Archiving, Rejecting and Deleting Work in Studio
How to keep a studio tidy without losing work: reject a work package, archive what is finished, delete what was never used, and bring any of it back from the archive.
The three-dots menu
Every Ideas Board, intent, workstream and work package carries the same ⋯ menu: on its card or row, and in the header of its own page. It holds everything you can do to that item — Open, Send to review, Reject, Restore, Archive, Tidy up and Delete — in the same order everywhere.
You see the actions your role allows. An action that cannot be taken right now stays in the menu, greyed out, with the reason beside it — so you can see that it exists and what stands in its way. The menu works from the keyboard: Enter or Space opens it, the arrow keys move through it, and Escape closes it.
Which one to use
| What you want to do | Use | What happens | Can it be undone? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop a work package, and keep what is in it | Reject | The package moves to Rejected. From Approved onward you are asked for a reason, which is kept on the package. | Yes. Restore returns it to the status it had. |
| Put something away, out of sight | Archive | The board, intent, workstream or work package leaves the lists. An archived intent or workstream takes its work packages out of view with it. | Yes. Restore returns it to the status it had. |
| Remove something that holds no work | Delete | It is gone for good, together with any empty work packages you agreed to delete with it. | No. |
| Clear out workstreams that never got a work package | Tidy up empty workstreams | Every workstream of the intent that no work package names is removed. You see the list first. | No. |
| Fold several draft work packages, or several workstreams, into one | Merge… | One is kept and takes the work of the others; each merged-away work package is archived as a record. See Merging Workstreams and Work Packages. | No. |
| Bring something back | Restore | It returns to the status it had when it was rejected or archived. | It can be rejected or archived again. |
| Find something that was archived | View archive, or Include archived beside a search box | The archive is listed by month, or searched alongside your live work. | — |
Rejecting a work package
To reject a work package, open its ⋯ menu and choose Reject. A draft or a package in review is rejected straight away. A package that is approved, dispatched or in progress asks you why first, and the reason stays on the package after it is restored.
A rejected package offers Restore, which returns it to the status it was rejected from. A rejected package cannot be approved as it stands: restore it first.
Archiving
To archive an Ideas Board, an intent, a workstream or a work package, choose Archive from its ⋯ menu.
You cannot archive something with work in flight. A work package that is dispatched or in progress cannot be archived, and neither can the intent or workstream it belongs to. Reject the package, or let it finish, first — the menu says how many packages are in the way.
Restoring
To restore something, find it under View archive (or, for a rejected work package, in the Rejected column) and choose Restore from its ⋯ menu. It returns to the status it had.
A work package that was approved, dispatched or in progress has its readiness gate checked again before it returns to that status, because the package or its checklist may have changed while it was away. If the gate no longer passes, you are offered Restore to In review instead, so the package can go through the gate again.
A work package under an archived intent or workstream cannot be restored on its own. Restore the intent or workstream, and its work packages come back with it.
Deleting, and why Delete is sometimes unavailable
Deleting is for things that never held any work. It is permanent, so the Studio offers it only when nothing would be lost:
When Delete is greyed out, the menu says why and what to use instead. If you choose Delete and the Studio finds something that has to be kept, the dialog names it and offers Archive instead.
Tidying up empty workstreams
Generating workstreams often leaves a few that never get a work package. When an intent has any, a line above its workstream list says how many and offers Tidy up; the same action is in the intent’s ⋯ menu. It lists the workstreams it will remove and asks you to confirm. A workstream that any work package names — live, rejected or archived — is never removed.
View archive
The Ideas Board, the Intent Pad, each intent’s page and the Work Packages board each have a View archive button showing how many items are in the archive. Choosing it swaps the page for its archive, grouped by the month each item was archived. Step to the previous or next month, enter a month, or pick one from the list of months that have items. A long month shows 25 items at a time. Choose View archive again to go back.
Each row has the same ⋯ menu, so you restore from where you are looking. On the Work Packages board the archive also lists packages that were put away with an archived intent or workstream, with a note saying which to restore.
Searching the archive
On the Intent Pad and the Work Packages board, tick Include archived beside the search box and choose how far back to look: the last 3, 6, 12 or 24 months, or all months. Matches from the archive are listed under your live results. While View archive is open, the search box searches the whole archive.
Who can do what
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Reject, restore or archive a work package; send one to review from the menu | Owner or reviewer |
| Delete a work package that is empty and was never approved | Owner, reviewer, or the member who created it |
| Archive or restore an intent or a workstream; tidy up empty workstreams | Owner or reviewer |
| Delete an intent that has no work packages | Owner, reviewer, or the member who captured it |
| Delete an intent or a workstream together with its empty work packages | Owner or reviewer |
| Delete a workstream that has no work packages | Any member |
| Archive, restore or delete an Ideas Board | The board’s facilitators: its creator, the facilitators it names, the studio owner and reviewers |
| Delete an intent along with the board it was captured from | Whoever could delete that intent on its own. A facilitator who is not the owner or a reviewer can take only intents they captured that have no work packages |
| Open the archive and search it | Any member |
If you work alone you are the studio’s owner and can do all of it. Nothing here needs a second person.
Good to know
- Reviewers can do more than before. Reject, Restore, Archive and Send to review on the Work Packages board used to be the owner’s alone; reviewers now have them in the menu. Dragging cards between columns is still the owner’s.
- A completed work package cannot be rejected. It is delivered work. Archive it if you want it out of the way.
- A work package that was ever approved is kept as a record. Sending it back to draft, or rejecting and restoring it, does not make it deletable.
- Archiving an intent hides its work packages until the intent is restored. They are not changed, and each comes back in the status it had.
- You cannot archive something with work in flight. Reject or finish the dispatched and in-progress packages first.
- The archive is searched from the search box, with Include archived. It matches on text only: the other filters on the page apply to your live results.
- Deleting cannot be undone, and neither can Tidy up or a merge. Everything else on this page can.
- A legal hold stops a delete. A work package under a legal hold, and the intent or workstream it belongs to, cannot be deleted until the hold is lifted.
- Large deletes are done in parts. An intent or workstream is deleted with at most 99 work packages, and a board with at most 50 of its intents, in one go.
- Older archived items may show no archive date. Something archived before dates were recorded is listed by the date it last changed, and says so.