Tasks & Task Center
EQMS systems bring one large area of improvement that is rarely discussed: the ability to assign and track user jobs or "Tasks" within the system instead of through external platforms like email, phone calls, conversations, etc.
Ideally every necessary action on a record by someone other than the initiator starts with a Task. This introduces accountability and traceablity throughout the system. "Hey so and so can you update this record?" "Sure". Mark task complete.
The largest barrier to real world success is user adoption. Most Task systems are too complicated.
FreeQMS uses a single unified Task System.
There are no user "notifications". There is no separate notification vs Task system. In designing this system we wanted a single "springboard" where users could find pending actions.
The Tasks center is the first option for every user on the upper left of the FreeQMS navigation.
System Tasks update and close automatically as records change.
From here users will see not just Tasks assigned by other users, but also a variety of automatically generated system tasks (to greatly reduce manual task assignment and user legwork).
Task Status replaces the difficulty of Notifications
In FreeQMS, Task Status takes the place of "Notifications" in other systems. Notifications are transient, difficult to remember, and hard to track. Building Statuses into Tasks allows users to easily see the ongoing progress on a Task without having to rely on a separate, confusing notification system.
Closed Tasks remain visible as a history.
Once Tasks are Closed, then remain visible in the Tasks center. This allows users to easily pull up recent records.
The FreeQMS Task Center incorporates the "Tasks I Assigned to Others" tab.
FreeQMS is built from the ground up to be user friendly, and not just for the QA department. All users involved in the quality of records and processes need to easily locate and interact with ongoing record changes.
From this tab a logged in user can easily find Tasks they assigned to other users, check their status, and follow up if necessary. Other systems show a Task to the Assignee, but do not track Tasks for the Assignor. This makes follow-up difficult, and short of running a manual report, often impossible to track down Open Tasks. Not with FreeQMS.
