Document review cycle

The document review cycle includes the following phases and phase-related tasks: DRAFTING, REVISING, APPROVING, PUBLISHING, and CLOSURE. The document review cycle helps you manage how a document moves from drafting through approval, publishing, and closure. Depending on the phase, work can be collaborative or ownership-based. In DRAFTING and REVISING, authorized users can work together on the document through collaborative editing. In APPROVING, PUBLISHING, and CLOSURE, ownership-based workflow controls continue to apply.

Best practice for managing review cycles

Assign Review Queues based on the work required in each phase. The way users access and complete work depends on whether the phase supports collaborative editing or uses ownership-based task handling.

Available review cycle actions

Review cycle actions vary by workflow phase and support either collaborative editing or ownership-based task management. Review queues ensure that the right work is routed to the appropriate reviewers at each stage of the review process.

• DRAFTING and REVISING phases support collaborative editing, allowing assigned review queue members to work on the document without taking ownership.

• APPROVING, PUBLISHING, and CLOSURE phases follow an ownership-based model, where task ownership and assignment controls remain in effect.

The scope and completeness of a documentation review depend on the review layers or review queues configured for the document. When a review queue is created, you can do the following:

• Complete a Final Review: Assign a person or owning group to complete the final review.

• Edit collaboratively: In the DRAFTING and REVISING phases, authorized review queue members can collaboratively edit the document without taking ownership.

• Take Ownership: In the APPROVING, PUBLISHING, and CLOSURE phases, assign the task to yourself to work on it.

• Release Ownership: In ownership-based phases, release the task so another eligible user in the review queue can work on it.

• Mark Complete: Mark the document review or task as complete. If multiple users are still editing the document, Mark Complete can be unavailable until editing is finished.

• Add: Select the menu icon to add additional subsections or workflow steps to the document. The additional options include:
  • Add Section: Add new section to your document to complete the document review.
  • Add Step: Add new steps to the existing section in the document.
  • Add Edit: Add additional edit component to your document.
  • Add Approve: Add additional approval level before completing the document review cycle.
  • Add Revise: Add additional layer to revise the document before marking as complete.
  • Add Close: Add additional layer to close before marking the document as complete.
• Insert Snippet: Adds reusable snippets for your documentation.
• Remove: Removes the layers you added for your documentation.
• Restore: Restores the previous version of the document, if you have accidentally deleted a section or layer while performing document review.
• Manage Predecessor: You can assign predecessor task before completing a document review cycle.

It is recommended that Administrators select Enable Auto-assign to each phase of a review cycle to ensure someone has ownership.

Always close out a review cycle. If you do not, the cycle will appear to be open indefinitely. If you have a centralized policy team that manages policies, it is a best practice for that team to start (DRAFTING phase) and close out (CLOSURE phase) a review cycle. If you have a decentralized team, ensure that someone is responsible to close the review cycle.

Tasks in review cycle phases

In each phase, you can have any number and types of tasks. Certain types of tasks can only be added under certain phases, for example, approval task must under APPROVING phase.

The components of tasks in a review cycle includes the following:

• Checkmarks: Select the checkmark to complete phases and tasks.
• Clock: Select the clock icon to see the date and time for each completed phase.
• Info: Select the Info icon to see the review flow assigned.

Drafting

In the DRAFTING phase, a document may be written for the first time, or reviewed at the start of a review cycle. To speed drafting, reusable content such as components and widgets can be used. After the DRAFTING phase is complete, the document moves to the next phase and does not return to the DRAFTING phase. For more information, see Creating a document.

Revising

In the REVISING phase, the document is iteratively reviewed and revised. Reviewers in a review queue add comments and may have rights to enter edits in the document. Multiple people are typically involved in a review and several iterations of the review are often required. If a change is made after earlier reviewers have approved the document, the system detects the change, resets the review cycle at the appropriate point, and notifies involved reviewers to view and approve the change.
The REVISING phase is complete when all reviewers have approved the same, final document. For more information, see Revising a document.

Approving

In the APPROVING phase, people in assigned queues examine the document and either approve or do not approve the document and comment on any issues. If the document is not approved, the system reopens the revising phase and notifies appropriate reviewers.
The system manages as many revising/approving cycles as necessary. The APPROVING phase is complete once all approvals are given. For more information, see Approving a document.

Publishing

In the PUBLISHING phase, the document cannot return to an earlier phase. Publishing a document can trigger dependent document review cycles. For more information, see Publishing a document.

Closure

In the CLOSURE phase, any business tasks related to ending the review cycle are executed and the review cycle is complete. The system will initiate a subsequent review based on the review frequency. For more information, see Publishing a document.

Off-cycle reviews

If a document needs to be updated before the next review date, you can start an off-cycle review. For more information, see Starting an off-cycle review.

Due dates and To Dos

At any point, you can select the Review Cycle tab then a task to view the Due by date and who the document will be routed to next in the right pane.

In To Do, select Add to add a reminder for the task and a due date, such as consult a colleague. You can also add notes. If you have active or pending To Do items, you cannot select the Done with Task to close the task.