How to let a requester fill in additional variables on a submitted RITM from Employee Center

[avgabriel]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a catalog item and need advice on the best way to let the requester provide additional information on their RITM after it has been submitted.

Process:

1. The requester submits the RITM.
2. An internal team validates the request and sends it back to the requester.
3. The requester then gets an approval outside ServiceNow, which can take days or weeks.
4. After that, the requester must come back to the RITM and provide:
   • the result of the external approval (Yes/No)
   • a reference number and approval dates
   • an evidence attachment
   • optional departments (List Collector on cmn_department), which trigger an approval for each department head in a subflow
5. The flow continues with the department approvals, and the internal team completes and closes the RITM.

Constraints and what I've tested:

• Requesters typically only have snc_internal.
• In Employee Center they can only comment and attach files on the RITM. Variables are read-only after submission.
• I tested a Catalog Task assigned to the requester with the variables linked to it. It works in the backend for users with roles like task_editor/sn_request_write, but a user with only snc_internal can't access the task in the backend, and it doesn't appear in Employee Center.
• I tried a Record Producer that would receive the RITM sys_id via URL and update the original RITM variables via script, but Record Producers on Request Management tables (sc_req_item) are not supported.

I'm considering using a small custom table as the Record Producer target, or a separate catalog item whose flow updates the original RITM.

Questions:

• What is the recommended or most common pattern for this scenario?
• Is there an OOTB way to let requesters edit specific variables or complete a task from Employee Center without fulfiller roles or licenses?
• If a custom table or a separate catalog item is the way to go, are there best practices for moving an attachment-type variable to the original RITM?

Any guidance or examples would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!