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Page frame name:

FRAME_PORTAL_ACTION_PLAN

The Action Plan page is designed to let the user view all objects (i.e. "violations") that have been selected for action in the next snapshot generation process. Users can then use the list to focus their re-mediation work. Think of it as a "to do list". Objects can be added to the Action Plan page via two methods (see sections below).

Please note that a user must be authorized to access at least one Application in order to use the Action Plan page.

Layout

Interactive table

This pages uses an interactive table to display data. Interactive tables allow you to sort the data in a more comprehensive manner than simply in ascending/descending order. See the section Interactive tables in Using the CAST Engineering Dashboard.

Column headings and buttons

Item	Description
	This indicates: Total number of objects listed in the Action Plan (Red) Total number of objects in the Action Plan that are STILL violating a rule since the last snapshot was generated (i.e. the problem has not been fixed) (Green) Total number of objects in the Action Plan that have been corrected and are no longer violating a rule since the last snapshot was generated (Grey) Total number of objects in the Action Plan that have been added to the list since the last snapshot was generated (their status will be checked during the next snapshot generation Please note that if the correction of a violation listed in the Action Plan involves the removal of the object that is causing the violation, then the Action Plan will not be able to display a green icon for that particular object following the generation of a new snapshot simply because the object no longer exists in the CAST Dashboard Service. As such, the violation will just disappear from the Action Plan.
	Use this button to remove objects (violations) from the Action Plan list that have been corrected.
URL: Action Plan Automation Administration	See the section below Automatically adding violations to the Action Plan list for more information about this option.
Action	This column indicates (with an icon) various states for a violation in the list: - violation is set for Action, i.e., work needs to be carried out before the next snapshot generation - violation has been added to the Action Plan automatically (see the section below Automatically adding violations to the Action Plan list for more information about this option). no icon - violation is reset (see Reset button explanation below) and the object will be Removed from the Action Plan when the page is refreshed or you move to another page and then go back to the Action Plan.
Status	See the description of the status colours in the first row of this table.
Last Update	Indicates the date the violation was added to the list.
Priority	Indicates the priority given to the object when the object is added (whether manually or automatically) to the list.
Comment	Indicates the comment given to the object when the object is added (whether manually or automatically) to the list.
Rule Name	Displays the name of the Quality Rule that the object has violated.
Object Name	Displays the full name of the object causing the violation.
Technical Criterion	Displays the name of the Technical Criterion to which the violated Quality Rule belongs.
	Use this button to edit an existing violation marked for Action (change the Comment, or alter the Priority)
	Use this button to change a violation marked for Action into an Exclusion. When doing so the list will automatically refresh and the excluded violation will no longer be displayed.
	Reset the status of a violation: the item will be removed from the Action Plan and will no longer be visible.
	Exports the list to CSV format. See the section Export to CSV in Using the CAST Engineering Dashboard.

Manually adding violations to the Action Plan

You can manually add a violation to the Action Plan page from a variety of locations, for example:

Adding single violations to the Action Plan

To add a single violation to the Action Plan when working in a page that lists objects (such as a Reports - FAQuery - "List of objects excluded from quality rule computations") select the object and use the buttons towards the bottom of the page:

I.e.:

Button

Description

A floating dialog box will appear enabling you to add a Comment to help identify why the object has been added to the Action Plan, and also allowing you to choose a Priority for the fixing the problem (these can then be seen in the Action Plan):

Click Confirm to add the object or Cancel to abort the process.

This will exclude the object from the next snapshot generation (when the next snapshot is run, the excluded object will be added to the Reports - FAQuery - "List of objects excluded from quality rule computations"). A floating dialog box will appear enabling you to add a Comment to help identify why the object has been excluded:

Click Confirm to add the object or Cancel to abort the process.

Note that when you exclude an object it will not be visible in the Action Plan (the Action Plan only displays objects marked for "Action", not "Exclusion").

Adding multiple violations to the Action Plan

To add multiple violations to the Action Plan when working in a page that lists objects (such as a Reports - FAQuery - "List of objects excluded from quality rule computations") select the objects using the mouse and a combination of either the CTRL or SHIFT keys, and then use the buttons towards the bottom of the page, exactly as outlined in the section above for single objects.

Note that the same Comments and Priority will apply to ALL the violations added to the Action Plan in one go.

Automatically adding violations to the Action Plan list

If you would like to automatically add violations to the Action Plan list at Snapshot Generation time or on an ad-hoc basis, you can do this by accessing the Action Plan Administration page (click the URL in the top right of the Improvement - Action Plan page) and setting up criteria to determine whether a violation will be automatically added to the Action Plan list:

This will then launch the Action Plan Administration page (FRAME_PORTAL_ADMIN_ACTION_PLAN) where you can configure the criteria that will force a violation to be automatically added to the Improvement - Action Plan page (if you have not used this page before, no existing criteria will be displayed):

Note that it is also possible to access the Action Plan Administration page from the Quick Access page.

Adding criteria

To begin configuring the criteria that will automatically determine whether a violation should be added to the Action Plan list, click the Add Criteria button. This will take you to a further set of configuration options:

You can configure:

the type of criterion to use to filter: Business Criterion, Technical Criterion, or Quality Rule - when dealing with Business Criterion and Technical Criterion, this means that all violations to rules contributing to these criteria will be considered
the Business Criterion, Technical Criterion, or Quality Rule to use
to take into account critical violations alone
to take into account violations that have been added since the last snapshot
the priority to assign to the selection so that end-users can sort the Action Plan according to the priority you set
a comment to add to the selection
whether the criterion is Active or not using the Active check box

Descriptions of the various options are available as tooltips on the question mark icons.

Preview Results

Once you have configured your criteria, you can use the Preview Results button to check that the criteria you have configured are correct. A new page will be displayed in which you can preview the results from the current Snapshot. Modify the criteria if your preview results contain any violations you do not require.

Save the criteria

When you are happy with the configured criteria, use the Save button to save the criteria - the criteria will be displayed in a list in the Action Plan Automation Administration page:

Working with Criteria

Once you have criteria listed in the Action Plan Automation Administration page, you can then work with them:

Use the check boxes to select criteria for removal
Use the Move Up/Move Down arrows to sort the order in which the criteria are displayed and processed. Criteria are processed from the top of the list to the bottom (a violation matching a first criterion will not be selected again by any other criteria).
Click the URL name of the criteria to access the configuration page and modify the existing settings - do not forget to save the criteria if you make a change
Use the Delete Backlog option when you want to delete from the Action Plan all the violations that were previously selected automatically. It can be useful to avoid creating a backlog of Violations that could slow down the development process in agile organizations.
Use the Preview Results button to preview a list of all violations that will be added to the Action Plan list - this button will included results from ALL criteria that have been saved and are displayed in the current page and from the current Snapshot
Use the Generate Now button if you want to run the automated selection process now rather than waiting for the next Snapshot Generation process - this may take some time if you have a large number of criteria. The Action Plan list will then be displayed - automatically selected violations are depicted using a "cog" icon:

Use the Purge Results button to remove all automatically selected violations from the Action Plan.

Page tree

Improvement - Action Plan