CAB meeting management using the CAB workbench

Release version: Yokohama

Updated January 30, 2025

4 minutes to read

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Summary of CAB Meeting Management Using the CAB Workbench

The CAB Workbench in ServiceNow enables Change Advisory Board (CAB) managers to efficiently view and manage CAB meetings and their agenda items. Accessible viaChange > Change Advisory Board > CAB Workbench, it offers calendar views (day, week, month) of scheduled meetings and interactive controls to start, pause, or end meetings.

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Key Features

Meeting Timer and Status: Displays elapsed time with color-coded progress indicating how much of the meeting duration has passed, helping managers keep meetings on track.
Agenda Item Controls: Managers can pause, skip, restore, promote, or demote agenda items to manage discussion flow effectively during the meeting. Skipped items are moved to a pending list for later discussion.
Agenda Item Filtering: Enables filtering agenda items based on status such as Pending, All, My Agenda, or Approved for streamlined navigation and prioritization.
Meeting Notes and Attendee Management: Hosts and delegates can capture and share meeting notes directly from the workbench. Notes are automatically saved to the related CAB Meeting record and emailed to attendees. The attendee list shows presence status and invitation responses, improving participation tracking.
Change Request Details View: Provides detailed views of current change requests in either form or calendar formats. The form view displays editable change details, planning, and scheduling tabs. The calendar view highlights change schedules, blackout periods, maintenance windows, and potential conflicts such as overlapping change requests assigned to the same resources.

Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

Streamlines the management of CAB meetings by providing a centralized interface for scheduling, tracking, and controlling meeting flow.
Ensures timely decision-making with visual progress indicators and agenda controls to keep meetings efficient.
Improves collaboration and documentation with integrated note-taking and attendee status visibility.
Helps avoid scheduling conflicts and resource contention by displaying blackout schedules, maintenance windows, and overlapping change requests in calendar views.

As a Change Advisory Board (CAB) manager, you can view and manage details of a CAB meeting and its agenda items through the CAB workbench.

You can view the details of a CAB meeting and its agenda by navigating to Change > Change Advisory Board > CAB Workbench. The calendar offers a view of your CAB meeting schedules for the day, week, or month. To view your meeting details, click the meeting and then click Open in the pop-up calendar. To start a meeting, click Start meeting.

Note:

If you click the first agenda item for the first time, a Confirmation window appears. If you want to start the meeting, click Yes, otherwise, click No.

Watch this six-minute video to learn more about CAB meeting management.

Click Start meeting to attend a CAB meeting. — Figure 1. Start CAB meeting

The details of the change request meeting appear.

CAB meeting details. — Figure 2. CAB workbench

The following table describes the CAB workbench components:

Table 1. CAB workbench
Level	Description
1	You can view the timer that displays the total elapsed time, the meeting name, and the scheduled date and time of the meeting. The timer count starts from zero. The color code in the timer changes based on the overall percentage elapsed from the total duration of the meeting: 0% - 50%: Green 50% - 70%: Yellow 75% - 100%: Orange < 100%: Red The text below the meeting name displays the total time allotted for the meeting.
2	Click Pause to pause an agenda item. Click Next if you want to skip an agenda item. Note: The agenda item is added in the list of All Agenda Items list. Click Restore if you again want the agenda item back in the Pending Agenda Items list. Note: The agenda item is added to the end of the Pending Agenda Items list. Click Promote to move the agenda item to the top of the list. Click Demote to append the current agenda item in the Pending Agenda Items list so that you can discuss the agenda item later. Note: The timer displays the amount of time spent discussing the current meeting agenda item. Click End meeting to end a meeting.
3	You can filter the agenda items that you want to view. Click the Pending Agenda Items list, and select the All Agenda Items, My Agenda Items, or Approved Agenda Items option. Note: The list of agenda items appears under the filter condition list, in the order that the items appear in the agenda. Click Promote if you want an agenda item to appear at the top of the agenda item list.
4	You can take meeting notes whether you are a host or a delegate. You can view the list of attendees and conference information. Meeting Notes: Enables the CAB manager and delegates to document notes for the overall meeting. The notes captured in the widget can be shared from the widget. The widget emails the contents to the list of attendees, which are automatically saved to the corresponding Meeting Notes field in the CAB Meeting record. Any notes specific to a change request can be added directly to the change request. To add a note, use the editable view of the form under the edit icon in the upper left of the form widget. Note: The agenda decisions made by the CAB and change approvers, such as whether the agenda item is approved or rejected or when CAB manager skips to another agenda item without making a decision, are automatically captured in the meeting notes widget. The agenda decisions are stored in the Meeting Notes field in the related CAB Meeting record. Attendees: Displays the list of attendees and indicates if the attendees are currently connected to the meeting via the green Presence icon. The list also displays the attendee's response to the meeting invitation such as Accept, Tentative, Decline, or No response. Conference Information: Displays any content that was stored in the Conference Information field on the related CAB Meeting record.
5	You can view the details of a current change in the form view or in the calendar view. Show form: Click the show form icon to display change details in the form view. The Change, Planning, and Schedule tab provide information about the change request meeting, planning, and scheduling. You can edit the form view, by using the edit icon . To customize the view, click the list contextual menu and then click View > cab_workbench. On the Change Request form, right-click and navigate to Configure > Form Layout. On the Configuring Change Request form, you can add fields and sections that you want to display in the form view. Show calendar: Click the show calendar icon to display current change details on the calendar form. You can select the day or the month that you want to view meeting details for. In the day view, click the settings icon and then click the configuration icon to set relevant filter conditions. If you turn on any of the configuration filter conditions, the related change records are displayed. The change records appear in the time slot of the day that the current change implementation is planned for. In the configuration settings, you can view other potential conflicts. The conflicts can be other change requests that are scheduled for implementation by the same assignee, assignment group, or for the same configuration item. The day and month view of the calendar displays the Blackout Schedule time, Maintenance Window, and the agenda item that is in progress. In the day view, the specific time slot of the planned blackout and maintenance window is highlighted. In the calendar view, the entire day is highlighted.