« Back to Planio Blog

Brian Sheehan on June 26, 2012

Brian Sheehan

As a Technical Writer and Blogger, Brian enjoys the challenge of bringing concepts to life via the written word. He is a big fan of project management, technology, and cheeseburgers.

June 26, 2012 · 2 min read

In our last "Planio Tricks" article series, we talked about the wonderful world of trackers and how they can be selected, edited, viewed and grouped. Today we'll step back and have a look at new issues and introduce the different parameters you'll encounter when creating one.

Issues can be comprised of much more than their four required fields (tracker, subject, status and priority); in fact, there are a ton of useful fields that can really bring your Planio issues to life. Let's explore them by walking through the process of creating a new issue:

1. In the Tracker field, select the most appropriate issue tracker category (learn more about trackers here).
2. In the Private field, select the check box to indicate that the issue is a private issue. Based on role permissions, a private issue will not be visible to other users, though they may see other issues within the same project.
3. In the Subject field, enter a brief yet meaningful subject title for the issue.
4. In the Description field, describe the nature of the issue.
5. In the Status field, select the current status of the new issue.
6. In the Priority field, select the relative importance of the issue in terms of its priority with other issues.
7. In the Assignee field, select the person to whom the issue should be assigned. The assignee, like a watcher (see below), receives e-mail notifications when an update to the issue occurs.
8. In the Parent task field, enter a task/issue number or enter keyword text of a task that is a parent to your task — the Planio system will actively display all tasks that match your text. Click the parent task when it appears.
9. In the Start date field, enter the date when the issue should begin in yyyy-mm-dd format or click the icon to launch the mini-calendar.
10. In the Due date field, enter the date when the issue is due in yyyy-mm-dd format or click the icon to launch the mini-calendar.
11. In the Estimated time field, enter the number of hours to be allocated to the issue.
12. In the % Done field, select the current percentile value of the issue's completion rate.
13. In the Files field, click Click to select files (200 MB max per file) to launch the file upload tool. This parameter is used to attach files that are relevant to the issue.
14. In the Watchers¹ field, select the check box(es) to indicate other people who should be kept aware of the issue via automatic notifications.
15. In the Customer company¹ field, select the name of the company associated with the issue.
16. In the Customer contact¹ field, select the name of the contact within the company who is associated with the issue. Both companies and contacts are configured in the Customers tab.
17. Click Create to finalize the issue and view its details; or,
18. Click Create and continue to finalise the issue and create an additional issue; or,
19. Click Preview to view the appearance of the issue's description (very useful if you have included wiki syntax text in your description).

¹ Availability based on role permissions. Customer company and contact requires the CRM & Helpdesk application.

Spotlight: The Status Field

Assigning a status to an issue is pretty straightforward: during issue creation or editing just select the most appropriate option (if you want to define custom statuses or workflows, you may want to check out this FAQ entry).

Status field options, like many fields in Planio, can be customized according to your organization's needs. For example, in a change management or customer service environment, status options might include new, in progress, resolved, feedback, closed and rejected:

Of course if your organization is a bit more laid-back, you may prefer something along these lines...

If you're a PM, using watchers is a great way to keep everyone in your organization in the loop when it comes to project issues. Do you include issue watchers? Tell us how you customize your Planio issues via a Comment below!

Your dedicated Planio blogger, Brian, is currently studying German, reading "The Canterbury Tales," and (of course) preparing a cheeseburger for dinner.