Modern workflows often require input from multiple stakeholders. ServiceNow's Smart Assessment Engine (SAE) has evolved to meet need with its collaboration feature, moving beyond the traditional single-assessor model. Here I have tried to give a walk through on the key aspects of enabling and leveraging collaboration in SAE
Pre-requisite (System Requirements)
- Smart Assessment Core (com.sn_smart_asmt): This is the foundational plugin for the Smart Assessment Engine. It must be active on your instance.
- Smart Assessment Collaboration (sn_smart_collab): This is the specific plugin that introduces the real-time collaboration features. You must install this from the ServiceNow Store.
Collaboration Flow
There are two key persona in the Collaboration flow, an Assessor and Owner pf the Assessment.
Assessment Owner: The user who created or is responsible for the overall assessment. They have full control, including the ability to add or remove contributors (assessors), and manage the assessment's lifecycle.
Assessor (or Contributor): The user who is assigned to complete parts of the assessment. With the collaboration feature, multiple assessors can work on the same assessment simultaneously.
Accessor's still have the ability to comment and attach files.
Note: The above is irrespective of roles. Assessor and owner might have same roles.
But the system limits the submit button based on the selection.
Even an admin cannot submit a collaborative assessment when not an owner.
The owner should be part of the assessor list else the system will through an error.
Highlights
1. Each assessor's changes are saved and reflected instantly for others, allowing for a shared, up-to-date view.
2. Every assessor view the assessment real time their profile icon is showed at the top right corner to highlight that they are also actively filling the assessments.
How to enable an assessment into collaboration
1. OOTB approach: Use a Flow to create the assessment.
1.1 In the Trigger Smart Assessment Flow Action, you will have a checkbox to enable an assessment with multiple collaborators. It also has the option to select the assessor dynamically using script, data pill picker.
1.2 In the "Create Assessment" action, you can add multiple users to the "Contributors" field. - Available in documentation, but untested. Please test it in the PDI.
2. Custom Approach: You can use a server-side script to query the relevant records and customize to add them to the assessment's contributor list.
Current Limitations and Key Questions
- Can question-level access control be implemented?
As of now the is no native, out-of-the-box feature to control access at the individual question level based on the assessor. However can be achieved through custom development. - Can section-level access control be implemented?
Similar to question-level control, there is no native feature to restrict entire sections of an assessment to specific assessors. All contributors on a single assessment instance have access to all sections. May be one can deep dive on Smart Assessment Persona or User Criteria to explore if there is any OOTB option. - Can we automatically reassign assessments?
As of now there is no native automatic reassignment capability within the Smart Assessment Engine. Reassignment is a manual action performed by the owner. However, can be achieved through custom development.
Smart Assessment Engine's collaboration feature is a major leap forward, but it's primarily designed for real-time teamwork on a single assessment. For fine-grained access control at the question or section level, custom development or a different approach to your assessment design may be necessary. Keep an eye on future ServiceNow releases, as these features are always being enhanced.
I am attempting to bridge the gap between ServiceNow documentation and real time implementation.
Focusing more on utilizing the OOTB functionality rather than customization. Above documentation are tried and tested in the PDI.
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Thanks,
Vinod Kumar M
ServiceNow Architect
