Open
An issue/task has been identified that needs effort for resolution. The person creating the tracker item sets the initial status to "Open". 

Pending
The task has been assigned to a project member who volunteered to put effort into the resolution. The assignment is expected to be made during phone conferences, but any project member who voluntarily steps up can assume responsibility for the tracker artifact by self-assigning the artifact and changing the status to "Pending".

In progress
Some effort has been spent towards resolution of the tracked issue, but the necessary work has not ben completed yet. The assigned person changes the status of the task to "In progress".

Done
The necessary work has been completed and documents or other project output changed, or the solution proposed to the group. The assigned person changes the status of the task to "Done".

Closed
The group has accepted the proposal or resource changes to be permanent to the affected projet output item. The project's Gridforge monkey will change the status to "Closed".