What is Task Change Impact?
If your organization must track changes to Analysis hierarchy Task nodes, then you know that you must identify whether those changes are cosmetic or substantive, and that substantive changes require follow up training or evaluation. Task Change Impact helps you flag a change to a task as "No Effect" (a cosmetic change that won't impact your training program), or as a substantive change that requires personnel to Retrain or Requalify.
"Impact" or "No Impact" Changes
Changes to a VISION Task (including its many parts, Elements, SKs, conditions, standards, references) can be categorized into substantive changes that impact the training program, and cosmetic changes that don't impact the way that the task is trained.
When you are deciding how to classify a task change, ask yourself if this change will impact how the task is trained. Generally, we think of changes that only add clarity and detail to Tasks as "no impact" changes. These might include rewriting a poorly described SK, or breaking a complex step into two distinct steps. These tasks are trained in exactly the same way, they are just being described differently.
On the other hand, if you were to update a task because the way the task is done has changed, the way you train the task would also need to change. For example, if a tool (like a specified meter for an electrician task or the software application used by operators to monitor plant status) has changed, the task must be trained differently. Similarly, a change to a related procedure, regulation, or engineering defined method might impact a task in a way that is likely to confuse personnel who are not retrained.
Edit the Task and set the Task Change Impact
The first step is to edit the task and decide on an appropriate response. After that, we have outlined a few procedures you might use to record those changes and follow up with task expiration or retraining.
1.In the Analysis hierarchy, open the task and, on the Analysis page, change the Status from "Completed" to "Reviewing" (or any other status).
2.Make the necessary changes to the task and its underlying steps and SKs.
3.When you have finished making changes, navigate to the Qualification page.
4.Under Task Change Impact, select "No Effect", "Must Retrain" or "Must Requalify".
5.Optionally, you may Set Qualification Expiration or Record Changes.
6.Once you are done making changes, navigate to the Task Analysis page and put the task back into Completed status.OPTIONAL: Set Qualification Expiration
OPTIONAL: Set Qualification Expiration
Only VISION users with the “Can expire task qualifications” privilege turned on in VISION Security can perform these steps.
Based on your organization’s process and requirements, you may wish to set a new expire date for those who need to requalify on the task.
1.On the Qualifications page of the Task node, click the Show Who’s Qualified radio button.
2.From the Who’s Qualified list, select one or more employees who are currently qualified on the task.
3.In Adjust Expiration Dates box, set the date by which these individuals must be evaluated on the new task to avoid having their current qualification expire. Note that this date must be in the future.
4.Click Apply to update the Date Expires column. This will give all of the selected personnel a new expiration date for this task qualification (unless their qualification expires before the new date, in which case it will not change).
OPTIONAL: Set Qualification Expiration
Only VISION users with the “Can expire task qualifications” privilege turned on in VISION Security can perform these steps.
Based on your organization’s process and requirements, you may wish to set a new expire date for those who need to requalify on the task.
1.On the Qualifications page of the Task node, click the Show Who’s Qualified radio button.
2.From the Who’s Qualified list, select one or more employees who are currently qualified on the task.
3.In Adjust Expiration Dates box, set the date by which these individuals must be evaluated on the new task to avoid having their current qualification expire. Note that this date must be in the future.
4.Click Apply to update the Date Expires column. This will give all of the selected personnel a new expiration date for this task qualification (unless their qualification expires before the new date, in which case it will not change).
OPTIONAL: Record Changes
Based on your organization’s process and requirements, you may wish to enter information about the impact change without actually changing the qualification expiration date.
Navigate to the task's Version Comments page and enter notes regarding the task modification. The following are suggestions of notes you may want to make based on the type of task change impact. Note that the Version Comments can carry over across versions of the tasks to give you a running log of comments made to the task over its lifespan.
For No Impact changes:
•This task was modified on [enter date] as follows [describe task changes]
•The updated version was approved by [List persons who approved new task version]
•The impact was set at "No Impact" because [describe reason for selecting the impact]
•The impact was approved by [list persons who approved the impact]
•Based on this task change, additional training, assessments, or evaluations are required for existing qualified personnel to maintain their qualification.
For Must Retrain changes:
•Example where retraining is delivered by another organization:
oThis task was modified on [enter date] as follows [describe task changes]
oThe updated version was approved by [List persons who approved new task version]
oThe impact was set at "Must Retrain" because [describe reason for selecting the impact]
oThe impact was approved by [list persons who approved the impact]
oExisting qualified personnel were NOT given new expiration dates at this time. The required training and date by which it must be completed will be set and monitored by the continuing training group.
•Example where retraining is delivered by your group:
oThis task was modified on [enter date] as follows [describe task changes]
oThe updated version was approved by [List persons who approved new task version]
oThe impact was set at "Must Retrain" because [describe reason for selecting the impact]
oThe impact was approved by [list persons who approved the impact]
oExisting qualified personnel were NOT given new expiration dates at this time. They must complete these courses [List required courses] by [insert a date]. Any who have not completed the required training by that date may have their qualification on the task expired.
For Must Requalify changes:
•This task was modified on [enter date] as follows [describe task changes]
•The updated version was approved by [List persons who approved new task version]
•The impact was set at "Must Requalify" because [describe reason for selecting the impact]
•The impact was approved by [list persons who approved the impact]
•Existing qualified personnel were given until [enter a date] to be re-evaluated on the task based on the following [Describe basis for selecting that date]. Their qualification on this task will automatically expire on that date if they have not been re-evaluated by then.
