What are the Pros and Cons of extending the Incident Table ?

Santosh62 · ‎01-10-2024

If I go through the community posts from the past, I can see

- Licensing Implications

- Business Rules running on task table or incident table that calculates something . Can this be elaborated ?

- Reporting gets messy. How ?

- Have to add cross scope privileges.

Can anyone explain this in more details ? Thanks in advance

Ehab Pilloor · ‎01-12-2024

Hi @Santosh62,

Extending the Incident table in ServiceNow can bring both benefits and challenges. Here's a detailed explanation of the mentioned points:

Pros:

1. Customization: Extending the Incident table allows for customization to meet specific business needs. You can add additional fields to capture information relevant to your organization's processes.

2. Enhanced Functionality: By extending the table, you can introduce new functionalities tailored to your requirements, providing a more comprehensive solution for incident management.

3. Improved User Experience: Tailoring the Incident table can enhance the user experience by ensuring that the system aligns closely with the way your organization operates, leading to increased efficiency.

Cons:

1. Licensing Implications: Extending tables may have licensing implications, and it's crucial to be mindful of any additional costs associated with customizations. Ensure compliance with licensing agreements to avoid any unexpected charges.

2. Business Rule Impact: Business rules running on the Task or Incident table can be affected. For example, if there are business rules calculating metrics or dependencies, extending the table may require adjustments to these rules to accommodate the new fields.

3. Reporting Challenges: Extensive customizations can complicate reporting. Reporting tools and configurations may need to be adapted to account for the changes, and cross-table reporting might become more intricate.

4. Cross-Scope Privileges: Adding cross-scope privileges becomes necessary when extending tables, introducing complexities in managing access and permissions. It's important to carefully define and maintain these privileges to ensure data security.

While extending the Incident table provides flexibility and customization options, organizations need to weigh the benefits against potential challenges. Addressing licensing considerations, adjusting business rules, managing reporting complexities, and maintaining careful control over permissions are essential aspects of a successful table extension strategy.

If you found this reply useful, please mark it as solution/helpful.

Thanks and Regards,

Ehab Pilloor

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Dr Atul G- LNG · ‎01-10-2024

Hi @Santosh62

Which table need to extend it depends on the use case.

For me, if you want to extend Incident table, you will get power of task and incident table both ( all fields)

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Santosh62 · ‎01-12-2024

Hi Atul

Yes , we get the power of task table as Incident is extended from Task. Are there any pros can cons on the idea to extend the Incident table ?

Dr Atul G- LNG · ‎01-12-2024

Hi @Santosh62

Extending a base table incorporates all the functionality of the original table—including fields and scripts—into the new table. This inheritance is used to create major subcategories of data. Extending an existing table can save a lot of development and debugging time

This artcile will help you

https://www.servicenow.com/community/in-other-news/when-to-create-a-new-table-vs-when-to-extend/ba-p....

*************************************************************************************************************
If my response proves useful, please indicate its helpfulness by selecting " Accept as Solution" and " Helpful." This action benefits both the community and me.

Regards
Dr. Atul G. - Learn N Grow Together
ServiceNow Techno - Functional Trainer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dratulgrover
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LearnNGrowTogetherwithAtulG
Topmate: https://topmate.io/atul_grover_lng [ Connect for 1-1 Session]

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Saurabh Gupta · ‎01-10-2024

Hi,
What is the use case for extending the incident table.

Thanks and Regards,

Saurabh Gupta