Ownership groups & creating articles in shared KB without ability to edit other groups' articles

[jasonkohl]

We would like to configure a central end-user facing knowledge base where multiple ownership groups can manage the lifecycle of their knowledge articles (create, edit, retire, process feedback). We gave the ownership groups Can Contribute access to the KB which allowed them to create new articles, but it also gave them the ability to edit different ownership group articles which we did not want.

If we removed the ownership groups' Can Contribute permissions from the knowledge base, the ownership groups could edit their assigned articles but did not have the ability to create a new article in the KB.

How can we configure the single shared knowledge base so that different ownership groups can create new knowledge in it but then only be able to edit articles assigned to their group?

[Wendy25]

I think it's important to know that User Criteria and Ownership Groups are 2 different things.  I have Ownership Groups set up in my PDI without any customization and it works as it should.  First, I installed and enabled the Ownership Group Properties on my PDI.  Then I created a User Criteria Group (Knowledge > Administration > User Criteria) to define who Can Contribute at the KB level. After this, I created individual Ownership Groups (Knowledge > Ownership Groups) to determine who can edit/approve at the article level.  While everyone can create in that KB, only the Ownership Groups can checkout/edit their own articles.  For example, the User Criteria group I assigned under the KB's 'Can Contribute' includes all users in the IT department.  I then created Ownership Groups for the individual assignment groups in this department that can be selected via the Ownership Group field when a user creates the article in the KB to manage editing/approvals at the article level. 

[jasonkohl]

Thanks Wendy, that is essentially how we're doing it. Within the user criteria group, we added the different ownership groups since we only want team members creating articles in that KB that have an ownership group defined. 

[jasonkohl · Accepted solution]

I believe we figured it out. Unfortunately, when testing in our subprod instance, the primary test user we were using had been configured as a Manager on a different knowledge base. Because of this, they had the Knowledge Manager role associated with their user profile. We added them to an ownership group and then provided that ownership group Can Contribute access to the shared knowledge base. Once this person had contribute access, their knowledge manager role permissions also applied which gave them permission to edit all knowledge articles, not just the ones assigned to their ownership group.

Using a vanilla test user (no other knowledge permissions), everything worked as we wanted and expected. They were able to create new knowledge to the KB, they were able to edit articles that were not yet assigned to an ownership group, they were able to edit articles assigned to their own ownership group, and they were NOT able to edit articles assigned to other ownership groups they were not a part of.

All is well, thanks for sticking with us, and sorry for posting something we should have caught in testing. The more you know!

[JulietChicago]

Thanks for posting the solution! 

[jenniemiller]

We have ours set up so that Can Contribute is the "itil" role. This allows any ServiceNow agent the ability to author an article in any Knowledge Base. We use Ownership Groups which are the same as our Assignment Groups (our Service owner teams). The author needs to specify an Ownership Group, but they do not need to be a member of the Ownership Group to create the Draft, create a new Version, or edit a Draft. They can submit the article for approval (we use Approval Publish workflow), and then the Ownership Group can review/edit/approve the article. Once published, the Ownership Group + that Author can checkout the article for updating. 
If the Ownership Group doesn't want that Author to have the ability to update the article after it is published, we have exposed the Author field on the form so that they can change the Author to a member of the Ownership Group.

I hope that helps, but let me know if you have any questions about our process.