When planning an Improvement, you can choose whether to decide if it should start later or on a specific date. We have added a third option - you can now decide to have it be dependent on the completion of another Project, Improvement, or Task.
Who can plan an Improvement?
- The Assigner
- Anyone with the "Assign" permission for Improvements in that Location
- If the Improvement is nested under a Project, the Project's Facilitators, Leaders, and/or Sponsors. If the Improvement is nested under a Chart, the Chart's Authors.
How do I plan an Improvement?
Open the Improvement you want to plan, then:
- Click the status indicator.
- In the resulting drop-down menu, click
.
In the resulting window, you have the option of entering a reason for planning this Improvement.
Then click either “Decide Later” (if you don’t want to enter the start date at this time. You can update the item with a start date later, or manually activate it when the time comes), “Specific Date” (if you already know when it should begin and who should be involved), or “Dependent On” (if you want this item to be activated automatically upon another item's start/completion).
Decide Later
- You can enter the name of the Responsible Person in the “Responsible” field and the due date in the “Due Date” field.
- If you enter the Responsible Person, you must enter the due date, and you may enter the names of any Collaborators or Followers in the corresponding fields.
- Click
.
This item will either need to be edited to include a start date or will need to be manually activated at the right time.
Specific Date
- Enter the start date.
- You must fill out the “Responsible” field, the “Start Date” field, and the “Due Date” field, and you may enter the names of any Collaborators or Followers in the corresponding fields.
- Click .
This item will automatically become active when the start date you entered comes around.
Dependent On
- If you want this item to activate based on the start date of another item, select “Start Of.”
If you want this item to activate based on the completion date of another item, select “Completion Of.” - Select the item(s) on which this item should be dependent in the “Choose the item(s) this is dependent on…” field.
- If you want this item to activate a certain number of days before the start/completion date of the selected item, enter that number in the “# of Days” field and select “Before.”
If you want this item to activate a certain number of days after the start/completion date of the selected item, enter that number in the “# of Days” field and select “After.”
If you want this item to activate immediately upon the start/completion date of the selected item, just set the “# of Days” field to 0. - To have the item’s due date be automatically calculated and set, enter the number of days it should take to be completed in the “Days to Complete” field.
- Click .
This item will automatically become active after every item you entered in the “Completion Of” field have been completed.
You can see a list of every Project, Improvement, or Task this item is waiting on, as well as a list of every item waiting on it, on this Improvement’s main page.
NOTE: Reopening one of the items this Improvement depends on after it has been activated will not revert this Improvement into the Planned status.