of a Request is a quick
summary of the question or issue raised in the first Transaction of the
Request. This may change as the Request matures.
- What is the Due Date?
- Setting a Due Date for a Request indicates the date by which point the owner of the Request expects (or wants, at any rate) the Request to be resolved.
- What is the Priority?
- A Request may optionally have a Priority set for it, which indicates its
urgency. Higher numbers indicate higher Priority. A Request may have no set
priority, may simply have its Priority set to a static number, or it may have
its Final Priority set. Final Priority requires a Due Date to operate
- as the Request gets closer to its Due Date, its current priority gets
higher. On (##JRV## day before? day of? AH: NO. final priority isn't
for real, yet. ##JRV## Oh? how d'you mean "not real"? ) the final
day, its priority becomes the preset Final Priority.
EX: James Earl Jones creates a Request in July which will come due on
December 20th, to remind himself to get Solstice presents for his friends.
He sets the Final Priority of the Request to 95, knowing that as he gets
close to the time when he'll actually need to go shopping, the priority will
rise and bring this Request to his attention again.
- What is a Request's Status?
- A Request will always be in one of the following four states:
Open -- the Request is expecting imminent action a/o updates
Stalled -- the Request needs a specific action or piece of
information before it can proceed
Resolved -- the Request has either been answered or successfully
taken care of, and no longer needs action
Dead -- the request should not have been in the ticketing system to begin
with and has been completely purged.
- What is the Creation Date?
- The date the first Transaction of the Request was logged. (Duh.)
- What is the "Last User Contact"?
- &RT& can automatically inform the Requestor of any updates to the Request,
or someone updating the Request can optionally tag an update to be sent to
the Requestor. Either way, &RT& keeps track of when the most recent contact
with the Requestor through &RT& was.
- What is the "Last Contact"?
- The last logged update to the Request. (##JRV## this isn't quite
correct, I know. Clarification? AH: you're thinking of "Last modification"
it's the last time the req was touched)
- What is the "Age" of a Request?
- The amount of time elapsed since the first Transaction for this Request.
(AH: since the request was created..)