Managing work orders
Summarize
Summary of Managing work orders
Work orders in ServiceNow Field Service Management represent requests for off-site work. Users with specific roles can create these work orders, providing essential information to initiate tasks. Other users then qualify the work orders and generate tasks needed to complete them. Work orders can be created from scratch or derived from other records such as cases, incidents, changes, problems, project tasks, or existing work orders.
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Creating Work Orders
Users with the wminitiator or wminitiatorqualifier roles can create work orders. Creation options include:
- New, standalone work orders.
- Work orders generated from other records (case, incident, change, problem, project task, or existing work order).
When creating a work order from an existing one, key details like the original work order reference, affected configuration item (CI), caller, location, priority, short description, and description are copied. This makes existing work orders useful as templates.
Work orders created from incident, problem, change, or project task records also inherit specific fields automatically to maintain context and tracking consistency. For example, incidents copy caller and location details; project tasks sync fields like state and scheduled dates, provided integration with Project Portfolio Management is enabled.
Qualifying Work Orders
Qualification ensures that work order tasks are created and assigned properly. This process can be performed either manually or automatically. In some cases, tasks and part requirements can be created even before formal qualification, such as when the work order is in draft state.
Managing Work Order Lifecycle
- Closing: Work orders close automatically based on the status of their associated tasks.
- Canceling: Cancel work orders when the work is no longer needed or if it duplicates another order.
- Deleting: Avoid deleting work orders unless cleaning up errors like duplicates. Instead, close or cancel them for accurate tracking since inactive work orders do not appear in lists.
Additional Functionality
ServiceNow supports generating a digitally signed PDF summary of a closed work order, allowing customers to confirm and sign the work order completion digitally for audit and verification purposes.
Work orders are requests for off-site work. Users with the appropriate roles create the work orders and provide the necessary information needed for the work order tasks. Then other users qualify those work orders and create the tasks necessary to complete the work order.
Creating work orders
If you have the wm_initiator or wm_initiator_qualifier role, you can create work orders. You can create entirely new work orders, or you can create a work order from another record.
Work orders can be created from these other record types: case, incident, change, problem, or project task. They can also be created from another existing work order. For each record, you can create only one work order.
- Work orders created from another existing work order
If the scope of an existing work order changes during the execution phase, you can create another work order from it. Analyze whether the scope change can be managed by adding additional tasks instead of creating another work order.
When you create a work order from an existing work order, the following information is copied from the original work order:
- Work order record reference (in the Initiated from field)
- Affected CI
- Caller
- Location
- Priority
- Short description
- Description
Because some information is copied from the original record, an existing work order can be used as a template to create new work orders.
- Work orders created from an incident, problem, change, or project task record
If an incident, problem, change record, or project task must be assigned to an off-site agent and tracked, you can create a work order from it. Some information from the original record is copied automatically into the new work order.
Record type Fields copied to the work order Incident - Incident record reference (in the Initiated from field)
- Caller
- Location
- Priority
- Short description
- Description
Case - Account
- Contact
- Affected CI
- Location
- Asset
Problem - Problem record reference (in the Initiated from field)
- Affected CI
- Priority
- Short description
- Description
Change - Change record reference (in the Initiated from field)
- Affected CI
- Priority
- Short description
- Description
Project task Note:Before work orders can be created from project tasks, Field Service Management must be integrated with Project Portfolio Management- Short Description
- Location
These work order fields are synchronized with the project task- State
- Scheduled start
- Estimated end
For more information about the synchronized fields, see Integration with Project Portfolio Management.
Work orders can be filtered based on different attributes, such as qualification group, location, initiated from, priority, state, and so on. This help to create a group of similar work orders.