Issue States and Transitions

The issue work item documents an event or situation that may block work or is currently blocking work on the product. Issues differ from risks in that they are identified spontaneously, generally during daily team meetings. Issue work items are reviewed and analyzed to create tasks to resolve the issue. Once corrective action is taken, by completing the tasks, the issue is resolved. Finally, if the corrective action is deemed acceptable, the issue is closed.

New

Issue work items are created spontaneously as they are discovered, generally as part of daily team meetings.

New to Active

New	An issue is activated as a new issue when it is first created.

Active

An active issue represents a problem that must be addressed to prevent work from being blocked, or to unblock work already in progress. Active issues are reviewed and analyzed. The review may reveal that an issue was created when none existed, in which case the issue is rejected. If the issue is real, the active issue is analyzed to create tasks to take corrective action. When the corrective action is complete, the issue is resolved.

Active to Resolved

Resolved

An issue is resolved as Resolved when tasks have been completed to take corrective action.

Active to Closed

Rejected (Not an Issue)

An issue is closed as Rejected (Not an Issue) when the review determines that the issue does not really exist. Either the cause is incorrect, or the problem is described incorrectly.

Resolved

A resolved issue indicates that corrective action has taken place and the issue is no longer a problem. The corrective action must be evaluated, and if acceptable, the issue will be closed. If the corrective action is not acceptable, the issue will return to an Active state for further work.

Resolved to Active

Rework

An issue is reactivated as Rework when the corrective action is determined to be insufficient, or incorrect for addressing the issue.

Resolved to Closed

Resolution Accepted

An issue is closed as Resolution Accepted when the corrective action is determined to be sufficient to address the problem.

Closed

A closed issue is done and no longer worked on. Issues are closed when correct action has been taken and the resolution is accepted. Issues are also closed if they are rejected as not an issue and therefore do not require work.

Closed to Active

Closed in Error	An issue is reactivated as Closed in Error when the issue was inadvertently closed.
Re-opened	An issue is reactivated as Re-opened if there is some part of the issue that needs further work.
Re-occurred	An issue is reactivated as Re-occurred when the event or situation that caused the issue repeats itself.