States for an exercise and crisis event

Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance

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yokohama

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Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance

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States for an exercise and crisis event

Release version: Yokohama

Updated July 31, 2025

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Summary of States for an Exercise and Crisis Event

This guide explains the lifecycle states of exercises and crisis events within ServiceNow, helping you manage event progression, approvals, and task execution efficiently. Understanding these states enables you to control event workflows and maintain accurate records during crisis management or exercise simulations.

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Event States and Their Significance

Pending: Initial state when an event is created.
Pending Approval: Triggered when you submit an event for approval. You can only update the Work Notes field. Approval rules may generate approval requests to designated approvers. You can view approval details and history here.
Returned: Applies when an event is rejected. In this state, you can edit the event description, results, and work notes, and update asset states. Only comments and attachments can be added to event tasks.
Approved: Indicates the event has been approved. Additional user interface actions become available, including:

Generating and downloading a PDF report of the event.
Saving the event as a template for future reuse.
Viewing a 360° relationship map of the event.
Options to delete, edit, or save the event.

Closed Incomplete: Marks the event as closed but incomplete.
Closed Complete: Indicates all event tasks are completed and the event is closed.

Event Task States and Actions

Event tasks follow a specific workflow that supports dependencies and task management, especially controlled by BCM program managers.

Open: Default state for tasks without dependencies when an event starts.
Pending: Tasks dependent on other recovery tasks start here and move to Open once dependencies are resolved.
Skip Task: Available to BCM program managers when tasks are Pending or Open during Work in Progress state. Skipping sets the task to Closed Skipped without start/end times.
Trigger: Allows BCM program managers to move a Pending task to Open, bypassing dependencies.
Work In Progress: Indicates active work on the task. Actual start time can be updated or auto-recorded when moving to this state.
Closed Incomplete: Marks a task as closed but incomplete with actual end time recorded and work notes updated.
Closed Complete: Marks a task as fully completed and closed, recording actual end time.

Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

By managing event and task states as described, you can ensure clear visibility into the status of crisis events and exercises, enforce approval workflows, and maintain comprehensive documentation. The available UI actions for approved events streamline reporting, template reuse, and relationship visualization, supporting efficient crisis management and continuous improvement.

This section describes the states of progression for an exercises and crisis event.

States for an exercise and crisis event

Table 1. States for an exercise and crisis event
State	Description
Pending	First state of the event.
Pending Approval	State of the event when an approval is requested. When you select Submit for Approval, the event is set to the Pending Approval state. In this state, you can only update the Work notes field in the event form. If any approval rules are configured for the event, then the approvals are generated and sent to the approvers. If no approval records are associated with the event in the requested state, then you can either select Reject or Approve. You can view the approval details of an event in the Approvals tab with the name of the approver, level of approval, and state of the approval. You can view the approval history of the event in the Approval History tab such as the approval state, name of the approver, event number, and so on. Note: If you are a BCM program manager, you can see the Approve and Reject buttons.
Returned	State of the event when an event is rejected. The state is set to Returned. It can be moved to the Submit for Approval, Closed Complete, or Closed Incomplete states. Since this action is related to an event only, you can update the description, results, and work notes in the form. When an event is in the Returned state, you can edit the state of the event asset. From the Returned state onwards, you can only add your comments and the attachments to the event task.
Closed Incomplete	State of the event when an event is incomplete.
Closed complete	When all tasks are complete, the event moves from the Work in progress to the Closed complete state.
Approved	Approved state of the event. When an event is approved, the state is set to the Approved state. You can perform the following additional UI actions: Generate PDF Download the PDF of an exercise or crisis event for reference. When you select Generate PDF, the PDF attachment is available in the Activity panel of the Details tab. For information on generating the PDF of an exercise or crisis event, see Generate event reports in PDF or Microsoft Word. Copy Save a copy of an exercise or crisis event for future reference as a template. 360º view Visualize the 360º representation of an exercise or crisis event. For information on how to view 360º relationships of an exercise or crisis event, see View 360° relationships for exercises and crises. Delete Delete an exercise or crisis event. Edit Edit an exercise or crisis event. Save Save an exercise or crisis event.
Closed	Closed state of the event.

See the following state transitions of an event task.

Table 2. State transitions of an event task
State	Description
Open	Open state of the event task. When an event is started, its event tasks that do not have a dependent recovery task move to the Open state.
Pending	Pending state of the event task. The event tasks that are dependent on other recovery tasks are in the Pending state when the event is started. After the dependent tasks are closed, the parent event task moves to the Open state.
Skip Task	Skip Task action for the event task. This action is available only if you have logged in as the BCM program manager. The Skip action is displayed when the task is in the Pending or Open state and the event must be in Work in Progress state. Selecting Skip Task moves the task to the Closed Skipped state. The actual start time and actual end time at this state are empty.
Trigger	Trigger action for the event task. This action is available only if you have logged in as the BCM program manager. The task is in the Pending state. Selecting Trigger moves the task to the Open state irrespective of its dependencies.
Work In Progress	Work In Progress state of the event task. The task is in the Open state. Selecting Work In Progress moves the task to the Work in Progress state. You can update the actual start time of the task in the Actual start field in this state. If you do not update the actual start time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual start time. The next available options are Closed Complete or Closed Incomplete state.
Closed Incomplete	Closed Incomplete state of the event task. Actual end time of the task is recorded in the Actual end field. If you do not update the actual end time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual end time. Update necessary information in the Work notes field and save the task.
Closed Complete	Closed Complete state of the event task. The task is closed and complete in this state. Actual end time of the task is recorded in the Actual end field. If you do not update the actual end time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual end time.