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

[Santosh62]

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

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

[Santosh62]

Hi Saurabh

Use case is to create subcategories of data, some custom fields along with the Incident table to store the parent and child classes.  

[Ehab Pilloor · Accepted solution]

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

[Santosh62]

Thank you so much Ehab. Very well explained in detail.