Glossary
What is a case
Everything to be gathered about one matter, together and with its dates.
Case
The unit of work grouping everything about one specific matter: what was asked for, from whom, what arrived, when, and what state it is in.
It is the familiar folder, with two differences that matter: it knows what is missing, and it knows when each item arrived.
Case, process and template
| Word | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Template or schema | The mould: what is always asked for | "Supplier onboarding" |
| Case | One specific instance from that mould | "Onboarding Muñoz Engineering" |
| Phase | A block of requests inside the case | "Company documentation" |
Confusing template with case is the commonest organisational mistake: a template gets created per supplier, and what made templates useful is exactly what is lost.
Worth knowing
A case can have several participants, and each sees only their own part. That is what lets you ask two competing subcontractors for documents without them seeing each other.
›Does a case close?
Yes, when it is complete or when it is decided it will not progress.
›Can it hold documents I did not request?
Yes, they can be added without having been a request.
›Can it be reopened?
Yes.
A real case
The situation
A company creates a new template for every supplier it onboards.
What you do
- Keeps a single "Supplier onboarding" template
- Each supplier becomes a case
What you get
The process can be improved in one place and every future onboarding benefits.
The situation
A new file is opened for every document that arrives.
What you do
- Groups everything on the same matter into one file
What you get
The matter is seen whole rather than in pieces.
The situation
A file is closed with a document still missing.
What you do
- Checks what is outstanding before closing it
What you get
Closing means the same thing to the whole team.
The situation
Nobody knows where a matter stands without asking.
What you do
- Checks the file's status
What you get
The answer does not depend on who you ask.
The situation
Two people request the same thing from the same supplier.
What you do
- Works on the shared file
What you get
The supplier receives one request, not two.
The situation
Months later somebody must explain how a matter was resolved.
What you do
- Opens the file with its complete history
What you get
The explanation comes from the file itself.
This article answers
- what is a case in trackline
- difference between case and process
- what is a documentation folder
- how supplier documentation is organised