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Internal Tools — Complete Feature Decomposition

SCOPE_ITEM: Exhaustive feature tree for internal tools and process optimisation applications. Each node is a scope item that can be independently included or excluded during scoping.


1. Authentication & Identity

SCOPE_ITEM: Corporate authentication layer. INCLUDES: SSO integration, session management, role assignment. See: authentication-corporate.md

1.1 Single Sign-On (SSO)

SCOPE_ITEM: SAML 2.0 / OIDC integration with corporate IdP. INCLUDES: SP-initiated login flow, IdP metadata import, assertion validation, attribute mapping. OPTIONAL: IdP-initiated login, multi-IdP support.

1.2 Active Directory / Entra ID

SCOPE_ITEM: Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) integration. INCLUDES: User provisioning via SCIM, group sync, conditional access policy support. OPTIONAL: On-premises AD via AD Connect, hybrid join.

1.3 Multi-Factor Authentication

SCOPE_ITEM: MFA enforcement for sensitive operations. INCLUDES: Delegated MFA via IdP (recommended), step-up auth for admin actions. OPTIONAL: App-level TOTP as fallback for non-SSO users.

1.4 Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

SCOPE_ITEM: Permission system tied to organisational roles. INCLUDES: Role definitions, permission matrix, role assignment UI, role inheritance. OPTIONAL: Attribute-based access control (ABAC), field-level permissions, data-scoped roles (e.g., department-only view).

1.5 Service Accounts

SCOPE_ITEM: Machine-to-machine authentication for integrations. INCLUDES: API key generation, key rotation UI, scope restrictions, usage logging. OPTIONAL: OAuth 2.0 client credentials flow, JWT bearer tokens.


2. Workflow Engine

SCOPE_ITEM: Configurable workflow and approval system. INCLUDES: State machine definitions, transition rules, approval chain configuration, notification triggers. See: workflow-engine.md

2.1 State Machine Definitions

SCOPE_ITEM: Define states and allowed transitions per workflow type. INCLUDES: State configuration UI, transition guard conditions, required fields per state, status visualisation. OPTIONAL: Visual state machine editor (drag-and-drop).

2.2 Approval Chains

SCOPE_ITEM: Multi-level approval routing. INCLUDES: Sequential approval, configurable approver assignment (role-based, manager hierarchy, named individual). OPTIONAL: Parallel approval (all must approve), quorum approval (n-of-m), conditional routing based on field values.

2.3 Escalation Rules

SCOPE_ITEM: Automatic escalation when approvals stall. INCLUDES: Time-based escalation, escalation path configuration, notification on escalation. OPTIONAL: Auto-approve on timeout, skip-level escalation, escalation to distribution group.

2.4 SLA Tracking

SCOPE_ITEM: Service level tracking per workflow step. INCLUDES: SLA definition per state, clock start/stop rules, SLA breach notification, SLA dashboard. OPTIONAL: Business hours calendar, pause-on-hold logic, SLA reporting by team/category.

2.5 Parallel Workflows

SCOPE_ITEM: Workflows that split into parallel branches. INCLUDES: Fork/join semantics, independent branch progression, join condition (all complete / any complete). OPTIONAL: Conditional branching, dynamic branch creation.

2.6 Workflow Templates

SCOPE_ITEM: Reusable workflow configurations. INCLUDES: Template library, template versioning, clone-and-edit. OPTIONAL: Template marketplace (for multi-department orgs), template import/export.


3. Forms & Data Entry

SCOPE_ITEM: Structured data capture with validation.

3.1 Form Builder

SCOPE_ITEM: Configurable form definitions. INCLUDES: Field types (text, number, date, select, multi-select, file upload, rich text), field validation rules, required fields, conditional visibility. OPTIONAL: Drag-and-drop form designer, formula fields, lookup fields (reference other records).

3.2 Data Validation

SCOPE_ITEM: Input validation and data integrity rules. INCLUDES: Type validation, format validation (email, phone, URL), range validation, uniqueness constraints. OPTIONAL: Cross-field validation, regex patterns, custom validation functions, async validation (e.g., duplicate check).

3.3 Bulk Data Entry

SCOPE_ITEM: Import and batch operations. INCLUDES: CSV import with mapping UI, import preview and error reporting, batch update. OPTIONAL: Excel import (XLSX), API-based batch create, scheduled imports.

3.4 Draft & Autosave

SCOPE_ITEM: Prevent data loss during form entry. INCLUDES: Periodic autosave to draft, resume from draft, draft listing per user. OPTIONAL: Conflict detection (another user edited same record), version comparison.


4. Reporting & Dashboards

SCOPE_ITEM: Data visualisation and reporting layer. See: reporting.md

4.1 Dashboard

SCOPE_ITEM: Configurable dashboard with widgets. INCLUDES: KPI cards, chart widgets (bar, line, pie, table), date range filter, refresh on demand. OPTIONAL: Drag-and-drop layout editor, per-user dashboard personalisation, shared dashboards per role.

4.2 Chart Library

SCOPE_ITEM: Visualisation components. INCLUDES: Bar, line, pie, donut, table, area charts. Implemented with: Recharts or Chart.js (React-compatible). OPTIONAL: Heatmaps, funnel charts, Gantt charts, scatter plots.

4.3 Data Export

SCOPE_ITEM: Export data in standard formats. INCLUDES: CSV export, filtered export (respects current view). OPTIONAL: PDF export (formatted reports), Excel export (XLSX), export scheduling (daily/weekly email).

4.4 Scheduled Reports

SCOPE_ITEM: Automated report generation and delivery. INCLUDES: Schedule definition (daily, weekly, monthly), recipient list, email delivery with attachment. OPTIONAL: Slack/Teams delivery, conditional sending (only if data changed), report template builder.

4.5 Real-Time vs Batch

SCOPE_ITEM: Data freshness strategy. INCLUDES: Batch refresh (acceptable for most internal tools, 5-15 min staleness), manual refresh button. OPTIONAL: Real-time updates via WebSocket/SSE for ops dashboards, incremental refresh, cache invalidation on write.


5. Notifications

SCOPE_ITEM: Multi-channel notification system.

5.1 In-App Notifications

SCOPE_ITEM: Notification centre within the application. INCLUDES: Notification bell with unread count, notification list with mark-as-read, click-to-navigate to source record. OPTIONAL: Notification preferences per user, notification grouping, snooze.

5.2 Email Notifications

SCOPE_ITEM: Transactional email for workflow events. INCLUDES: Approval request emails, status change notifications, SLA breach alerts, daily digest option. OPTIONAL: Custom email templates per workflow type, reply-to-approve.

5.3 Webhook Notifications

SCOPE_ITEM: Push notifications to external systems. INCLUDES: Webhook endpoint configuration per event type, retry logic, delivery log. OPTIONAL: Slack integration, Microsoft Teams integration, custom payload templates.


6. File Management

SCOPE_ITEM: Document and file handling within the application.

6.1 File Upload

SCOPE_ITEM: Secure file upload with validation. INCLUDES: Drag-and-drop upload, file type restriction, max file size enforcement, virus scanning (ClamAV or API), S3-compatible storage (EU region). OPTIONAL: Multi-file upload, progress indicator, image preview.

6.2 File Versioning

SCOPE_ITEM: Track file revisions. INCLUDES: Version history per file, download previous versions, version comparison (metadata). OPTIONAL: Content diff for text files, restore previous version.

6.3 Access Control

SCOPE_ITEM: File-level permission management. INCLUDES: Inherit permissions from parent record, explicit share with user/role, download logging. OPTIONAL: Expiring share links, watermarking on download, view-only mode (no download).


SCOPE_ITEM: Application-wide search functionality.

SCOPE_ITEM: Search across all record types. INCLUDES: PostgreSQL full-text search (tsvector/tsquery), search results ranked by relevance, type-ahead suggestions. OPTIONAL: Meilisearch for >100k records, fuzzy matching, search analytics (popular queries).

SCOPE_ITEM: Advanced filtering and saved views. INCLUDES: Filter by field values, date ranges, status, combine multiple filters (AND logic). OPTIONAL: OR logic, saved filter presets per user, shared filter presets per team.


8. Audit Trail

SCOPE_ITEM: Immutable log of all significant actions.

8.1 Change Log

SCOPE_ITEM: Record-level change tracking. INCLUDES: Actor (who), timestamp (when), action (what), before/after values for changed fields. OPTIONAL: Diff view, export audit log, retention policy with automatic archival.

8.2 Access Log

SCOPE_ITEM: Track who accessed what and when. INCLUDES: Record view logging, file download logging, search query logging (for compliance). OPTIONAL: Session recording, IP logging, device fingerprint.

8.3 Admin Activity Log

SCOPE_ITEM: Track administrative actions. INCLUDES: Role changes, permission changes, configuration changes, user provisioning/deprovisioning events. OPTIONAL: Require reason for admin actions, four-eyes principle for destructive operations.


9. Integrations

SCOPE_ITEM: Connectivity with external business systems. See: integrations.md

9.1 ERP Integration

SCOPE_ITEM: Synchronise data with enterprise resource planning. INCLUDES: Read from ERP (reference data, master data). OPTIONAL: Write-back to ERP, bi-directional sync, real-time vs batch sync strategy. CHECK: Which ERP? SAP, Exact Online, Microsoft Dynamics, other.

9.2 CRM Integration

SCOPE_ITEM: Synchronise data with customer relationship management. INCLUDES: Read contacts/companies from CRM. OPTIONAL: Write-back activity logs, bi-directional sync. CHECK: Which CRM? Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, other.

9.3 Email Integration

SCOPE_ITEM: Send and receive email within the application. INCLUDES: Transactional email via SMTP or API (Brevo (FR), Mailjet (FR) preferred. Resend, Postmark secondary — US-based, EU data sovereignty risk). OPTIONAL: Email-to-record ingestion, shared mailbox integration, email template management.

9.4 Calendar Integration

SCOPE_ITEM: Calendar synchronisation for scheduling features. INCLUDES: Read availability from Outlook/Google Calendar. OPTIONAL: Create calendar events, booking/scheduling module, room/resource booking.

9.5 Office 365 / Google Workspace

SCOPE_ITEM: Deep integration with productivity suite. INCLUDES: SSO (covered in auth), file storage (OneDrive/Drive). OPTIONAL: Embedded document editing, SharePoint site integration, Google Sheets data pull.

9.6 Custom API / Webhook

SCOPE_ITEM: Generic integration capability. INCLUDES: Outbound webhooks on events, API documentation for inbound integrations, rate limiting. OPTIONAL: Zapier/Make integration, custom connector builder.


10. Administration

SCOPE_ITEM: System administration and configuration.

10.1 User Management

SCOPE_ITEM: Manage application users. INCLUDES: User list, invite flow, deactivate/reactivate, role assignment, department assignment. OPTIONAL: Bulk user import, SCIM auto-provisioning, user activity overview.

10.2 Configuration Management

SCOPE_ITEM: Application settings and customisation. INCLUDES: System settings UI, feature flags, branding (logo, colours), email sender configuration. OPTIONAL: Custom fields, custom record types, white-labelling.

10.3 System Health

SCOPE_ITEM: Operational monitoring for administrators. INCLUDES: Background job status, integration sync status, error log viewer, storage usage. OPTIONAL: Uptime monitoring, performance metrics, scheduled maintenance mode.


Feature Inclusion Matrix

Feature Workflow Tool Data Mgmt Ops Dashboard
1. Auth & Identity Required Required Required
2. Workflow Engine Required Optional Excluded
3. Forms & Data Entry Required Required Excluded
4. Reporting Optional Required Required
5. Notifications Required Optional Required
6. File Management Optional Optional Excluded
7. Search Optional Required Optional
8. Audit Trail Required Required Optional
9. Integrations Optional Optional Required
10. Administration Required Required Required