Use the Work Plan in an investigation
Monitor and manage incident playbook workflows in Cortex XSOAR 8.10 On-prem.
The Work Plan is a visual representation of the running playbook assigned to the incident. 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.
In the Work Plan you can do the following:
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. If you select playbooks several times you can view the history of which playbooks ran.
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. For each task, you can do the following:
Designate tasks as complete either manually or by running a script.
Assign an owner
Set a due date
Add comments and completed notes, as required.
You can manage these tasks in the CLI by using the /task command. For more information about tasks, see Incident Tasks.
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. The following table displays the playbook tasks and icons in the Work Plan.
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
Standard manual task
An arrow with a light blue square background indicates a standard manual task. These tasks can ether be manual (no lightning bolt logo) or automated (with lightning bolt logo).
Manual Standard task (no lightning bolt logo):
These tasks are used where usually it's not possible to automate them. You can add comments, assign them to an owner, and set a due date. The analyst who is responsible for the investigation needs to complete the task before the Work Plan can continue.
Automated Standard task (with lightning bolt logo):
A single command or script that is set to automatically run when the Work Plan reaches this step. Some scripts need arguments in order to run - make sure to set them up properly. If left empty, the analyst who is responsible for the investigation will need to complete them so the script will run and the Work Plancan continue.
Conditional task
A diamond icon in a purple square background indicates a conditional task, which is either an automated conditional task (with the lightning bolt logo) or a manual conditional task. These tasks are 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. You can view that playbook by opening the task and selecting Open sub-playbook.
Task containing a deprecated script or needs to be updated
Scripts that have updates or are deprecated are designated by a yellow triangle. You need to update the scripts and integration commands in playbook tasks to their most current version.
Set to skip
When a task is set to skip, the skip icon will be orange.
Breakpoint
When the playbook reaches a breakpoint, the task has an orange line at the top to indicate the breakpoint.
Overridden inputs or outputs
When a task is set to have overridden inputs or outputs, the word Input or Output appears in orange.
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 playbook is pending action.
If you hover on the icon on the top left corner, details about the specific reason this task is in waiting mode appears.
If the orange square is paired with the user icon ( 
), the task requires you to open it and manually mark it as complete.
If the orange square is paired with a speech bubble icon (
), the task is waiting for a questionnaire to be completed.
Failed task
The red warning icon indicates that the automation failed to complete as expected and requires manual inspection and troubleshooting. Contact your Cortex XSOAR administrator.
If you hover on the icon on the top left corner details about the specific problem appears.
If red warning icon is paired with the clock icon (
), the task’s SLA is overdue.
Skipped task
The task will look faded to indicate it was not executed. This can happen if this task was set to be skipped when an error occurs, or if it is in a branch that was not executed if a condition wasn’t met.
Add ad-hoc tasks to a Work Plan as part of your investigation
As part of your incident 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.
In the Work Plan, go to the task where you want to add and click the + sign at the bottom right-hand corner of the task.
The ad-hoc task is added after the task on which you clicked.
Select the task type.
Standard: Runs a single automation.
Playbook: Runs a playbook to enhance the investigation.
The playbook functions as any playbook would and requires you to define the inputs and outputs, as well as any other details.
Click Save.
To run the Work Plan again, click the Run again icon.
Example 32.
For a phishing investigation, after the initial playbook run parses the email and extracts email addresses, as part of the manual investigation, you could use the Email Address Enrichment - Generic v2.1 playbook as an ad-hoc playbook task to get more information about these email addresses.
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