Phases are a way to organize tasks. Usually the phases model an organization’s business process.
Task are actions that can be assigned to team members to move the contract through its lifecycle.
- Something that needs to be done
- By a specific person
- By a specific time
- Can be part of phases
- Can be optional or required
- Can have a predecessor
- Task/Phase cannot be started until all predecessor task has been completed
Phases
You can place tasks into phases to help you organize them. You can quickly view the status of each phase within the Process content area in the full view of a project. Phases enable you to:
- Organize tasks into phases that match your business model.
- Specify task due dates relative to the start of the parent phase for a task instead of a fixed date. This enables you to establish task start dates when you create a project or project template.
- Enforce workflow order. You can specify predecessors for phases so that users are unable to start tasks in a phase until the predecessor phase or task is complete.
When all required tasks in a phase are completed, SAP Ariba Contracts automatically marks that phase as completed by default.
What is a Task?
A task is an action assigned to a user to be completed, such as completing a form or reviewing or approving a document. Projects can be created with a default set of tasks that are defined in the project template. When a user is assigned a task, the system:
- Adds the task to the user's My Tasks page.
- Adds the task to the user’s calendar. The task status can indicate an action required by the user.
- Sends an email notification to the user.
- If a task has a due date or end date specified, Ariba Spend Management also adds the task the user’s To Do portlet.
By default, Ariba Spend Management also sends an email notification to the user who created or submitted the task.
Task Types
| (Document) To Do | An action (on a document) performed by the task owner, example - set up a meeting. |
| Review | Tasks that route a document to other users to review and redline. The task owner creates a list of reviewers. Reviewers then can add to the workflow, submit comments and attachments. |
| Approval | Approvers have the authority to approve or deny a document with comments. These tasks are used to make sure that users have signed off on critical contract documents before they’re published. |
| Negotiation | Tasks that capture the negotiations between two or more parties. The task owner creates a list of negotiators. Negotiators can add to the workflow, submit changes and comments, as well as attachments. |
| Signature | Available only with a 3rd party vendor integrated with SAP Ariba Contracts to obtain eSignature on contract documents rather than on paper. |
| Notification | Tasks that send email reminders to recipients. It is used primarily after the contract is published to remind users to take some action, such as check contract activity or market pricing. These reminders can be set up to be sent once or repeatedly on a scheduled basis. |
Task Details
Task Details include the following:
- Task Name
- Task Owner
- Task Description
- Task Status
- Task Start Date
- Task Due Date
- Task Predecessors
- Task History
- Milestone
- Required/Optional
- Notification Profile
- Associated Documents
- Approval and Review Flow
Once a task owner is notified by the system that he has a task to complete, he clicks on the task link to access an Action menu. The task detail screen displays the task name and the task description. It also includes links to the associated document or folder, if applicable, that allows the task owner to upload and download the document(s).
If the task happens to be a Review, Approval, or Negotiation task inherited from the SAP Ariba Contracts, the View Details screen may also display fields for the Reviewers, the Due Date, and Comments. The bottom section of the task details screen displays two tabs: The Properties tab shows information about the task, such as the current status of the task and the task owner. The Task History tab shows any comments the task owner has made when completing this task.
If the task is an Approval task, Review task, or a Negotiation task, there will be a third tab labeled ‘Approval Flow’, ‘Review Flow’, or ‘Negotiation Flow’ respectively, which will display the user(s) who must approve/review/negotiate the document(s).
Required vs. Optional Tasks
Tasks can be set as required to exercise control over the users of the template and ensure compliance with the organization’s standard procedures for contract creation. Required tasks are denoted with an asterisk (*). Some tasks may be set as optional and provided to users to implement at their own discretion. You can also tell if a task is required vs. optional by hovering your mouse over the task and viewing the rollover text.
Note
Signature tasks are always required.
Optional tasks may be canceled. Canceling a task does not remove it from the project. Canceled tasks are marked with a red ‘x’ on the project view and can be reactivated by the project owner by using the filtering options on the Tasks tab to display canceled tasks, selecting the desired task and select Reactivate.
Task Statuses
For To Do and Document To Do tasks, the task owner clicks Mark Started on the View Details page to let others know that work on that task has begun. This changes the status of the task to In Progress. The new task status will be displayed on the Task tab. Marking the task as started is optional, but is recommended since it lets other users who can view the project see for themselves that work has begun on the task.
Marking the task as started is also recommended since it is the only way Ariba Analysis can provide a report showing the actual duration of tasks and phases. This information can alert your organization of bottlenecks in the process.
In other task types, you submit the task rather than marking it as started. The task status changes as shown above. When the work is done for To Do Tasks, Document To Do Tasks, Review Tasks or Negotiation Tasks, the task owner marks the task as complete by either clicking on the task link and selecting Mark Complete from the menu, or by viewing the Task Details page and clicking the Mark Complete button. Once this is done, the Tasks tab will reflect the status as Complete. The exception is the Review task, whose status will change to Reviewed. Everyone who can view the project can see for themselves that the task has been done.
All required tasks within a phase must be marked complete before the phase can be marked as complete. The status of Approval Tasks will automatically update to Approved once all of the reviewers have approved the task. Each user can control what tasks are displayed on the Tasks tab by using the filter menus. For example, you can display only tasks with the status of Not Started. In addition, you can control what columns are displayed by using the table options menu. Click the icon and select the columns you want to see.
