Creating Flows
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Launch CommsFlow from the left Nav column in Blameless.
Note: When accessing CommsFlow for the first time, you will see an information window informing you that no communications flows currently exist and lists instructions on creating your first flow.
Adding a Flow
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Click on the “+ Add flow” button to start. A new flow window opens, offering the following options:
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Webhook
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Comms Flow (aka communication flow)
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Click on the button associated with the desired flow type. The "Add Flow" window opens.
Note: You can tell the difference (webhook vs. commsflow) by the Progress bar components at the top of the window:
- Triggers
- Webhook
- Summary
- Triggers
- Recipients & Message
- Summary
Setting the Trigger
Note: Triggers and Summary function similarly in the Webhook and CommsFlow, so Trigger and Summary instructions are covered together. The difference lies in the Webhook and Recipients & Message sections.
How to configure the webhook is explained below.
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Select the desired Trigger type:
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Blameless Event
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Reminders
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Note: When you create the flow, once the Trigger Type is selected and saved you cannot change it. You will need to create a new flow--duplicating a CommsFlow will not let you change the trigger type either-you must create a totally new flow.
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Select the “Blameless Event” trigger type from the drop down options.
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Select the “Event Type” in the Condition drop down list.
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Incident Created
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Incident Status
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Incident Severity
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Retrospective State
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Assigned Task
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Follow Up Action Created
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Note: Each Blameless Event Type has a dedicated list of trigger values. Matching incidents will include all selected tags for all Blameless Event types.
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Blameless Events
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Incident Created
- Incident Types
- Incident Severities
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Incident Status
- Incident Types
- Incident Severities
- Retrospective States
- Incident Tags
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Incident Severities
- Incident Types
- Incident Statuses
- Retrospective States
- Incident Tags
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Retrospective State
- Incident Types
- Incident Statuses
- Incident Severities
- Incident Tags
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Assigned Task
- Incident Types
- Incident Statuses
- Incident Severities
- Retrospective States
- Incident Tags
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Follow Up Action Created
- Incident Types
- Incident Statuses
- Incident Severities
- Retrospective States
- Incident Tags
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Reminders allows you to configure a trigger event that includes recurrence. It also allow you to further focus the trigger by tagging the triggering on specific Incident Status changes (i.e., “Investigating”, “Identified”, etc.), or Retrospective State milestones (i.e., “Unassigned”, “Assigned”, “Draft ready”, etc.).
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Select "Reminders” from the “Trigger Type” dropdown. The “Condition” combination field (text field and drop down) displays.
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Enter the number and timeframe (days, hours, or minutes) for how long you would like to push.
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Select the Reminder Type:
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Incident Status
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Retrospective State
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Uncompleted Tasks
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Note: The “Reminder” trigger type supports the following “Type” options for “Incident Status”, “Retrospective State”, and "Uncompleted Tasks". Matching incidents will also include all selected tags.
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Incident Status
- Investigating
- Identified
- Monitoring
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Retrospective State
- Unassigned
- Assigned
- Draft ready
- In review
- Approved
- Rejected
- Not required
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Uncompleted Tasks
- Investigating
- Identified
- Monitoring
- Resolved
"Uncompleted tasks" allows you to alert the owner of a task based on the role assigned to the tasks that there are tasks assigned that are not yet completed. When you choose this trigger option, the trigger window displays a checkbox titled "Required Tasks Only" which allows you to focus the trigger event on only those uncompleted tasks that are Required. By not checking this box, you will be triggering on all uncompleted tasks and only for incidents with a status matching the selected incident statuses.
Note: A task can be assigned to a user by its name directly or to an incident role. But you need to assign a user to a role (1-1 relationship) so that they can become the owner of the task.
These will trigger if they change (i.e., Status goes from “Investigating” to “Monitoring”). When you select the Event Type, a Detail window opens.
Click on the “Save” button when you have defined your triggering events.
Note: This is a best practice suggestion.
When you select one of the available event types, two more subsections open:
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Changes
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Filter
Changes uses drag and drop to let you specify when occurrences will act as a triggering mechanism within the Blameless Event.
Slide the following trigger options to either the “TO:” column or “FROM:” column depending on what you would trigger by. You will notice that when you complete a trigger change, the Communications Flow Manager will provide a text field explaining what will happen below the “Changes” section.
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Investigating
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Identified
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Monitoring
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Resolved
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Duplicated
When you have chosen the Trigger, Event, and changes that would fire a trigger, you can further refine the triggering by the use of filters. Filtering allows the user to optionally focus the triggering, based on the Incident types, Severity, Retrospective states and Incident Tags (if required or not required).
Communication flows can be triggered only if it meets certain conditions. The filter section provides options to filter by incident type, state, severity, retrospective states, and matching tags.
Select the Filtering options from the dropdowns, based on the Types chosen.
Users have the additional flexibility to control when to send messages for incidents based on the presence or absence of selected tags in specific tag categories.
The user can enter one or more incident tags without auto-complete. The event trigger and reminder also uses those incident tags as additional conditions to trigger the messages lowercase string comparison to match incident and comms-flow.
Note: Depending on the Event type, you will see different associated types in the filtering dropdowns for Incident Status and Incident Severity. The following will occur, based on that selection:
- If you select incident status as the event type, the incident status option will not be available under the Filter section
- If you select incident severity as the event type, the incident severity option will not be available under the Filter section
- If you select retrospective state as the event type, the retrospective state option will not be available under the Filter section
Communication flows can be sent only if it meets certain conditions. The filter section provides options to filter by incident type, state, severity, retrospective states, and matching Incident tags.
Users have the additional flexibility to control when to send messages for incidents based on the presence or absence of selected tags in specific tag categories.
In the triggers filtering section for communication flow, the user can enter one or more incident tags without auto-complete. The event trigger and reminder also uses those incident tags as additional conditions to trigger the messages lowercase string comparison to match incident and comms-flow.
Note: Depending on the Messaging Integration with your Blameless account, you will see either Slack or Microsoft Teams version of the filters.
In Reminders, the user has the option to further filter results based on the age of the Incident across all types:
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Incident Status
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Retrospective State
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Uncompleted Task
In the filtering section, locate the text field labeled "EXCLUDE INCIDENTS OLDER THAN (IN DAYS)" and enter a numeric value.
Note:
- Minimum value : 1 day
- Default value: 30 days
- Maximum value: 90 days
By selecting a time frame, you can further filter the results by excluding Incidents occurring after the window.
Click on the "NEXT" button to continue on to the next section.
Configuring a webhook
If you selected "Add a Webhook", continue with this section by clicking on the "Next" button in the lower right corner of the Triggers window. The Webhook configuration window opens.
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Select the desired Webhook "HTTP Method" window (*=required field).
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GET
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POST
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PUT
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PATCH
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DELETE
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Enter the URL to an HTTP API or webhook in the Webhook URL field.
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Optionally enter a JSON Payload if expected by the HTTP API or webhook.
Note: The JSON payload editor supports:
- Syntax highlighting
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Type ahead access to the list of available variables
This allows for use of either the double open curly brackets (once you include a key value within the JSON editor window, or by clicking on the "+" icon on the right side of the window (which opens the recognized Global Variable List.
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Select your desired variable(s).
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Click on the "Next" button.
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Click on the "Header" tab.
Note: Entering custom Headers is optional unless the HTTP API call or webhook you provided above expects values to be send via HTTP headers:
- Enter the Header Key.
- Enter the Header Value.
- Repeat until you have defined all of the desired data.
- Click the Next button. The progress bar advances to the "Summary" section.
Selecting the Recipients (CommsFlow)
If the "Recipients and Message" option appears after clicking, you are building a communication flow..
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Click on the “Next” button to continue to the Recipients section.
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Select the type(s) of messaging you wish to employ for this communication flow:
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Email
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SMS
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Collaboration (Slack or Microsoft Teams)
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Statuspage
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Note: When you activate an option, the text fields become required (*). Either Slack or Teams will be available as an option if the corresponding integration has been enabled. Either Slack or Teams can be enabled, but not at the same time.
Note: As part of the messaging options, Blameless incident roles are assigned to a maximum of one user each. This works irrespectively of the trigger type (Blameless event, Reminders) or selected conditions that would trigger the message. If no user has been assigned to the role for a specific incident at the time the message needs to be sent, no messages will be sent.
If the Event Type is "Assigned Task", under each message provider, there is a checkbox labeled "Sent to Task Owner". This checkbox, by default, is selected.
If you have chosen this option, do the following:
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Confirm that
[ x ] Sent to Task Owner
is selected. -
Complete the following provider options settings.
Deselect the “Sent to Task Owner” option if you do not wish to send the reminder directly to the task owner, but to other recipients only.
Note: If you do not select "Assigned Task", that checkbox is not displayed.
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Click on the Email slider to select the Email option. When you select the option, the communications flow manager activates the recipient list text field.
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Click in the "Send emails to" field and start typing the name(s) to be included. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Click in the "Incident Roles" field and start typing. The feature will generate a list of names as you type.
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Add an additional provider(s) if desired.
When complete, continue on to the “Create the Message” section.
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Click on the SMS slider to select the SMS option. When you select the option, the communications flow manager activates the name / phone number list text field.
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Start typing the name or number to be included. The feature will generate a list of known names and phone numbers and as you type. Select the desired name or phone number.
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Click in the "Incident Roles" field and start typing. The feature will generate a list of names as you type.
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Add an additional provider(s) if desired.
When complete, continue on to the “Create the Message” section.
Your collaboration options are:
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Slack or
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Microsoft Teams
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Click on the Slack slider to select the Slack option. When you select the Slack option, the communications flow manager activates three text fields and a checkbox:
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A recipient list text field
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A channels list field
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An incident roles field
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A “Send to Incident Channel” checkbox
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Start typing the user name(s) to be included in the "Send to Users" field. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Start typing the Channel name to be included in the "Send to Channels" field. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Click in the "Incident Roles" field and start typing. The feature will generate a list of names as you type.
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Select the checkbox if you wish to send the message to the Incident channel.
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Add additional providers if desired.
Note: When selecting the send to Incident channel, messages are automatically sent to the incident channels which are automatically created in Microsoft Teams when new incidents are started.
When complete, continue on to the “Create the Message” section.
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Click on the Microsoft Teams slider to select the Microsoft Teams option. When you select the Microsoft Teams option, the communications flow manager activates the recipient list text field.
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A users list field
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A Group list field
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A Send to Channels list field
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An Incident Roles list field
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A “Send to Incident Channel” checkbox
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Start typing the user name(s) to be included in the "Send to Users" field. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Start typing the Group name to be included in the "Group" field. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Start typing the Channel name to be included in the "Send to Channels" field. The feature will generate a list of names as you type. Select the desired name(s).
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Click in the "Incident Roles" field and start typing. The feature will generate a list of names as you type.
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Add additional providers if desired.
Note: When selecting the send to Incident channel, messages are automatically sent to the incident channels which are automatically created in Microsoft Teams when new incidents are started.
When complete, continue on to the “Create the Message” section.
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Click on the Statuspage slider to select the Statuspage option.
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Select one or more Statuspage components related to this message (i.e., incident update in Statuspage).
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Select the component status in Statuspage for each selected Statuspage component (i.e, Operational).
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Add additional providers if desired.
When complete, continue on to the “Create the Message” section.
Once you have completed the information about your targeted recipients (Email, SMS, Slack, or Microsoft Teams) from above, you can continue on with the unique message.
Note: All fields are required here unless otherwise specified.
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Complete the Subject field.
Note: This field is required for Email, but optional for SMS, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
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Complete the message field. The preview of the message is updated at the same time as you complete the message.
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Select the appropriate provider.
Note: If you are only selecting one protocol, Blameless automatically fills in the “Select Provider” field on the right column. If you have selected more than one protocol, you must manually select the desired provider from the drop down.
When creating a new communication flow and message, the user has the option to:
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Select a template from a simple pull-down list of templates.
Note: Templates, if they exist, are sorted by creation date by default.
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If there is no template selected, Blameless defaults to the base (blank) template when creating a new communication flow.
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If a template has been selected, automatically select the name of the last template that was used to create or update the message body and subject, unless it has been modified since the last time it was used.
Blameless gives you the option to edit (pencil) or delete templates. By editing, you can take a baseline template and modify and save it to your own unique needs.
You can auto-populate messages with Blameless data such as selected incident, retrospective and flow properties by entering two curly brackets.
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Start composing your subject and message.
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Enter the variable name(s) by one of the following options, in either the subject and/or message body:
Option 1: Enter two curly brackets ({{) in the message field. A list of supported variables appears in a drop down.Start typing the desired variable name. Blameless will auto-fill using the known variables.
Option 2: Select the “plus sign” icon above the subject or message fields to select from a list of available variables.
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Select the desired variable(s).
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Save the message and continue.
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Click on the “Next” button. You will note the progress bar at the top of the window advances to the “Message Preview” section.
Review the contents of the "Message Preview" section. If you are satisfied, click on the "Next" button to continue.
Completing the Summary
Complete the Summary section and review the flow. If you are satisfied, you can save (if not), finish, and activate the flow.
Important: At this point, if the flow has not been saved, you MUST apply a flow name to the flow and save it before leaving the flow you are building or your settings will be lost.
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Enter a unique flow name.
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Review the fields displayed.
Note: Confirm your Webhook or ComsFlow components in the Summary matches your selections in the "Webhook" or “Recipients and Message” section.
Note: The Summary page is a preview of the items selected for the flow so far. Be sure you save the flow before leaving the page.
Note: If you are only selecting one protocol as part of the CommsFlow creation: Blameless automatically fills in the “Select Provider” field on the right column. If you have selected more than one protocol: You must manually select the desired provider from the drop down.
Note: Depending on the selected Event Type, in the Flow Summary and under the Trigger Type section, CommsFlow will provide a brief description of what will be the trigger for that flow. For example, with theFollow Up Action Created
Event Type: "This communication flow will be triggered any time when the Follow Up Action Created event happens."
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Click on the “Save” button.
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Optional:Select the “Active” slider to activate / deactivate the flow.
Note:
Optional:The user may want to not activate the flow immediately after creating it in case they want to further refine the flow before turning it on. You can also do this from the Flows landing page.
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Click on the “Finish” button.
Click here for instructions regarding the administration of your CommsFlows.
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