An 'Input' is anything submitted to your 'Crowd'.
In process terms, an input is the start of the process and completing that process transforms the input into an output. For more on this read: What is a Process? And who Cares Anyway?
In the ATC platform, inputs are also the start of - or the trigger for - the process. Inputs can be submitted to your Crowd by both your Users and anyone who has made an external submission. (This just means an input submitted by a non-user.)
If you are using the ATC Platform for process execution, each input submitted will be the trigger for the execution of a specific process as captured in ATC as a Lifecycle and Lifecycle Stages.
With change management your inputs will be change or improvement ideas, for submission to your change roadmap.
In both cases the Moderator should review the input and allocate it to the correct Topic and Process Owner.
In the Board View inputs are summarised as Input Tiles.
In the List View inputs are summarised as Input Slates.
The full input view is called the Input Detail screen.
Inputs can be either a Stand-alone input, Parent input or Child input:
A stand-alone input is an input which is independent of all other inputs, it does not require the completion of other inputs to be completed and it is not part of a larger process or project.
A parent input is an input which has a child input or inputs. It is dependent on its child inputs being completed before it can be completed and can be broken down into sub-processes or sub-projects.
A child input is an input which represents a sub-process or sub-task which must be completed before it's parent input.
An input can be both a parent and a child input.
You can have as many levels of child inputs as you like, but all child inputs must be in a closed lifecycle stage before the parent email can be moved to a closed stage.