In the past, some history records written by Case Management when cases were closed weren't updated correctly. We've written a support tool to fix them.
Case Management creates several history records for each case that gets raised. As well as the main case management history record created by the case management workflow process, it also writes a history record for the case type, and another to store long term reporting data (it also creates records for things like emails and linked cases but these are unaffected).
What's the fault?
We've discovered that some history records could become out of sync. Sometimes a case could be closed, but one or more of the histories wouldn't include the close date or a close reason. In other situations a case could be closed, but would still appear as a claimable task on the Self Service template.
Is this still a problem?
No. The underlying problem was fixed in March 2024, but there could still be history records from before that date that don't have the closed date or reason recorded, or closed cases that still have active workflow tasks.
Which cases are affected?
Cases closed using the Close Case action in Routines, or the Close Case Task could be affected. Cases closed using the button in the main case manager view aren't.
How are you fixing this?
We've written a tool that finds and fixes history records for closed cases that have becomes out of sync. The most common scenarios and fixes are:
- A workflow process has a closed date or closed status, but is still active. These will be closed
- A workflow process has ended, but a history record is missing the closed date or closed reason/status. The date and reason/status from the closed process will be added to the relevant histories
- The main case history has a closed date and status/reason, but these are missing from the reporting history. The reporting history will be updated
- The final "form data" event is missing from one history, but present in another. The form data will be added to the relevant history
How are you implementing the fix?
The tool to fix closed cases is already part of Case Management, it just needs configuring and running. We'll be in touch with you to set it up.
The tool runs on a schedule and processes cases in batches.
We'll run the tool on one of your non-production environments first, so that we can configure a suitable batch size, date range and frequency. Each time the tool runs it writes a log of actions, an estimate of the remaining cases left to process, and can email a summary to your chosen address. Once we're happy with the results will set it up to run on your production environment. The tool runs until there are no records left to check.
Are there any risks?
Finding and fixing out of sync history records could have an impact on overall performance. However, if we see this happening the tool can be paused and rescheduled using a smaller batch size. We've tested the tool against environments containing different numbers of history records so already have suitable defaults in place.
