Why do I see duplicate items in Grand Avenue?

When creating new process items (e.g. Change Requests, Deviation Requests, CAPAs, NCMRs, Issues), use of the web browser’s “Back” button can inadvertently create duplicate items.

As a new item is being created, clicking any Grand Avenue button saves the item before proceeding to the next page. However, if a user then clicks the web browser’s "Back" button, the browser returns to the previous page without Grand Avenue’s knowledge. If the web browser goes back to a page where Grand Avenue has not yet saved new items (e.g. the Create Change Request page), any subsequent click of a Grand Avenue button creates another new process item with the identical information.

Grand Avenue discourages users from using the web browser’s “Back” button.  If users click Grand Avenue’s “Cancel” button to return to a previous step instead of clicking the browser’s “Back” button, the system will go to a page where they can continue editing the same process item.

Depending on the process item, duplicates can be removed by clicking “Perform” on the task and then clicking “Withdraw” or “Delete”.

Example

The following example shows a series of steps that result in duplicate change requests, but similar steps can lead to duplicates of other process items such as deviation requests, CAPAs, NCMRs, and Issues.

 

  1. A user clicks Submit a Change Request from the navigation menu.

    Submit a Change Request

     

  2. The user completes the Create Change Request page and then clicks the “Create New Document” button.

    Create New Document

     

  3. At this point, the system saves the new Change Request, assigns the user a “Submit New Request” task, and takes the user to the next page to enter information about the new document. The user realizes that the change request should revise an existing document rather than create a new one. Rather than clicking the “Cancel” button to return to a page where the existing change request can be edited, the user incorrectly clicks the web browser’s Back button and returns to the Create Change Request page.

 

  1. The web browser reloads the previous page, which is at the step where the Change Request fields have been completed but the Change Request has not yet been saved. The user clicks the “Revise Existing Document” button.

  2. At this point, the system saves another new Change Request, assigns the user another new “Submit New Request Task” task, and then takes the user to the next page to select the document to be revised. Now there are two identical change requests, each with its own "Submit New Request" task.

  1. The user can remove duplicate change request(s) by clicking “Perform” on the Submit New Request task and then clicking the “Withdraw” button at the bottom of the page.

 

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