Action Plans

An action plan groups related work into one accountable package. It is the container; the actual work items are its detail items, each with its own performers, dates and state machine.

Action Management is used on its own for standalone improvement programmes, and consumed by other modules — a CAPA or a customer complaint raises actions through the same mechanism.

Fields

• Code
  Unique identifier for the plan.

• Name
  What the plan is for.

• Description
  Optional detail about the plan's objective and scope.

• Action source
  Optional. Where this plan originated — see Action Sources.

Responsibilities

Collection	Purpose
Responsibles	The identities accountable for the plan as a whole.
Informers	Notification targets. They are kept aware but hold no task.
Organization units	The organization units the plan relates to.

Like everywhere else in QDMS Now, these accept users, roles, user groups, positions and organization units — not only named individuals.

Attachments

Files supporting the plan: the decision it came from, the analysis behind it, reference material.

Custom fields

Action plans support extended properties — additional fields defined for your organization through Function Design. If your plan screen has fields not described here, they were added this way.

Creating an action plan

1. Open Action Management → Action Plans and choose New.
2. Enter the code and name.
3. Select the action source if the plan came from a defined source.
4. Assign the responsibles, informers and organization units.
5. Attach supporting files.
6. Save.
7. Add the detail items — the actual work.

note

The plan itself has no state machine. Progress is tracked on the detail items, which each move through draft, active, completed or cancelled independently.

tip

Keep plans narrow enough that "is this plan done?" has a clear answer. A plan with forty loosely related details never visibly finishes, and stops being something anybody feels accountable for.