States for an exercise and crisis event

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of States for an Exercise and Crisis Event

    This document outlines the progression states for managing exercises and crisis events within the Business Continuity Management (BCM) framework in ServiceNow. Understanding these states is crucial for effectively navigating and utilizing the BCM Configurable Workspace.

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    Key Features

    • Event States: The lifecycle of an event includes several states, such as Pending, Pending Approval, Returned, Closed Complete, Approved, and Closed. Each state serves a specific purpose in tracking the status of the event.
    • Approval Process: Events can be submitted for approval, and if rejected, they move to the Returned state. Approval details, including history and approver information, can be accessed in the Approvals tab.
    • Task Management: Event tasks also have distinct states, including Open, Pending, Work In Progress, Closed Complete, and Closed Incomplete, allowing for detailed tracking of task status and dependencies.
    • Additional Actions: Users can generate PDFs, save event templates, visualize event relationships, edit, or delete events based on their approval status.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing these states effectively, ServiceNow customers can ensure streamlined management of exercises and crisis events, maintain compliance, and facilitate thorough documentation and reporting. This enables organizations to enhance their business continuity strategies and readiness for potential disruptions.

    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 the PDF of an exercise or crisis event.

    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 Visualize the 360° relationships for an exercise and crisis event.

    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.