ITSM Granular Admin Roles :
In the Australia release of ServiceNow, one useful change for admins is the introduction of more specific roles. Earlier, we mostly used the admin role for many things. It was easy because it gave full access, but it also meant users had more permissions than they actually needed.
Now, roles are more detailed. We can give users only the access required for their work instead of full admin rights. It may take a little extra effort to set up, but it helps improve security and keeps things more controlled.
Granular roles are designed to solve this problem by giving more precise control over what a user can access or manage. Instead of assigning full administrative rights, we can now provide only the specific permissions required for a particular task, such as managing incidents, changes, or configurations. This not only improves security but also helps organizations follow the principle of least privilege in a much better way.
These are the roles that are introduced in Australia Release :
- sn_incident_admin
- sn_mim_admin
- sn_tcm_admin
- sn_iam_admin
- sn_contact_admin
- sn_task_outage_admin
In this article, we will explore what granular roles are, why they are important, and how they can be used effectively in real-world ServiceNow implementations.
This shift from broad roles to granular roles is helping organizations move towards better security, controlled access, and cleaner role design.
before the Australia release, most of these responsibilities were handled using broad roles like admin, itil, or itil_admin. This often resulted in over-permissioned users. With the introduction of granular roles, ServiceNow has moved towards module-specific access control, improving security and governance.
- sn_incident_admin
- Full control over Incident Management. Can configure incident settings and properties.
- Example: Changing how incidents are created or updating incident priorities.
- sn_mim_admin
- Full control over Major Incident Management.
- Example: Defining rules for when an incident becomes a major incident.
- sn_tcm_admin
- Handles communication setup for tasks.
- Example: Creating communication plans for task updates.
- sn_iam_admin
- Manages how communication happens during incidents.
- Example: Sending updates to stakeholders during a major incident.
- sn_contact_admin
- Manages people and contact details used in communication.
- Example: Adding new contacts or updating recipient groups.
- sn_task_outage_admin
- Controls task and outage relationship setup.
Example: Linking an incident to an outage record.
Change Management Role :
Change Management (NEW in Australia: a new granular admin role was introduced:
- sn_change_admin
This is officially mentioned in release notes:
- It allows configuration without full admin/itil
- It replaces broad roles with feature-specific access
- It includes:
- sn_change_writer
- change_manager
- sn_change_cab.cab_manager
Read ServiceNow Official Docs :
Thanks and Regards
Gaurav Shirsat
