• An Issue is entered into the system, and an Employee is designated to disposition the Issue. Dispositions typically involve a short-term corrective action meant to address only this single occurrence of the problem. The Issue appears in the Personal Tasks of the Employee selected for disposition.
• A Disposition is entered and an Employee is designated to implement long-term corrective and/or preventive action. The Issue appears in the Personal Tasks of the Employee selected to designate the Action.
• The Issue is assigned to an Action, either a new one or an existing one. Multiple Issues can be assigned to the same Action. The Action implements a long-term solution designed to prevent reoccurrence of the problems (Issues) assigned to it. The Issue no longer lists in the Personal Tasks of any user, but continues to list in the Status page until the Action it has been assigned to is closed. Closing the Action (or designating it as ongoing) completes the process.

Optionally, an Issue category can be configured to support a more direct 2-step process. In this case, the intermediate Disposition step is omitted and a new Issue is assigned to an Employee for Action, instead of for Disposition.

While viewing an Issue, you are presented with several action links. The links available depend on these factors:

• Status of Issue
• Your Department membership. See Department Related Security Notes for details on how the current department can affect workflow related buttons and links.
• Your permissions and functional restrictions
• CATSWeb system options purchased by your company

These links are available regardless of the Issue status (unless the record is locked via signature controlled operations):

• Add Attachment - Add a File Attachment to the Issue. File Attachments are uploaded and stored securely in the CATSWeb database.
• Add Link - Add an ad-hoc Link from the Issue to any item on the Internet/intranet including web pages, documents, drawings, or other CATSWeb records.
• Add Note - Allows a new Note to be added to the Issue.
• Sign - Presents a dialog which allows you to add your Signature to the Issue. You may choose from a list of signature types that is controlled by your CATSWeb administrator. Signatures cannot be edited or deleted.
• Copy - Makes a copy of the Issue.
• Forward Copy by E-mail - Allows a copy of the Issue to be forwarded by E-mail.
• Route to Affiliate - Allows a copy of the Issue to be forwarded by E-mail to the affiliate user, along with other information you provide. The affiliate user may then access this record live on the CATSWeb system.
• View Edit History - If your system has the optional Record Archiving feature installed, this link allows you to view past versions of the record, including past versions of associated Notes, File Attachments, Links, Signatures, and Affiliate Routings.
• Highlight Changes - If your system has the optional Record Archiving feature installed, this link allows you to view the record with prior field values present and highlighted.
• Tags - This link jumps down to near the bottom of the page where public or private tags may be viewed and added if you have sufficient permissions.

These links are available if the issue is awaiting disposition (a disposition request):

• Edit - Edit the Issue.
• Enter Final Disposition - Launches a form which allows you to enter the final disposition for the Issue. After the Disposition is entered, the Issue moves forward in the workflow process and becomes an Action request.
• Reassign Disposition - Enables you to reassign the Disposition request to a different user.
• Edit Disposition - Enables you to enter Disposition information and optionally reassign the Disposition request without moving the Issue to the next workflow stage (Action request). This allows for flexible workflow where many people may collaborate on determining the Disposition. The Enter Final Disposition button can then later be used to finalize the Disposition and move the Issue forward in the workflow to become an Action request.

These links are available if the issue has been dispositioned and is awaiting Action (an Action request):

• Assign to Existing Action - Allows you to assign the Issue to an existing Action project.
• Create New Action - Allows you to create a new Action project, and automatically assign the Issue to that Action.
• Reassign Action Request Enables you to reassign the Action request to a different user.
• Return to Disposition Stage - Enables you to send the Issue back in the workflow process to the Disposition stage (make it a Disposition request).

These links are available if the Issue has already been assigned to an Action:

• Return to Disposition Stage - Enables you to send the Issue back in the workflow process to the Disposition stage (make it a Disposition request).
• Reassign Issue to a Different Action - Self-explanatory.