Access Request Workflow

[Jeffrey Beaudry]

Hello all,

I wanted to evaluate how other organizations are utilizing the Service Catalog for application access.  We currently use a single catalog item that allow users to request multiple applications. (see screenshot)

Current workflow:

   - Multi-select field to allow application selection

   - For each item selected, a single task is generated to the application fulfiller group using a custom workflow

   - If additional actions are needed, then the current assignee copies the task and manually assigns to additional group(s).

Obviously this isn't the best use of automation within ServiceNow, so I would like to see how you all handle multi-select / multi-task application selection.

Thank you.

[courtneycarter]

I've seen customers do it the same way you are many times. Others use order guides so the fulfillers would have specific workflows tailored to what tasks are needed, rather than having to do the copy task to create more tasks as its unneeded overhead could make the work inconsistent. I always lean towards order guides for these types of things and IT on-boarding. Some issues with having them in one request and not an order guide would be: - inability to efficiently streamline the workflow for a specific application - this one could be significant depending on your processes - unable to easily trigger an approval for specific applications - unable to properly report on time to fulfill per application - unable to easily as leading questions relating to an application...such as roles needed, environments, access levels, etc. One thing I wanted to mention looking at the screenshot would be to break up the access requests into application access, shared data, email groups, and distro lists (things that aren't application-specific).... and all in one could be a pretty overwhelming list for your users. Additionally, I would assume more info would be needed to fulfill requests, such as access to a distro list. The goal is to ensure all the necessary information to request a service is included when the request is submitted. I wonder if you polled your fulfillers on if all the required data is contained in these requests, what they would say... I would lean to probably not in a lot of cases. The best way to judge if your catalog items are working well for your customers is to ask them. Do they find it easy and intuitive? Do they get what they need within the expected time frame? Are they being asked for information after submitting the request? Then I would ask the fulfillment teams what their experiences are.

[MGanon]

Do you have an example of the order guide that you described?

[courtneycarter]

Yikes this posted as a huge paragraph! Hopefully you still get something out of it! I've seen customers do it the same way you are many times. Others use order guides so the fulfillers would have specific workflows tailored to what tasks are needed, rather than having to do the copy task to create more tasks as its unneeded overhead could make the work inconsistent. I always lean towards order guides for these types of things and IT on-boarding. Some issues with having them in one request and not an order guide would be: - inability to efficiently streamline the workflow for a specific application - this one could be significant depending on your processes - unable to easily trigger an approval for specific applications - unable to properly report on time to fulfill per application - unable to easily as leading questions relating to an application...such as roles needed, environments, access levels, etc. One thing I wanted to mention looking at the screenshot would be to break up the access requests into application access, shared data, email groups, and distro lists (things that aren't application-specific).... and all in one could be a pretty overwhelming list for your users. Additionally, I would assume more info would be needed to fulfill requests, such as access to a distro list. The goal is to ensure all the necessary information to request a service is included when the request is submitted. I wonder if you polled your fulfillers on if all the required data is contained in these requests, what they would say... I would lean to probably not in a lot of cases. The best way to judge if your catalog items are working well for your customers is to ask them. Do they find it easy and intuitive? Do they get what they need within the expected time frame? Are they being asked for information after submitting the request? Then I would ask the fulfillment teams what their experiences are.