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Status

A semantic Value Type that tracks a Record through process stages — a category with a clock.

type: data-model · status: draft · abstraction: instance

What it is​

Status is a semantic Value Type for tracking a Record through an ordered process. Like Select, it allows one value from a fixed inline list, but each Status stage also defines workflow meaning: display colour, order, whether it is terminal, and an optional target duration.

A Status Property stores the current stage identity and the instant the Record entered it. IMOS stamps that instant whenever the stage changes; clients cannot supply or alter it. Time in stage is therefore directly filterable, reportable and available to automations. Terminal stages stop process timers and are excluded from work-in-progress measures, whether they represent successful completion or cancellation.

Stages use stable identities, may be renamed without rewriting stored Records, and are retired rather than deleted so historical values remain readable. Boards and pipeline views recognise a Status Property as process state. On a List, that Property belongs to the List entry Record, preserving separate state when the same business Record participates in several processes. Select categorises a Record; Status tracks it through a process.

Why it exists​

Without a dedicated Status type, process meaning is hidden in ordinary dropdowns and duplicated across boards, automations and reports. Each feature must separately decide which values are terminal, how stages are ordered and when a Record entered its current stage. Those conventions drift, and hand-maintained timestamps become stale.

Status gives every stage one definition and every transition a platform-stamped clock. That makes work in progress, bottlenecks, target-duration breaches and cycle time consequences of the data model rather than reporting conventions reconstructed afterwards.

Relationships​

Outgoing

  • is an instance of → Value Type (many-to-one) — Status is a concrete semantic Value Type for process tracking, carrying stage configuration and time in stage.
  • is distinct from → Select — Select categorises a Record; Status tracks it through a process and stores when the current stage was entered.

Neighbourhood​

Stakeholder summaries​

  • Product — Purpose-built stage Properties power boards, work-in-progress measures, target-duration timers and cycle-time reporting from one configuration, without per-feature conventions about colours or completion.
  • Investor — Cycle times, bottlenecks and target-duration adherence become properties of the data model rather than a reporting bolt-on.
  • Marketing — See each job's stage and how long it has been there. Build boards, bottleneck alerts and stage targets from the same process definition.
  • Engineering — Single-select semantics with per-stage order, colour, terminal flag and optional target duration. Store stage identity plus server-stamped entered-at; support stage-order sorting and range filters over time in stage.