Granular Delegation

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Granular Delegation

    Granular Delegation enables employees to delegate specific tasks and approvals to other employees based on detailed rules including date and time ranges, table types, and conditions. This functionality allows precise control over task delegation, ensuring that only relevant records matching defined criteria are delegated. It is designed primarily for employee users rather than fulfilers or agents, whose delegation needs are better handled through Advanced Work Assignment.

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    Key Features

    • Delegation Rules: Admins can create delegation rules to specify which records are delegated, for example by table, priority, or filter conditions.
    • Service Delegation Options: Delegations can be limited to specific record types such as only approvals or only task assignments.
    • Role Definitions:
      • Delegate Admin: Configures delegation tables, rules, and assigns delegates.
      • Delegator: Employee who delegates tasks specifying delegate, timeframe, and rules.
      • Delegate: Employee receiving delegated tasks and notifications within the specified timeframe.
    • Integration with HR Service Delivery: Supports delegation on the HR task table with filtering capabilities for delegators and delegates, leveraging user and HR criteria.
    • Access Control: ACLs are modified to support delegation by checking the assigned person on tasks. Domains implementing Granular Delegation must adjust their ACLs accordingly.
    • Rule-Based and Ad-Hoc Delegations:
      • Rule-Based: Delegation rules automatically reassign tasks.
      • Ad-Hoc: Delegators can manually delegate tasks using the My Delegates widget in the Employee Center.

    Practical Application

    ServiceNow customers can use Granular Delegation to streamline task management by automatically or manually delegating tasks under precise conditions. This improves operational efficiency by ensuring tasks are handled by appropriate employees when the delegator is unavailable or needs assistance, especially for HR-related tasks. Admins must define delegation rules, tables, and delegates to enable this feature effectively. ACL modifications are necessary to maintain security and proper access control.

    Granular delegation allows employees to delegate their tasks to other employees for specific date and time ranges based on delegation rules.

    Granular delegation provides the ability to delegate specific records by table and condition. It also allows admins to delegate approvals and/or task assignments for task tables they administer.

    A task is delegated when it matches the delegation rules specified for a delegation. For example, William can assign Jane as a delegate for approvals or tasks when the priority is set to High.

    Service delegation options are available, like limiting a delegation to specific record types. For example:
    • Limiting records that match a filter condition.
    • Limiting records to only approvals.
    • Limiting records to only task assignments.
    Note:
    Granular Delegation is intended for employee users, not fulfiller or agent users, such as in ITSM. Depending on your use cases, fulfiller and agent delegation is better managed via Advanced Work Assignment.

    Terms

    The following terms are applicable:
    • Delegate Admin: An employee that defines the tables used for delegation rules, defines delegation rules, and can assign delegates for employees.
    • Delegator: An employee who delegates their tasks to another employee through a delegation record, specifying the delegate user, time frame, and delegation rules.
    • Delegate: An employee who is delegated tasks that are assigned to another employee. The delegate also receives tasks assigned from the delegator. The delegate also receives notifications of these assignments and the time frame the delegation covers.

    Granular Delegation with HR Service Delivery

    Granular Delegation with the HR Service Delivery base system supports the HR task (sn_hr_core_task) table. Along with filter conditions, you can filter delegations for delegators and delegates.

    For more information on how user criteria filters delegations for delegators and delegates, see Create delegation rules.

    For information on HR criteria and user criteria, see:
    Access control rules (ACLs)
    Access control rules (ACLs) in HR Service Delivery were modified to look for the Assigned to person on an HR task. Other domains that want to use Granular Delegation must modify their ACLs to use this feature. For more information about ACLs, see Access control list rules.
    Rule-based and ad-hoc delegations
    • Rule-based: The delegation_admin configures delegation rules, which automatically reassign tasks to specific employees.
    • Ad-hoc: An employee who is defined as a delegator can delegate their tasks from the My Delegates widget in the Employee Center.
    Note:
    The delegation_admin must define a delegation rule table, delegation rules, and delegates. For more information on defining a delegation rule table see Add delegation rule tables. For more information on defining a delegation rule, see Create delegation rules. For more information on defining delegators and delegates, see Create a delegate.