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Manual Activities

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Manual activities require human intervention and provide checkpoints where team members must perform actions, provide approvals, or complete tasks.

What are Manual Activities?​

A manual activity is an activity where users can create tasks, record their inputs, and finalize their inputs in a manual fashion. Manual activities require human intervention and provide checkpoints where team members must perform actions, provide approvals, or complete tasks.

Manual activities enable:

  • Human Oversight: Critical decision points
  • Manual Tasks: Actions that can't be automated
  • Approvals: Required sign-offs
  • Reviews: Code or configuration reviews
  • Input Recording: Users can record their inputs and finalize them manually
  • Sign-offs: Users can provide sign-offs with QA inputs or other documentation

Manual Activity Workflow​

When a manual activity is encountered during release execution:

  1. Activity Goes On Hold: The activity enters a "waiting for input" or "on hold" state
  2. Notification Sent: Notifications are sent to the activity owner or assigned users
  3. User Action Required: Users need to:
    • Review the activity requirements
    • Create tasks if needed
    • Record their inputs
    • Finalize their inputs manually
  4. Sign-off: Users can provide sign-offs, such as:
    • "I'm signing off this release with the QA inputs"
    • Record QA inputs and test results
    • Provide approval comments
  5. Completion: Once inputs are finalized and sign-off is provided, the activity completes and the release continues

Types of Manual Activities​

Manual Tasks​

Tasks requiring user action:

  • Data Entry: Manual data input
  • Configuration: Manual configuration changes
  • Verification: Manual verification steps
  • Documentation: Manual documentation tasks

Approval Activities​

Activities requiring approval:

  • Deployment Approval: Approve deployments
  • Release Approval: Approve releases
  • Change Approval: Approve changes
  • Go/No-Go Decisions: Release go/no-go

Review Activities​

Activities requiring review:

  • Code Review: Code review checkpoints
  • Configuration Review: Configuration validation
  • Security Review: Security assessment
  • Compliance Review: Compliance validation

Testing Activities​

Manual testing tasks:

  • User Acceptance Testing: UAT execution
  • Exploratory Testing: Manual exploration
  • Performance Testing: Manual performance validation
  • Integration Testing: Manual integration checks

Configuration​

Example (YAML)​

This example shows a manual activity in a process, including a dependency on a prior activity.

phase:
  id: build_phase
  name: Build Phase
  activities:
    - activity: ManualTest
      id: AutoIioo
      name: Auto_deploy
      description: doc
      depends-on:
        - AutoPipe12

Approval Workflows​

Single Approval​

One person must approve:

activity:
  name: "Deployment Approval"
  type: "manual"
  approval_type: "single"
  approver: "${release_manager}"

Multiple Approvals​

Multiple people must approve:

activity:
  name: "Release Approval"
  type: "manual"
  approval_type: "multiple"
  approvers:
    - "${release_manager}"
    - "${security_lead}"
    - "${operations_lead}"
  required_approvals: 2

Sequential Approvals​

Approvals in sequence:

activity:
  name: "Cascading Approval"
  type: "manual"
  approval_type: "sequential"
  approvers:
    - "${team_lead}"
    - "${department_head}"
    - "${vp_engineering}"

Notifications​

Assignment Notifications​

Notify when assigned:

activity:
  name: "Manual Task"
  type: "manual"
  notifications:
    on_assignment: true
    channels: ["email", "slack"]

Reminder Notifications​

Send reminders:

activity:
  name: "Pending Approval"
  type: "manual"
  reminders:
    - after: "4 hours"
    - after: "12 hours"
    - after: "24 hours"

Best Practices​

Clear Instructions​

Provide detailed instructions:

  • What needs to be done
  • Why it's needed
  • What to check
  • How to complete

Appropriate Timeouts​

Set reasonable timeouts:

  • Not too short: Rushed decisions
  • Not too long: Blocking releases
  • Consider time zones
  • Account for weekends

Owner Assignment​

Assign appropriate owners:

  • Right person for the task
  • Available during release window
  • Has necessary permissions
  • Backup assignees

Documentation​

Document manual activities:

  • Purpose and context
  • Expected outcomes
  • Common issues
  • Escalation procedures