Status Types and Meanings

Overview

Statuses communicate intent and progress consistently.

Status types standardize those meanings across work items.

Key Concepts

• Status: state label applied to a requirement, task, or test
• Status type: reusable workflow definition
• Governance signal: status meaning used in reviews and reporting

How It’s Used

Use status types to standardize delivery across Projects.

Use consistent meanings to protect reporting comparability.

Benefits

• Cleaner reporting signals
• Faster governance reviews
• Less rework caused by ambiguous status changes

Setup Steps

1

Select a minimal workflow

Use a small set of states with clear meaning.

For example:

• Draft
• Ready
• In progress
• Blocked
• Complete

2

Define meaning for each status

Define “entry criteria” and “exit criteria” per status.

For example, for Blocked:

• Entry: work cannot progress due to a constraint
• Exit: unblock condition is met and execution resumes

3

Apply consistently

Apply the same meanings across requirements, tasks, and tests when possible.

Document exceptions when a separate workflow is required.

Best Practices

• Keep Blocked as a high-signal status.
• Avoid adding statuses for rare edge cases.
• Review workflow changes quarterly.

Summary

Status types provide a shared contract for progress reporting.

For setup, see Custom Status Creation.