---
sourceDocument: Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance
sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/de-DE/governance-risk-compliance

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    - australia

ft:locale :

    - de-DE

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance

ft:clusterId :

    - grc

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    - grc

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Template versioning

# Template versioning {#ariaid-title1}

* Freigeben Version: Australia
* 
* Aktualisiert 12. März 2026
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 Minuten Lesedauer

Template Versioning enables organizations to maintain multiple versions of assessment templates over time, with configurable policies that determine how existing assessments are handled when templates are retired or superseded
by new versions.

## Template versioning overview {#template-versioning__section_cqf_ks5_23c}

As organizational requirements evolve, assessment templates need to be updated to reflect new compliance standards, improved question sets, or refined evaluation criteria. Template Versioning provides a structured approach to managing
these changes while maintaining control over assessments that are already in progress.

When a template manager publishes a new version of an existing template, the system automatically retires the previous version. This ensures a clear version lineage and prevents confusion about which template version should be used
for new assessments. This feature introduces lifecycle management for assessment templates, allowing template managers to create new versions of templates and define how the system should handle assessments based on older versions.

## Configurable Assessment Handling Policies {#template-versioning__section_w1t_rs5_23c}

Template managers can define default behavior at the template category level, which applies uniformly to all templates within that category. This configuration determines how the system handles assessments created from retired templates. The policy is set using the Assessment handling on version retirement field, which provides the following options:

Retain assessments
:   When set to "Retain," existing open assessments continue unchanged using the retired template version. This conservative approach allows in-progress assessments to be completed without disruption. This option should be used when:

    * Template changes are minor or non-critical.
    * Disrupting in-progress assessments would cause significant operational impact.
    * Assessment responses need to be comparable across different completion timelines.
    * Regulatory or audit requirements mandate completing assessments with the originally assigned template.
    {#template-versioning__ul_dpx_lt5_23c}

Cancel assessments
:   When set to "Cancel," the system automatically moves all open assessments based on the retired template to a cancelled state. This ensures that only assessments using the latest template version remain active. This option should
    be used when:

    * Template changes are significant and make older versions obsolete.
    * New compliance requirements invalidate assessments based on older criteria.
    * Data consistency across all active assessments is critical.
    * The organization prefers to restart assessments rather than maintain mixed template versions.
    {#template-versioning__ul_qvx_pt5_23c}

## Benefits of template versioning {#template-versioning__section_zgr_155_23c}

Template versioning in Smart Assessment Engine provides the following benefits:

* Organizations can evolve assessment templates to meet changing requirements without disrupting ongoing assessment programs.
* Completed assessments remain unchanged, maintaining a permanent record of which template version was used for each assessment.
* The system maintains complete version lineage, supporting compliance auditing and historical analysis.
* Reduces manual tracking of which assessments need to be restarted or updated after template changes.
* Automated policy execution eliminates the need for administrators to manually review and update assessments after template changes.
{#template-versioning__ul_sf2_255_23c}