Assigning knowledge workflows to an OT knowledge base

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Assigning knowledge workflows to an OT knowledge base

    ServiceNow allows you to assign specific Knowledge Management workflows to each Operational Technology (OT) knowledge base, controlling the publishing and retiring processes of knowledge articles. This enables tailored management and approval mechanisms according to your organizational requirements for OT content.

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    Default Knowledge Management Workflows for OT Knowledge Bases

    The platform provides several default workflows designed for managing OT knowledge articles, including:

    • Knowledge - Approval Publish: Requests managerial approval before publishing an article. Articles move through states such as In Review, Scheduled (if publishing later), and Published. Rejected articles revert to Draft. Email notifications are sent based on ownership group settings to relevant approvers and to authors about approval outcomes.
    • Knowledge - Approval Retire: Requires managerial approval before retiring an article. Rejections keep the article Published. Similar email notification rules apply as in publish approval.
    • Knowledge - Instant Publish: Publishes draft articles immediately without approval or on a scheduled date if specified.
    • Knowledge - Instant Retire: Retires published articles immediately without approval.
    • Knowledge - Publish and Knowledge - Retire Subflows: These subflows move articles directly to Published or Retired states and can be used when creating custom workflows.

    For workflows requiring approval, administrators can customize which users have approval authority by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.

    Email Notifications for Approval Workflows

    Email notifications can be sent to both approvers and authors to keep all parties informed about submission and approval status. To enable these notifications, set the system property glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification to true. This property is enabled by default starting with the New York release. For earlier releases, administrators need to create and enable this property manually.

    Before enabling this property, disable any custom notifications related to article approvals to avoid conflicts.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Provides granular control over publishing and retiring processes for OT knowledge articles.
    • Supports automation and streamlining of approvals with configurable approver roles.
    • Improves communication with automated email notifications to stakeholders.
    • Enables flexible workflow customization through subflows and script includes.

    You can assign different Knowledge Management workflows to each Operational Technology (OT) knowledge base for the publishing and retiring processes.

    Knowledge workflow overview

    You can use the default Knowledge Management workflows in the following table for Operational Technology Knowledge Management and apply them to OT knowledge bases.
    Note:
    For the workflows that require approval, you can configure which users can approve or reject by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.
    Table 1. Default Knowledge Management workflows
    Workflow Description
    Knowledge - Approval Publish Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base. Articles in approval have a state of In Review before moving to a Published state after approval. If they're set to publish later, they’re moved to a Scheduled state. If the manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in the Draft state.

    If theownership groups option is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If the ownership groups option isn't enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the knowledge base managers for approval.

    A notification is also sent to the authors or the revisers of the articles to inform them that their article has been approved or rejected.

    To turn on the approval email notifications, set the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property to true.

    Note:
    Only the active user receives the notifications.
    Knowledge - Approval Retire Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base before moving the article to the retired state. If any manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in the Published state.

    If the ownership groups option is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If the ownership groups option isn’t enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the knowledge base managers for approval.
    Knowledge - Instant Publish Immediately publishes a draft article without requiring an approval, or publishes on the scheduled publish date if set to publish later.
    Knowledge - Instant Retire Immediately retires a published article without requiring an approval.
    Knowledge - Publish Knowledge Subflow that moves the knowledge article to the Published state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    Knowledge - Retire Knowledge Subflow that moves the knowledge article to the Retired state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.

    Email notifications for approval workflows

    You can send email notifications for approval workflows.
    • Notify approvers about the knowledge articles submitted for their approvals.
    • Notify authors about the approval status of their knowledge articles
    To send email notifications for approval workflows, enable the Send notification to approvers and authors in article approval workflow property (glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification). Beginning with the New York release, the property is enabled by default. Existing customers on release versions prior to the New York release can enable this property to send email notifications. Disable any custom notifications for article approvals before enabling this property. If the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property isn’t available, an administrator can create the property and set its value to true. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.