Tasks

Tasks

A task represents some business-meaningful activity that has starting and ending points and a measurable duration. Duration is estimated when a task is created and the value is used to compute the segment's progress. As with segments, tasks can be assigned executor roles.

When you create a segment, you choose whether the tasks it contains are done sequentially or in parallel. Your choice determines when tasks are eligible to run and how the segment's duration is calculated. The parallel pattern assumes that all tasks start when the segment starts and the duration is equal to the length of the longest task. The sequential pattern also assumes that all tasks start when the segment starts, but duration is calculated by adding the times for all tasks. Finally, i f you specify the Sequential Execution Enforced option, only the first task starts when the segment starts and all tasks must be done in the order listed. Some tasks can have prerequisite tasks that might affect the execution pattern.

Manual tasks

A manual task can represent any activity that is related to a release, such as taking a server offline.

Automated deploy tasks

An automated deploy task is an application process that is imported from IBM UrbanCode Deploy. When an automated deploy task starts, feedback is generated as the task interacts with IBM UrbanCode Deploy. For information about integrating with IBM UrbanCode Deploy, see Integrating.

Signal and wait tasks

A signal task is a checkpoint for corresponding wait tasks. Wait tasks wait for associated signal tasks to be resolved. Until a signal task is resolved, an associated wait task cannot be resolved. While signal and wait tasks can be used within a single deployment or deployments for a single release, they are typically used in enterprise-wide release events that involve several releases. Signal tasks in releases with enterprise-wide events are global checkpoints. By organizing signal and wait tasks, multiple deployments can be orchestrated into a single, enterprise-wide release event.

Notification tasks

A notification task sends email notifications to selected users when the task runs. Notification tasks, like automatic tasks, run as soon as they are eligible to run. The recipients for notification tasks can be designated by role or email address.

Plug-in tasks

Like automated deploy tasks, plug-in tasks interact with external tools or products. Plug-in tasks can listen for events and run plug-in steps when the events are detected.

SLA tasks

SLA tasks represent critical events, delays, and planned outages. There are three SLA task types: critical event, outage, and wait for time.

Dependent and prerequisite tasks

A task can depend on another task, or act as a prerequisite for another task. When a task depends on another task, it cannot start until the prerequisite task is complete. A task can have multiple dependent tasks and multiple prerequisite tasks. If a task has multiple prerequisite tasks, it cannot start until all prerequisite tasks are completed.

A task can have a dependency relationship with tasks in other segments within its deployment plan. You can define dependencies when you create a deployment plan, or when you run a deployment.