Use the Work Plan in an investigation

Use a Work Plan to organize investigation tasks and progress.

The Work Plan is a visual representation of the running playbook assigned to the issue. Playbooks enable you to automate many security processes, such as managing your investigations and handling tickets. Work Plans enable you to monitor and manage a playbook workflow, and add new tasks to tailor the playbook to a specific investigation.

In an investigation, when you open the Work Plan tab you can see the playbook, the playbook name, and navigation tools.

By default, the Follow checkbox is checked, which allows you to see the playbook executing in real-time. The playbook moves when a task is completed.

Work Plan actions

Action	Description
Change the default playbook	On the left-hand side of the window, select the playbook you want to run. When changing the playbook, all completed tasks are removed and the new playbook will run.
Rerun the playbook	When changing the playbook, select the current playbook to run again.
View inputs and outputs	View the inputs and outputs of each task that has run. You can't view inputs and outputs of any task that hasn't run.
Manage tasks	View, create, and edit a playbook task. Designate tasks as complete, assign an owner, set a due date, and add comments and completed notes. You can manage these tasks in the CLI by using the /task command.
Export to a PNG	Export the Work plan to a PNG format for easy analysis.

The color coding and symbols in the Work Plan help you to easily troubleshoot errors or respond to manual steps.

Important

A playbook will not continue its execution path if a prior task has failed; you must resolve the failed task before subsequent tasks can run.

Playbook tasks and icons in the Work Plan

Task	Description
Standard manual task	An arrow with a light blue square background indicates a standard manual task. The analyst who is responsible for the investigation needs to complete the task before the Work Plan can continue.
Conditional task	A diamond icon in a purple square background indicates a conditional task used as decision trees in your Work Plan.
Data collection task / Communication task	The speech bubble in a turquoise background indicates a data collection task. This task prompts the receivers to respond to a multi-question form and submit replies, even if they are not Cortex users.
Sub-playbook task	The workflow icon in a blue background indicates that the task is a playbook nested within the parent playbook.
Task containing an error	Scripts or sub-playbooks that have errors are designated by a red triangle.
Task containing a deprecated script or needs to be updated	Scripts or sub-playbooks that have updates or are deprecated are designated by a yellow triangle.
Set to skip	When a task is set to skip, the skip icon will be orange.
Breakpoint	When the Work Plan reaches a breakpoint, the task has an orange line at the top to indicate the breakpoint.
Pending/in queue task	When the Work Plan starts to run, all tasks that are about to be performed are gray.
Running/in progress task	A spinning circle inside the gray square indicates a running/in progress task.
Completed task	The green square indicates a completed task.
Waiting task	The orange square indicates that the task is pending action.
Failed task	The red warning icon indicates that the task failed to complete as expected and requires manual inspection and troubleshooting.
Skipped task	The task will look faded to indicate it was not executed.

Add ad-hoc tasks to the Work Plan

As part of your issue investigation, within the Work Plan you can create tasks for a specific iteration of a playbook. The task type can be an automation or another playbook. For example, within a manual task, you might need to enrich some data and run an investigation playbook.

When you create a task, add a name, automation, and description. The name and description should be meaningful so that the task corresponds to the data that you are collecting.

1. In the Cases page, select the case to update.
2. In the Issues & Insights tab, click the issue to add the task to and then click the Work Plan tab.
3. In the Work Plan, go to the task where you want to add a new task and click the + sign at the bottom right-hand corner of the task.
4. Select the task type:

   • Standard: Runs a single automation.
   • Playbook: Runs a playbook to enhance the investigation.
5. Click Save.
6. To run the Work Plan again click the Run Again icon.