Use Case
- Data Certification manages scheduled and on-demand validations of data in the CMDB and related tables. Note: Not exclusive to CMDB tables, supports all tables
- For regulatory or procedural reasons, information in the CMDB requires checks for accuracy and certification. The person or team responsible for certification can use a Data Manager Certification policy to define the information requiring verification, who should perform the certification and when the certification should be performed. Data Manager then generates tasks for verifying the data.
- Data certification can be performed against specific fields on specific tables. For example, you can set up a certification to validate key information fields, such as Operating System and CPU count, on all Windows servers located in Chicago.
- The new version of Data Certification is available from Washington DC onwards
Certification Policy Overview
Persona: CMDB Administrator
Role: data_manager_admin, sn_cmdb_admin
Data Manager Certification Policy Type
- New “Certification” policy type added in Data Manager.
- Selecting this policy type introduces new options specific to the Data Certification use case.
- Users click on the Continue button to advance through each step of configuring a policy.
- The Save & Exit button can be used at any stage of policy authoring to save the policy as “Draft”.
- Unpublished policies are considered as “Draft” and accessed in the Draft policies list.
- Editing a published policy requires the deactivating the policy after which it appears in the De-activated policies list.
Certification Policy Data Filter
- Users configure a filter condition to select the table and records to be certified.
- For the Certification policy type, both CMDB and non-CMDB tables are supported for certifying data.
- Note: table selection for other policy types are restricted to CMDB CI tables.
Policy Assignment
- Tasks generated by DM policies can be assigned to:
- User field (if available in a record)
- User group field (if available in a record)
- Specific user
- Specific group
- Specific user or group assignment types are especially useful for certifying data in non-CMDB CI tables.
- After selecting an Assignment Type, the policy author can make an appropriate Task Assignment selection.
Certification Options
Certification policy type includes the following configuration options:
- Display fields – selected to help a user identify the record being certified
- Certification fields – fields to be certified
- Days to complete – number of days to complete the task, after which the task is overdue.
- Instructions – rich-text area for specifying instructions to task assignees.
Certification Field Selection
Field selection can be made by clicking in the Display or Certification fields input boxes, and selecting a choice from the list.
Alternatively, clicking the pencil icon brings up a slush bucket to select fields. The order that fields appear can be changed using this method.
Certification Policy Scheduling
- Users can configure when a Certification policy should run.
- When a Certification policy is published, a scheduled job is created using the policy name.
- If a policy is scheduled On demand, admins can use the policy name to find the scheduled job and execute it.
- Periodically has been added as a scheduling option in this release of Data Manager and is available for both Attestation and Certification policy types.
Data Manager Certification Policy Details
- A published policy can be viewed by opening a policy from the Published policies list in the Policies module in Data Manager.
- Policy settings can be viewed using the View Policy button.
- A policy can be de-activated using the Deactivate Policy button. Deactivated policies then move to the De-activated policies list.
- Deactivated policies can be reactivated using the Activate Policy button.
- Policy execution instances are created when a policy is executed. These maintain related tasks allowing progress to be tracked.
Certification Task Overview
Persona: Data owner/manager
Roles: data_manager_user, sn_cmdb_editor
Accessing Certification tasks
- Certification Tasks are accessed from the Certification tasks in the My Work module in CMDB Workspace.
- Certification Tasks are displayed for users who are members of the Assignment group or for an assigned task.
- CMDB Administrators can view all tasks.
Certification Task
- Certification task layout is similar to the Attestation task, sharing the ability to reassign the task.
- The Review records to certify button is used to begin certifying records associated with the task.
Certifying records
- List columns headings with a checkmark icon indicate certification fields.
- Selecting the top-checkbox in the list heading row will select the records visible in the list.
- Selecting one or more records enables the Certify, Fail and Review records buttons:
- Certify - will certify all fields for the selected record(s)
- Fail – will mark all fields failed for the selected record(s)
- Review records opens a panel displaying the fields for individual review. Fields can be individually selected and certified or failed, and a comment can be optionally included for the record.
- Certified records are moved from the Review not completed list to the Review completed list.
Updating fields for records
- Users may need to update field values (if the policy allows) they may then proceed to certify.
- When no fields are selected in the review panel, the Edit fields button is enabled and can be clicked to allow the field values to be updated.
- Clicking the Update button will update the field values for the record.
- If more than one record was selected in the list, then the fields whose values were changed will be updated for all selected records.
- Note: if a reference field dot-walks to a table a user has no access to, the field and its value will not be editable or displayed.
Certifying a field value in the Review panel
- Users can mark a field value that passes certification by selecting it in the Review panel and clicking the Certify selected fields button.
- A ✔︎ Certified indicator is then displayed above the field.
- Users can optionally include a comment for the record being certified which is stored in the element record associated with the task.
- The review panel can be closed by clicking the ✕ in the top-right corner.
- Indicators are displayed in the list as the certification status is updated for fields in records.
Failing a field value in the Review panel
- Users can mark a field value that fails certification by selecting it in the Review panel and clicking the Fail selected fields button.
- A ✕ Failed indicator is then displayed above the field.
- Users can optionally include a comment for the record being certified which is stored in the element record associated with the task.
- The review panel can be closed by clicking the ✕ in the top-right corner.
- Indicators are displayed in the list as the certification status is updated for fields in records.
Submitting a completed task
- When all records have been reviewed and fields marked as either certified or failed, the Submit button is enabled.
- Clicking the Submit button, sets the task state to “Closed Complete” and returns the user to the My Work view. The completed task is removed from the Certification tasks list.
Viewing Certification exceptions (fails)
- If fields have been marked as “Failed” in any Certification tasks, an informational message is displayed in the My tasks section in My Work.
- Users can click on the link to view a list of exceptions displayed in a separate breadcrumb page.
I have a question about the comment "if the policy allows" in regards to updates. I impersonate a user that is assigned a certification task and when they select a row and click Review they see this message:
I created the Certification Policies and did not see any selection for allowing update in the Policy create form. So where is this setting?
