'Tis the season for a new shiny feature, so here's two! Both to help you manage protocols on Labstep more effectively!
Partial Locking for Protocols
With this feature, you can determine which actions users are allowed to do when executing protocols. By default, a partially locked protocol will allow users to complete steps, add comments, select inventory items and fill in data fields, however they will not be able to edit the text or structure of the protocol. These settings can be customised both at the workspace level and for individual protocols.
This allows you to:
Ensure Data Consistency: Prevent adding, removing and renaming of data fields to ensure consistency.
Control Process Execution: Prevent adding, removing or changing of key process steps in a protocol without approval.
Enhance Compliance: Protect critical workflows and meet QA/QC requirements by preventing unauthorised changes.
Protocol Drafting
Need to update a protocol but don't want people to use the new version until it is ready? Now when editing a protocol, it will be in a 'Draft' mode until it is explicitly 'Set Live' by someone with permission.
Until a Draft is 'Set Live', it cannot be used in experiments.
If a protocol is added to an experiment it will always use the last 'Live' version and not the 'Draft'.
There can only ever be one Draft version at a time to avoid conflicts but different users can collaborate on the same Draft.
This ensures people won't accidentally run a protocol that is in the middle of being edited and gives you more control over which protocols are ready for use in experiments.
If you are interested in creating custom signature workflows to control when protocols are set live, enquire about the Status Workflows feature which will be coming to Protocols in a future release!
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