The Review Support extension view is a structured review process tool that supports users in performing reviews in SystemWeaver. It is built upon the SystemWeaver Change Management System (CMS). So while the option is always available to you to work in Projects, the Review Support view lets you work "closer" to the items during setup. 


Once a review and its tasks have been created, and the tasks have been assigned to the appropriate reviewers, the reviewers can use the Review Support view to perform their review. This entails created comments linked to review tasks, setting a status on each comment, and then returning the comments to someone else for review and possible actions. This article describes how to use the view to perform a review by adding review comments to review tasks. 


Prerequisites

  • An installation of the SystemWeaver Explorer client (swExplorer) version R35 or later
  • The SystemWeaver SWExtension.ReviewSupport extension view has been configured and activated by an Architect
  • The SWExtension.ReviewSupport extension file is located in the Client's swExplorerExtensions directory
  • Access to an existing Project in SystemWeaver where the review is performed
  • The review and its tasks have been created


The view is accessible via menu options on the ribbon that have been configured by an Architect. An option becomes available when an item is selected for which the view has been configured. Below is an example of a configured option. 


Example Menu Option


The view is also available via the View drop-down at the bottom of the list by ribbon group name. 

Getting Acquainted with the View

The view consists of two panes - one for Review and Task, and one for Comments.


Note: Labels for Issue types in this view are based on the set-up of issue types in the Project. In this article, we use issue types called Review, Task and Comment to describe the workflow. The labels in your view may differ.


Review and Task Section

Review

The Review section is where you select a review for the selected item structure to work on. A drop-down list is provided since there may be more than one review associated with an item.



Note:  If the Review list appears blank, there are no reviews associated with the selected item in the tree.


Task

The Task section is where you view and select review tasks to work on in the selected review. 



There is a filtering option to the far right so that you can choose to view either only the review tasks assigned to you, or to view all tasks in the selected review.



 Show only assigned to you


Show all review tasks


Comments Section

The Comments issue type is for providing feedback to the review organizer as a result of your review. This section is for adding and viewing comments. 



For all issue types, i.e., Review, Review Task, and Comment, the following information is provided: 

  • Name: The name of the issue 
  • Status: The status of the issue
  • Assigned to: The user who is responsible for the issue
  • Reporter: The reporter of the issue, i.e., the user who created the it

Selecting a Review

To access a review, you must first select the item in the structure tree that the review is linked to. 


Tip: If you are not sure which item the review is assigned to, consider using the Issues view to locate the review before loading the Review Support view. Example:


Once you have selected the item in the structure, load the Review Support view. When the view has been loaded, the first thing to do is to select the review to work with if there are multiple to chose from. To do this, find the review in the Review drop-down list and select it. 



When the list is expanded, additional information about the reviews will be displayed, such as Status, who the review is Assigned to and who the Reporter of the review is. The colored border on the far left side of each review is an indicator of its status. In the above example, purple indicates a status of "Started".

Locking and Unlocking the Review

After the correct review has been selected, it is recommended you click on the Lock button to the far right to lock the view in place so that you can navigate away from the selected item and move throughout the tree. This way, the selected review will remain in focus while you select other items in the structure tree as needed during your work.


Selecting a Review Task

With a review selected, all tasks in the selected review will be listed by default in the Task drop-down list. The first review task in the list will be pre-selected. 



Note: If the Task list appears blank, there are no review tasks included in the review.



Tip: Click on the Filter button to the far right to filter the list so that only review tasks assigned to you are displayed. 


Select the task you want to work on. Below it, you will see information about the task such as its Status, who the task is Assigned to, who the Reporter of the task is, what item the task has been created for (On item) as well as the task's Description. If you need to edit the description, double-click in the field to open it in the Description editor.


Performing a Review Task

When performing a review task, a reviewer provides feedback on the reviewed item(s) in the form of comments that are, e.g.,  either purely informational or that need to be acted upon. When performing a review, it is recommended that you open the Review Support view in a secondary view. To do this press Shift and click on the view option on the Items ribbon. This opens the view to the right in the interface.



This enables you to access all the functionality of SystemWeaver on the left while still having access to the Review Support view. Just make sure to lock the secondary view to the selected item in the tree so that you can navigate freely without losing it. 


Creating a Comment

The Comments issue type is for providing feedback to the review organizer. The first step is to create the Comment issue. To do this, select the item that your comment relates to, and then click the Add Comment button. 



The New issue dialog will display with the Project pre-populated, and issue Type pre-set to "Comment". This is the same dialog used in CMS Projects so you will likely recognize it. 


You must enter a Name for the comment, and you have the option to set an Assigned to, change the Status (if allowed), and enter some Description content.  These later three can be set later as well. 



You do not have to make a selection for Item it relates to as this is done automatically when the Comment issue is created after clicking Create as shown in the below example.



Adding Comments and Setting Status

Once the issue is created, you can enter your comments or feedback text in the Description at any time by double-clicking in the white area to open the Description editor.  



To complete your feedback, select the appropriate Status for your comment. For example, based on your review, you may think that an action is required so you would select "Action Required". Note that depending on your setup, the statuses in your project may differ from the examples in this article. In our example, we have chosen to define 3 statuses (i.e., Action Required, No Action Required, Correction accepted) for a comment.

Assigning and Un-assigning a Comment

As mentioned above, when you create a new comment, you can assign it to yourself or someone else upon creation by selecting a user from the Assigned to list. Once you have completed a review task and created comment(s) and set the appropriate Status, you will likely be assigning the comment(s) to someone else, e.g., the owner of the item, the review responsible, so that they can determine, for example, if any updates are needed based on your feedback. 


To assign an existing comment to a user via the view, there are two options - Choose user and Assign to reporter.  



Choose user is used to assign the comment to any user who has access to the review project


 Assign to reporter is used to assign the comment to the user who created the review.


Unlinking an Item from a Comment

If an item is mistakenly linked to a comment, there is a Disconnect/Connect tool to unlink and link items and comments. To unlink an item from a comment, click the unlink button located to the right of the On Item: value. The item is immediately unlinked.



You can then select the correct item in the tree and link the comment to it using the same button. 


You can also simultaneously unlink from one item and link to another by selecting the new item in the tree and clicking directly on the current On Item value. In the below example, the item will be changed from "SystemExample" to "ClassicNode"



Click Yes to the Item selected confirmation dialog. 


Deleting Comments

The view provides an easy way to delete comments from a task. Load the review and then find the task that has the comment you want to delete. Click the X located at the bottom far right of the comment. 



Click Yes to confirm the comment deletion. 



The comment is now deleted from the database. 

Things to Consider

  • Remember that all users performing review tasks must have "Write" access to the review project.
  • All tasks and comments, and all relationships between them that are created via the view are also viewable and editable via Projects. The below example shows a selected Comment issue with its linked Item "SystemExample", and its one linked task.

What's Next?

Once review tasks are performed and comments added as result of that review, someone will typically need to review the comments and make a determination of next steps. See Completing and Closing a Review.