Items to Jobs

Choose a product and an initiative

At the top, pick a Product and one of its initiatives under Initiative. Each initiative in the list shows its open and closed Jobs, and the product's default is marked Default. Initiatives explains them.

Under the title, a line counts the initiative's open Jobs, how many are unassigned, how many are closed, and how many items they target. A Job that targets several items counts on each of those items below, and once in that line.

By item and Jobs PDLC

Two views show the same Jobs:

• By item is a table of the product's items with Item, Jobs in the initiative, In Prod, and In work. Each Job is one line with its key, title, phase, and assignee's initials, or unassigned. Closed Jobs fold away under a count.
• Jobs PDLC lays the items down the side and your PDLC's top-level phases across. Each open Job and sub-job sits in the column of its phase, on every item it targets, with its assignee, how long it has gone quiet once that's 6 hours or more, and waits on while a Job it depends on is open.

Narrow either view with Level, with Show (the initiative's own chip, such as Linked to Backlog, or With open Jobs, No work linked, or All items), or by finding an item by number or name. Jobs PDLC adds Unassigned and No work in the last 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours.

In Prod and In work

In Prod is the version the item's latest release made, with its day. A version is made when a Release step on a Job that targets the item is completed to Production. An item's first release makes v1.000, and each later one raises the minor, unless it carries the work of an initiative that declares a major. The number of digits in the minor is an organization setting.

In work is the number the initiative's work would bring the item to when it ships. It can move if another release ships first.

In By item, select an item's name to open its panel: what it is in Prod, the number each initiative's work would bring it to, its releases with the Jobs each carried, its Jobs in every initiative, the reports on it, and a link to its page.

A Job's drawer

Select a Job to open its drawer. The top gives its initiative, phase, activity, the item it's filed on, its owner, and when it was opened, with Open the task page. Below come its Assignment, Sub-jobs, Dependencies, Target items, Reviews, and Timeline, newest first. Chips filter the timeline to All, Work, Reviews, or Notes.

Assign a Job

A Job has at most one assignee: a person, or an agent shown with its accountable person. If you can change work on the product, the Assignment section offers Assign to me, Assign…, and Unassign.

1. Open the Job's drawer

   Select the Job in By item or Jobs PDLC.

2. Choose who does it

   Under Assignment, select Assign… and choose a person or an agent. The list holds the product's people and agents who can change work on it.

3. Confirm

   If you're taking the Job from someone, add a note for them if you like, up to 500 characters. Select Assign.

Assignment is a notice, not a lock. The earlier assignee is told, and the change is recorded with who made it.

Mark a step done

The Job's assignee records each step. At the top of the timeline, the current step reads like Now: Code, with who it waits on and who is assigned.

1. Open the form

   Select Mark step done. Only the assignee sees it; anyone else reads who can mark it done.

2. Say what was done

   Under What was done, give a link: a PR, a commit, or a document revision. On a review step, you can name one of the Job's reviews. A Release step also asks where it was released to.

3. Choose the outcome

   Choose the Outcome, and add a Note of up to 500 characters for whoever comes next.

4. Suggest the next step

   Under Suggest the next step, choose a step from your PDLC, a phase move, or None: close the Job. Then select Mark done.

The step you suggest waits on you, and you stay assigned for it. None: close the Job can't be chosen while sub-jobs are open, and the close goes through its gate: if something is unmet, the close stays as the current step for you to read and make. When the current step is itself a phase move or a close, Mark step done shows that move with its gate's readiness. When an agent is assigned, it records its steps through BLOM's MCP server.

Notes

Under Add a note, write a short, plain-text note of up to 500 characters and select Post note. Type @ to mention a person or agent who can read the Job; the note then shows in their queue. Work to do becomes a next action or a task, not a note.

Notes are never edited. Correct this note posts a new note that names the one it corrects.

Reviews

Select Record a review to record one on the Job, then fill in:

• Reviewer: I reviewed it, or another person;
• what it reviewed: A pull request, A commit, or A document revision, with its full hash;
• When it was reviewed, and its Independence;
• its Verdict: Changes requested, Approved with findings, or Approved;
• Findings, each a line with a severity. Approved records none.

Select Record review. An agent records its own reviews, through BLOM's MCP server.

A review is recorded whole and never edited. It's evidence: even Approved grants nothing and changes no gate. Each finding stays open until someone selects Mark fixed, naming a later step of the Job that fixed it, or Move, which moves it to a Job or a Bug.

Sub-jobs

Select Add a sub-job, give it a Title, choose its Type and Target items, and select Add the sub-job. A sub-job is part of its parent and in its parent's initiative, with its own targets, assignee, steps, and phase. A parent's targets don't become its own.

Sub-jobs go three levels deep: a Job, its sub-job, and its sub-sub-job. A parent closes only when all its sub-jobs have closed. While it has open sub-jobs, its phase shows the least advanced among them and its own current step.

Dependencies

A dependency records that one Job waits on another. Select Add a dependency, find the Job by key or title, say Why it waits if you like, and select Add the dependency. The section lists what the Job Waits on and what it's Needed by.

While a Job waits on another, its next action is held back: the Job shows as blocked, and a claim on its step is refused, naming what it waits on. A Job it waits on that closes as Completed is no longer waited on. One closed any other way still is, until the dependency's owner reviews it. Remove takes a dependency away, with a reason. A Job can't wait on itself, on a Job it's part of, or on a Job that already waits on it.

A dependency can also name something outside BLOM, in words, with the result it needs and the person who answers for it. That one is met when someone records it met, with a note or a link to the evidence. A dependency holds back the point where its result is needed: starting the work, or reaching Dev or Production.

How agents stay off each other's Jobs

• A Job has one assignee and at most one live claim. An agent's queue holds the Jobs assigned to it and the steps that wait on it.
• When a Job moves, because you reassign it here or another actor claims it, the earlier holder's claim ends. Its next call on that Job is refused, saying who took the Job and when, so it knows to stop rather than work beside the new holder.
• An agent can complete a step only when the step waits on it or the Job is assigned to it, and never while another actor's live claim holds the step.
• Claims on separate Jobs that declare the same items, code areas, or document drafts meet your PDLC's overlap rules.

Next actions and claims covers claims, leases, and overlap rules.

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