Kavi Help CenterKavi® Status Tracker Help
| Chapter 6. Configuring and Using Activity Types | ||
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Part I. Kavi Status Tracker Concepts and How-To Documents | 
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Table of Contents
Activity Types provide instructions and all the activity data fields that are needed to schedule and record a specific type of activity. Your organization should have an Activity Type for every activity that appears in its project activity schedules.
An Activity Type is a template that is used when an activity is added to a project's activity schedule.When a Status Tracker Admins or Project Recorder wants to add an activity to a project's activity schedule, the administrator or Project Recorder selects the Activity Types that he or she wants to add. The Add an Activity tool displays all the activity data fields that are associated with the selected Activity Type. Activity data fields can include lookups that draw data from the Kavi® Groups or Kavi® Members databases, such as the name of the Owning Group or Project Editor.
Activity Types are one of the building blocks used in Project Types, which are templates on which projects are based. When a Status Tracker Super Admin adds a new Project Type, a global list of all of the organization's Activity Types is presented so the Super Admin can select those that are appropriate for this Project Type. Projects based on this Project Type will have all of these Activity Types available.
Back to topA fairly extensive set of Activity Types is needed to meet the needs of most organizations. The challenge is to identify a set that is as large as necessary, while still lean enough to be manageable. Kavi Status Tracker installs a slim set of Activity Types by default, as documented in the Default Activity Types document in the Appendix. Your organization will need to customize and expand these to create its own set of Activity Types.
As mentioned in the Concepts document Kavi Status Tracker Setup, it's easiest to begin by determining which Project Types your organization needs, then identify which types of activities occur in each Project Type. To divide the task up into even smaller units, you could use Project States, and develop separate lists of Activity Types for each Project State used in each Project Type. Once you have comprehensive lists of all the Activity Types needed in each Project Type, these list must be merged into a single Activity Types list, since the list maintained in the Super Admin Activity Types tool is global. After setup, Activity Types can always be added or edited to fine-tune the list or expand the available types when a new Project Type is added.
Tips
The Activity Types list tends to be long. To keep the list streamlined while simultaneously providing a comprehensive set of Activity Types, try to keep the types generic whenever possible. For example, a 'Send Ballot Reminder' Activity Type would be useful for any Project Type that involves balloting.
Certain Activity Types represent milestones in the project lifecycle. If the Project State should be set to a different value when the activity is recorded as complete, be sure to include this information in the Activity Type instructions. Instructions can also include information on submissions, what kind of ballot report to generate, etc.
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A naming convention can make it easier for users to find their desired Activity Type in a long list of Activity Types. Simply begin the names of related Activity Types with the same short phrase. For example, work done by a specific entity can begin with the name of that entity. So a set of related Activity Types might be named:
Technical Committee - Review
Technical Committee - Ballot Reminder
Technical Committee - Ballot
Technical Committee - Ballot Results Published
Activity Types whose names begin with the same word are grouped together when alpha-sorted. The groups of similarly named terms stand out when the list of Activity Types is scanned. Activity Types grouped by name might all be tasks that occur during a specific phase of the project lifecycle (possibly corresponding to a Project State) such as 'Data Gathering', 'Trial Period' or 'Publication'. The group could also be defined by Project Type, if this Project Type has some Activity Types that are distinct from other Project Types, for example: 'White Paper', 'Recommended Practice', etc.
If your are adding a new Activity Type, make sure that all the required activity data fields exist before adding the Activity Type. But if a data field does have to be added to an Activity Type later, the Activity Type can always be edited.
These instructions describe one approach to consider when identifying the Activity Types your organization needs for its initial set of Project Types. The graphic shows how to merge Activity Type lists for different Project Types into a global list.
Beginning with the most complex Project Type, create an ordered list of activities that can occur during this type of project. You might find it easiest to divide the Activity Types up even further by listing the Project States, then the order in which activities occur under each of the different states. You'll probably want to prepare this information in a spreadsheet, but some prefer to work it out on whiteboard or scratch paper.
For each Activity Type, list any data fields that are required in addition to the default activity data fields listed in the Appendix. These additional data fields need to be added by an engineer before the Activity Types are added. For more information, see Identify Activity Data Fields in the Concepts document Kavi Status Tracker Setup.
Decide which Activity Types are auditable for reporting purposes and flag these with an asterisk or color-coded highlighter, etc.
Each Activity Type can include instructions on how and when to use the Activity Type, references to the applicable sections of the organization's bylaws, etc. Any ideas for instructions that come up now could be jotted down somewhere, and a more complete set of instructions can be added after the global list of Activity Types is compiled. Instructions can always be expanded later as time permits and the organization's processes evolve.
Repeat this process for each Project Type.
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Now merge the Activity Types from all these Project Types into a single, global list. If you used Project State as a subheading when creating the lists of Activity Types, you can use these subheadings to help when merging the Activity Types.
Many Activity Types will be shared by more than one Project Type. If there is a conflict in the order, the order set in the more complex Project Type should take precedence.
Activity Types that aren't shared must be merged into the main list in the most appropriate order.
Figure 6.1. Global Versus Project Type Activity Types Lists
The Global list of Activity Types is a comprehensive list of all Activity Types in the Kavi Status Tracker, whereas a Project Type only includes relevant Activity Types, so a Project Type Activity Types list is a subset of the global Activity Types list, as shown in this diagram.
Prior to site setup, the organization determines which Project Types it needs and which Activity Types are needed for each Project Type. These are merged into a global list and added to Kavi Status Tracker through Activity Types tools in the Super Admin Area. Once the global Activity Types list exists, the process is reversed, as the relevant Activity Types are selected for each Project Type as the Project Type is added.
The Activity Types tools are available through the Status Tracker Super Admin menu. As mentioned, the list of Activity Types displayed through these tools is global. Once an Activity Type exists, it is added to a Project Type through the Project Types tools. When Project Recorders view Activity Types under a project, they only see the list of Activity Types associated with this Project Type.
Here are some general tips for adding and editing Activity Types. For information on how to use a specific Kavi Status Tracker tool, click the help icon on the tool page.
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Default data fields are automatically assigned to every Activity Type. If additional data fields are required, these need to be added before the Activity Type is added.
If a data field has to be added after the Activity Type is created, the Activity Type can be edited.
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When adding Activity Types during the setup process, add the fields in order from first to last in the order specified in the requirements. The Order field is set to 'Bottom' by default, so you shouldn't need to touch this field during setup.
When adding an Activity Type after setup, you need to determine where it fits into the global Activity Types list.
The order can always be changed later if needed.
If an existing Activity Type is edited or deleted, the action affects all projects that contain that Activity Type.
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| Chapter 5. Managing Project States |  |
Chapter 7. Project Type Configuration and Use |