# Task Life Cycle

Snow Owl has been architected to author terminologies in a distributed and collaborative fashion. Users can work in the same location or can be geographically distributed. In order to coordinate the efforts of multiple authors concurrently editing the same ontology, separate tasks can be assigned to them.

Tasks have a lifecycle that spans from their initial creation through an authoring and reviewing stage to their final approval.

Here is a short summary of the different stages in a typical task lifecycle.

* New task is created – its status is **Open**. Team members can be assigned.
* Task is activated. Authoring is enabled after clicking the **Start Authoring** button.
* Work is performed. Task status is **In progress**.
* Task is sent for review – task status is **Resolved** as fixed. An author can select reviewers, or reviewers can self-select themselves for tasks that are resolved.
* Task is reviewed by optional number of reviewers. Changes have to be accepted or rejected.
* Reviewer either marks the task as **Verified**, or reopens the task.
* Task is promoted and can be seen by everyone.

![Task life cycle diagram](https://content.gitbook.com/content/N7ynFOLTw3W9Zow9AaAJ/blobs/ClnKMxGHkCHOZKMbfxq8/01.png)

Work scenario in Snow Owl is flexible, so there's no need to pre-define the scenario at the creation of the task. Once the task is created, the team member(s) can be assigned as author and/or reviewer. The reviewer or reviewers can be assigned later as well.

The different steps of the task life cycle are associated with certain task stages and actions that can be performed. The table below gives an overview.

| **Step in life cycle of task**         | **Task status** | **Actions that can be performed**                                          |
| -------------------------------------- | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Task is created                        | OPEN            | Assigning task Activating task                                             |
| Task is assigned                       | OPEN            | Activate task Start Authoring this action automatically activates the task |
| Task is activated                      | OPEN            | Start Authoring                                                            |
| Authoring started – editing is enabled | IN PROGRESS     | Stop Authoring                                                             |
| Work is performed on task              | IN PROGRESS     | Stop AuthoringSend to ReviewerClose                                        |
| Sent to Reviewer                       | RESOLVED        | Approve/Request Changes                                                    |
| Review is submitted                    | RESOLVED        | Request another reviewVerify/Return to Author                              |
| Another review requested               | RESOLVED        | Approve/Request Changes                                                    |
| Review is submitted                    | RESOLVED        | Verify/Return to Author                                                    |
| Task is verified                       | VERIFIED        | PromoterReturn to AuthorClose                                              |
| Task is promoted/closed                | CLOSED          | Task is automatically inactivated. Modifications are disabled              |

{% hint style="info" %}
If the task is returned to the Author, the status changes to *IN PROGRESS/OPEN* which starts the workflow again.
{% endhint %}


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