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Collaborating with Issues

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Issues are a critical tool that facilitates effective collaboration by allowing project team members to share important project files (Collections), provide direction on critical and time-sensitive decisions, record the back-and-forth interactions that support approvals, and authorize internal and external team members to use them.

What is an Issue

A project Issue is any important communication between project team members used for:

  • Sharing files (as Collections) with specific authorization of use;
  • Soliciting and capturing information related to a specific design or construction topic or question;
  • Recording approvals at all stages of the process;
  • Sharing important direction to outside team members that requires acknowledgment of receipt;
  • Communication internally and externally that is captured in one place in a digestible project history;
  • Request the signature of another design professional with a specific set of project information.

Creating an Issue

Select the Issues tab in your Project in the blue shaded headings banner at the top of the page. This will take you to the main Issues page for that Project. If no Issues have been created yet, there will be a short text description describing the general Issue types and how they can be used.

The Issues page consists of a table of all Issues for the project with a search bar to locate Issues no matter their status, and filter functions to tailor the view to fit your needs. If you have configured your Project to include Phases, Issues that are assigned to those Phases will be arranged under the Phase heading, otherwise, they will be listed under “No Phase”. (See Here for information on creating Phases.) Issues can be edited to add the appropriate project Phase at any time.

Buttons for list filters and a Search Bar are available to help sort and manage Issues as the project progresses.

To begin, select the +New Issue button  

A dialog box will appear requiring the following fields to be input:

  1. Issue Type – Select the type of workflow.  There are four (4) basic types – Distributions, Acknowledgement of Receipt, RFI- Request for Information, and Signature. A Distribution is the most commonly used type.
  2. Title – This is a required field to define the title of the Issue.  Create a title that provides a clear description of the subject matter.
  3. Comment:  This sets the context for the Issue.   Notes or instructions written here will be included in the notification email sent to participants.

There are additional options available if you wish to add more information specific to your project or organization. Click on the “Show Advanced Options” text to add the following:

  • External Reference Number – By default, Concert will automatically assign a reference number to classify the Issue and the workflow.  If your organization has a custom numbering structure you may substitute that here.
  • Response Required (Optional) – For some Issues, the author will want the recipients to provide a response or feedback.  This field establishes a deadline for all participants and sends an additional notification to the recipients that they are required to respond to the Issue by the deadline.

Select the Submit button to continue. You have now created the Issue.

Constructing and Working with an Issue

Each Issue has four components:.

  1. Issue Header – Essential information regarding the issue, its purpose, and the timeline (if any). Each Issue will have a unique reference number based on the type of Issue (DIS for Distribution, ACK for Acknowledgement of Receipt, RFI for Request for Information, or SIG for Signature) along with a number based on when the Issue was created. If you create an External Reference Number, this will be the identifier. If you need to change any information here, users with the appropriate permissions can click on the “Edit Issue” at the right hand side of this box.
  2. Reference Collection – This is the link to the Collection of Assets (files) that are relevant to the topic of this Issue. Every Issue must have a reference collection attached. If you select a Collection that is already created, this will reference that Collections name. You can create a unique Collection for this Issue and it will automatically be given the same name as the Issue reference number.
  3. Issue History – This is a record of all comments, direction, authorization, and discussion relative to this Issue. This captures all the questions and commentary and preserves it in the context of the Issue for future reference. This eliminates the confusion and disconnect typical with traditional email.
  4. Reviewers/Signatories/Participants – The author of the Issue establishes, while creating it, the responsibilities and expectations of each participant in the topic. There are three general responsibilities in every participant:
    1. Reviewers – Recipients who are asked to perform an additional duty of reviewing the Reference Collection and providing feedback as requested or required by the author. Reviewers are required to complete their review and acknowledge their approval before the Issue can be closed. If a due date is assigned to the Issue, then reviewers are required to complete this process prior to that due date.
    2. Signatories – Recipients who are required to apply a Digital Signature to certify or sign-off on the distributed Reference Collection. This is typically reserved for design professionals signing under their license, but it is not exclusively for this purpose.
    3. Participants – Recipients who are included for information purposes only. Participants can comment in the Issue and can attach other digital files they believe are important to the discussion, but may not have any official responsibility relative to the Reference Collection reviews, or approvals

The Participants list will show all the names of those included in the Issue, including those identified as Reviewers and Signatories. The Participants column also displays a date and/or timestamp of when each invited team member last visited the Issue. If the space below the Participants name shows only a “-“, then that person has not yet visited the Issue or reviewed any of the attached information.

To issue information, two criteria must be fulfilled:

  1. A Reference Collection must be attached to the Issue
  2. One or more Participants must be defined. Reviewers and Signatories are optional and can be added only if needed.

To add a team member select the “+” button next to the desired category (Participant, Reviewer, or Signatory). Selecting the + will bring up a dialog box that provides the option to select a Project User to add them to the list. Only people already included on the Project as Project Users can be added to an issue. (See Here for the process of setting up Project Users.) Selecting Users as Reviewers or Signatories follows the same process.

Once you add Participants, within the next 10 minutes they will receive email notification about the Issue and their accountability.

Additionally, if the Reference Collection is changed a new notification will be sent out to indicate that new information is available for use.

Reviewing an Issue

When a team member is listed as a Reviewer the Comment box will have an additional green Review tab.   Selecting the tab will allow the Reviewer to Approve or Reject feedback by selecting one of those buttons.  The reviewer is required to provide commentary to give context to either the approval or rejection before the response can be submitted. Only after all Reviewers have completed their review can the Participant(s) identified as Signatories sign the Reference Collection.

Resolving an Open Issue

There are two ways to Resolve an Issue: Close or Cancel.   This function is accessible as a tab on the Comment box at the bottom of the page to the person who created the Issue or a User with appropriate Administrative rights.

  • To cancel the Issue, select the Resolve tab and then select the Cancel button (in red).  You can leave a comment if appropriate.   The status of the Issue will change to Cancelled and it will no longer show up on the Issues dashboard (under the default filtering setting). To see all canceled Issues, click on the “Status” filter and check the box to display cancelled Issues. This is a temporary setting and will default to unchecked when you move away from this view.
  • To close and Issue, select the Resolve tab and then select the Close Issue button (in blue). You can leave a comment if appropriate. The status of the Issue will changed to Closed and it will be identified as Closed on the Issue dashboard. All participants in the Issue will receive notification that Issue has been closed by the author. Incomplete or open reviews by identified Reviewers will prevent an Issue from being closed.

This process is not permanent. Closed or Canceled Issues can be reopened if needed.

The Important Facts about the Issue History

The Issue History section is a dynamic channel conversation. Using the Comment box at the bottom of the page, all Participants can provide comments, engage in a conversation, and, if needed, drag-and-drop new files to supplement the information and discussion.

The Issue History also provides context to the general discussion, capturing in one place what each Participant shares with the group. This promotes real collaboration as all participants in the Issue can review and understand all the comments shared without having to search through long email chains that may or may not have included them.

The Issue History also provides a record of not only the decisions made throughout the process, but also of the journey to that decision and the information used to inform that decision. As team members come and go from the project, relevant discussions that help build continuity are captured and can be made available to new members to read and digest.

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