Modules > Change Management

Voting is performed by selecting Voting from the left menu. You must have sufficient privileges or you will not see the Voting menu option.

Voting is organized by Meetings, with a specific agenda of Requests for Change (RFC) having been established for each meeting. Meetings are organized by the Change Advisory Board (CAB) that will preside.

When first entering the Voting area, you are presented with a list of meetings and the presiding CAB for each. Choose the proper meeting/CAB combination from the list and click Next>>.

The Voting screen will appear after clicking Next>>.

Updating and saving changes.

To update the screen in order to see the latest vote tally or voters in attendance, and/or to save your vote and any other changes you might make on the Voting screen, you must remember to click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

Roles supported by the Voting screen.

The Voting screen recognizes several CAB roles. The roles are established when setting up the CAB. When you enter the Voting screen, the MIE determines if you are serving in one or more of the CAB roles. If you are, your role(s) will be displayed at the upper left area of the screen. The following roles are supported by the Voting screen:

Voting Member

You will be offered check-boxes next to each RFC on the agenda so that you may cast your vote (Yes or No).

CAB Chairperson

You will be presented a Veto button to enable vote veto if/when the vote passes.

CAB Secretary

You will be presented several buttons as follows:

Lock - allows you to lock the vote once completed. This will prevent any further voting.

Unlock - allows you to unlock the vote and to once again accept voting.

Reset - allows you to reset the vote to 0.

Defer - allows you to defer the RFC to a later meeting, effectively locking out voting. Deferring an RFC will clear any votes that current have been cast.

unDefer - allows you to reverse the defer setting, re-enabling voting.

You will also be presented with a Conditions text box into which you may enter conditions after a vote has passed. If you enter and save conditions, the result of the vote will change from Accepted to Accepted/Condition.

You may be serving in none or more roles at the same time. (For instance, you can be the Chairperson and a voting member.)

Areas of the Voting screen.

The Voting screen is divided into several different areas as follows:

Top Left - Meeting information	This area shows the meeting and CAB chosen, your CAB role(s) (if any), the number of voting members required for quorum (defined when the CAB is established), the number of voters who have accessed the Voting screen recently (ostensibly in attendance), and whether or not quorum has been established (also per the rules established when the CAB is set up). Voter status may be accessed by clicking once on the Voters hyperlink. All defined voters for the presiding CAB are displayed along with their current attendance status. Voters names are hyperlinked and will bring up an email composition dialog (allowing you to quickly email the voting member.) Click Voters again to close the Voter Status area, or click Close.
Top Right - estimated work/financial information	This area keeps tabs on the various cost figures (approved, total being considered). It is also a quick and dirty estimator for release dates (if a standard release calendar is not being used). Enter the headcount to be applied to work on the approved RFCs, click Submit, and the MIE will estimate the earliest release date (which will be no sooner than 30 days from the current date).
Center - RFCs on the agenda	This area contains the various RFCs to be discussed and voted upon. The RFC number/description is displayed as a hyperlink. Click once on the hyperlink to access the details of the RFC, along with any attachments that may be attached. Votes are cast and tallied in this area. When casting your vote (if available), check the Yes or No box (as appropriate), and then click Submit. You may change your vote at any time after it has been cast.

Comments.

You may enter one or more comments concerning a specific RFC by clicking once on the image contained in the Comments column. A pop-up window will display allowing you to enter/edit your comments.

Voting Meeting Constraint.

If one or more votes are cast for a given RFC, then the meeting in which the votes were cast becomes the Voting Meeting for that RFC. If the RFC is added to the agenda of any other meeting, voting will not be permitted, even if the RFC has not been locked from additional voting. Voting can only be performed on an RFC in its established Voting Meeting.

The Voting screen will indicate that an RFC is owned by another meeting in the RFC description area. It will list the Voting Meeting that owns the RFC.

To open an RFC for voting in a meeting other than its established Voting Meeting, the CAB Secretary must first Reset the votes to zero in the Voting Meeting by choosing that meeting when entering the Voting screen, then clicking once on the Reset button for that RFC. When the votes have been reset to zero, the RFC will be available for voting in the new meeting.

Establishing quorum and passing vote.

The Voting screen refers to the CAB record that was used to establish the CAB in determining quorum and passing votes. The CAB record defines quorum as a percentage of voting members that must cast a vote in order for the vote to be valid. The CAB record also defines, by name, the individuals who are voters. The Voting screen compares each user who accesses the screen to the list of defined voters. Each time a voter accesses the screen, the MIE adjusts the Voters this meeting count, and recalculates to see if quorum has been achieved.

Note - it is possible for the Voting screen to be displaying that quorum has been reached and yet not have all the recorded voting members present. If a voting member accesses the meeting's agenda via the Voting screen, that member is recorded as having attended the meeting. The member may or may not be actually present at the meeting, depending on when he/she accessed the Voting screen.

The MIE will record all users who access the Voting screen as having attended the meeting. The attendance list is available by viewing the Meeting record.

Passing vote is defined in the CAB record as a percentage of votes cast that must be cast as Yes votes in order for the vote to pass. The MIE uses this setting to determine if a vote passes. It will report the result of the vote only if a quorum of votes has been cast. Until then, the Voting screen will report No quorum as the vote result.