Signoffs

A project sign-off is essential to formally close a project or acknowledge delivery of a key deliverable. a sign-off sheet is a document signed by all stakeholders. It states:

  1. The project’s intended goals and whether they were met or not.
  2. The project’s key deliverables and whether they were actually delivered
  3. Comments and observations, if any
  4. The project start and end dates

The document is then signed by all involved parties. Their signatures formally (and more importantly, legally) close the project.

A complex project will have a sign-off sheet running into dozens, even hundreds of pages. Government contracts, for instance, usually have “sign-off books”, not just sheets.

Signoff Hierarchy

There are two items to be considered in Sign-Off Management in KTern.AI

  1. Sign-off Group
  2. Sign-off Item

Sign-off Group

The sign-off group is the collection of sign-off items categorized based on Project phases or deliverables.

Sign-off Item

The sign-off item states all practical and necessary information one would need to confirm what kind of project had taken place, who was involved, when this took place, as well as the specific elements making up the project.

Working with Sign-off Management

1. Viewing the Sign-offs

  1. Click on ‘Project Hub’ menu in the sidebar. Under Project Hub, select ‘Sign-off’ option.
  2. You will be redirected to Sign-off page.
  3. You can see the list of tabs – List View, Explorer View as shown below:

  1. You can view the sign-off groups and sign-off items in this page in two views – List view and Explorer view. List view displays the sign-off items in list while explorer view displays the sign-off items in folder/card view.

2. Adding Sign-off Group

  1. To create sign-off group, click on icon present in the Sign-off toolbar (present at the top right corner).

  2. Clicking on this icon, a popover form will be opened as follows:

  1. Type Sign-off group name in the provided text box
  2. Click ‘Add sign off group’ button to add sign-off group. The sign-off group will be displayed in the list of sign-offs now.

3. Adding Sign-off Items

  1. To create a sign-off item, click on button present at the top card of the Sign-off page.
  2. Clicking on this button, a drawer will be opened as shown below:

  1. Overview: In overview tab, you can find the following fields

    1. Sign-off Title: Enter the Sign-off title. This is a mandatory field.
    2. Description: Enter the description. This is optional field
    3. Criteria: Enter the acceptance criteria for the respective sign-off item. This is mandatory field.
    4. Condition: Enter the conditional acceptance statement. This is optional field.
    5. Status: By default, the sign-off item status will be set to ‘New’.
    6. Sign-off Group: Choose the Sign-off group from the options provided.
    7. Tags: Add tags for sign-off item for easy filtering.

  2. Stakeholders: In stakeholders tab, you shall find the following fields

    1. Levels: You can setup various levels of sign-off approval. You can create new levels by clicking on ‘Add New level’ button. Clicking on that button, new level will be added as shown below:

    1. Approvers: You can add one or more approvers at each level. If you need to add an approver against a level, you can just click on ‘Add Approver’ button. Choose Owner and Due date against each approver fields

  3. References: You can link the sign-off item with any task/issue/test case. To add a reference, click on ‘Add new reference’ button.

    1. Choose the Type – Task, Issue, or test case.
    2. Choose the item that has to be linked up with the respective sign-off item.

  4. Filling the above required information, click on ‘Submit’ button to successfully create a sign-off item.

Navigating the Project Sign-off Page

  1. Quick Filters: Quick filter options are available at the top left corner of the Sign-off header. You can easily filter few scenarios such as

    1. My Sign-offs
    2. Approved by me
    3. Rejected by me
    4. Pending actions for me
    5. My Overdue Sign-offs
    6. All Sign-offs
    7. All overdue Sign-offs

  2. Export as XLSX: You can export all Sign-off items and their meta information in the form of Spreadsheet.

  3. Filter by: You can filter by Sign off group, Sign off status, Locked Sign offs, My Actions, Created by, Overdue Status, Stakeholder, Pending with as shown below

  4. Group by: You can group sign-offs by Sign-off Group, Status, Due Date and Tags. The following image displays how the sign-off items are categorized by Due dates.

Approver Levels

  1. A signoff can be configured have multiple levels of approvals and each level of approval can have multiple parallel approvers

  2. For example, let us consider a signoff with the following approval levels: Level 1 – User 1 Level 2 – User 2, User 3 Level 3 – User 4

  3. For the above example, “User 1” would be the first approver of the signoff. Once “User 1” approves the signoff, next level users would be requested for their approval by KTern.

  4. Similarly, a signoff goes through all the configured levels, with the User in the “Level n” (n -> last level) will be the final approver to close the signoff

  5. When an user (at any level) rejects the signoff, all the other users part of the signoff will be notified on the same.

  6. If the user (part of the signoff) feels the need for re-approval from any other user, he/she can request the other user for re-approval.

Approve/Reject a Signoff

  1. To approve / reject a signoff, visit the signoff list view using the following menu navigation: Project Hub -> Signoffs. Click on “Approve” / “Reject” to perform the respective operation.

Request for re-approval

  1. To approve / reject a signoff, visit the signoff list view using the following menu navigation: Project Hub -> Signoffs. Click on (i) icon.

  2. In the “Stakeholders” section of the signoff, select the users to request the re-approval.

  3. Once the users are selected, click on “Request Re-approval” to initiate the request for re-approval

  4. Enter the reason for the re-approval request and submit the request. The respective users’ approval status will be re-tracked and will be notified of the new request.

Updated on 15 Jan 2021