Assigning approvers to Knowledge category

[vidhya8]

For a Knowledge base with category->sub-category structure, what is the best way to assign single or multiple approvers to a category? When an article is created under the category/subcategory, an auto approval request must be triggered to the assigned approver(s).

Our scenario is as below:

The Knowledge -Approval publish workflow is enabled for the KB. The articles move from Draft- Review- Publish but only the Knowledge Manager is authorized to approve. We want to create a system which has specific approvers for categories and then as a final step the Knowledge Manager approves and publishes.

We are on Fuji.

Any help is much appreciated.

[vidhya8]

Thanks Simon. I'll reach out to you if we decide to go with a solution partner for this. For now we want to explore options to see if this can be done without external support.

[StephLindorff]

Would it be easier to just assign existing Assignment Groups as Owners of the article and have the workflow require Owner review before sending it to Knowledge team for final review?

I'd be hesitant to tie a solution to category/subcategory as that piece of the functionality is kinda klunky and can quickly become outdated.

[vidhya8]

Thank you Stephanie. That was helpful, I need to run it by the team to see what they think. Your suggestion brought up another idea in my mind- What about having a Configuration Item (CI) as part of the Knowledge form? When creating a new article, the   user selects the appropriate CI(with predefined owners/managers) and the CI owners double up as approvers. Do you see any exception cases in using this approach?

One exception case I can think of in using Assignment Groups is   what if the knowledge creator is not aware of the correct Assignment Group to pick? Since CI would be directly connected to the knowledge piece, it might be easier for user to select the CI and the owner gets assigned in the back end for approval.

Appreciate your thoughts.

[StephLindorff]

Even if you weren't going to use Configuration Item to determine Reviewers I think it should be on the Knowledge form so that you can do things like comparing Incidents by CI with Knowledege Used (or Viewed) by CI.    

One problem you'll run into with using CI to designate Reviewers is that a fair number of knowledge articles don't align neatly to one CI.   For instance, we have a separate CI for each type of mobile device but a bunch of KAs that define process for all mobile devices.     If you add a Mobile Device CI you can guarantee that it will get mis-used and you'll lose the abilitiy to report on incidents for a particular device.   I'm still thinking about the best way to deal with this and would welcome your thoughts.

I understand your concern about getting the proper Assignment Group designated on a knowledge article.   Our workflow calls for an initial review by the knowledge team (regional "Knowledge Coordinators") to make sure the request isn't a duplicate, will add value etc.     The Knowledge Coordinators close the SUBs so other users only see the Knowledge Form.   This approach also means that the knowledge team is designating Configuration Item, Assignment Group etc. for the SUBs and KAs so we have higher confidence in those data points.

However, any Reviewer can update those fields along with the rest of KA as part of our continuous cycle of improvement.

[beth_coleman]

This discussion is very helpful as we are changing our Knowledge review process to include regional groups. Knowledge requestors are temporarily placing a Request (ticket) for New Knowledge articles and assigning to a Queue Manager who then requests the content by either assigning to a domain expert in their group or a knowledge champion who then acquires the knowledge from the expert. We have a New Knowledge Category.

We have a detailed Wiki that is accessed for identifying the service provided by all IT groups/teams.

The KA is opened, the content added and submitted for publication by the local knowledge champion. Final publication is completed by the Publisher (Knowledge Manager). The Request ticket closure requires a KA number.   If you are allowing a CI selection on the Knowledge article, are you also using a Knowledge workflow that allows reporting against an SLA that provides response and resolve measures (time)?