Form Status Indicators
Contents
Overview
Form Status Indicators are an integral part of the governance and audit process integrated into the IT Audit Machine. Status Indicators control the state of a given control or field on a form which represents the associated entity’s progress in their efforts to comply with that control. These statuses, in turn, drive many of the metrics used in tracking and reporting on the entity’s overall actions toward compliance with the standard represented by the form.
In this section of the guide we will discuss Status Indicators and how they are used. We will also briefly discuss the reports that the data feeds into, though more detail on the Report Types can be found on the Report Types section of the Guide.
Available Indicator States
The Form Status Indicators have four (4) possible states, each of which convey different information about the field or control in question.
State | Meaning |
|---|---|
Gray | Indicates a field or control which has either not been filled our or evaluated |
Red | Indicates a field or control which has been evaluated and is found to need remediation |
Yellow | Indicates a field or control which is currently in progress. A field will automatically gain this status once it has be modified by the user. |
Green | Indicates a field or control which has been evaluated and is found to be compliant |
Accessing Status Indicators
Status Indicators are visible in almost every screen where the individual data fields of a form can be viewed. This includes when editing a form, reviewing form data and when viewing certain types of reports. Status Indicators can only be changed by an administrator and can be accessed for editing purposes from three different views.
The first way to access Status Indicators is when viewing form data entries. The detail view of the form entry displays all of the fields in a list and includes Status Indicators that can be modified by an Examiner or Administrator.
Whether a field has a Status Indicator is controlled when creating/editing a form. The ability to Enable Status Indicator is one of the field options on most field types.
The second way to access Status Indicators is click on the View Status menu button while viewing an entry. This will bring you to the Status page for that entry which will display all of the fields in an accordion view that separates the fields by the status.
To view the fields in a particular state, click on the bar in the accordion view which corresponds with the current state of the fields. The fields in that state will be displayed and will include a Status Indicator which can be changed modified.
The third and final way to work with status indicators is to go to the field in the form. The form value displayed will also include a status indicator which can be modified by an Examiner or Administrator.
Working with Status Indicators
As an Administrator you are able to communicate the status of a field or control by changing the Status Indicator to match your assessment of the information. There are two distinct ways to change the Status Indicator state on a field: Cycling and Selecting. Which process you will use to change the state depends on the location from which you are accessing the indicator.
Changing via Cycling
If you looking to change the while viewing the Form Details or while viewing the data in the form itself, you will use the cycling method. To change the value via this method simply click on the Status Indicator and it will cycle to the next color. Keep clicking to cycle it to the desired state. The order of the states is: Gray > Red > Yellow > Green. Clicking on a green Status Indicator will change it back to gray.
Changing via Selecting
If you are looking to change the value of a Status Indicator while viewing in the Status page. On that page, when you click on a Status Indicator you will be presented with an option to select the state of the indicator from the available states.
Simply click on the colored ball which matches the desired status and the state will be changed.
Change All Statuses on a Form
When viewing an entry for a form there is an option in the menu on the right to change all of the Status Indicators at the same time. Click on the Set Status Indicators button in the menu and a small dialog box will display asking you to select the desired status.
Simply select the status from the options and click Yes. Reset to make the change. Click Cancel to avoid making the change.
Be careful when changing all Statuses in a form. As indicated on the dialog box, the action cannot be undone.
In this section of the guide we discussed the meaning of the various statuses and looked at the different ways you can work with the statuses and change them.
In the next section of the guide we will discuss how POA&Ms are implemented in the IT Audit Machine and how to configure them for use in an instance.
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