Knowledge Base Best Practice for Attachments

[JimCheffer]

We are expanding our use of the knowledge base and the discussion about attachment document type comes up. Some people like PDF versus Word document. PDF looks nice but then we need to store the Word document somewhere. Has anyone discovered a best practice in this area. We would like knowledge to be the one source of truth so keeping the Word document with the article makes sense. Our knowledge makers will be about 5 people so control is not a big issue. Anyone out there run across this issue. Also any Knowledge best practices out there as well. Thanks in advance.  

[StephLindorff]

I think simplicity is mandatory for process sustainability; we see greater process compliance when there are fewer steps in the process.   SN also has the ability to export knowledge articles as pdfs so I would stick with just Word.

Steph

[Michael QCKM]

This is an issue with forcing ServiceNow to be the "Source of Truth" as ITIL recommends. Saying source of truth makes people want to (and rightfully so) store ALL aspects of a subject in the one location.  As noted above, maintenance becomes a nightmare, as modifying the article (quickly and simply per KCS) doesn't mean the author will also review the attachments - especially if there are more than 1.

We are seeing MANY Policy documents now being added to SN KB per audit and other requirements.  Many of these are complex documents with more complex attachments. Audit requires review/upkeep of all parts, and I envision that will fall apart over time due to the issues with the SN Feedback and review/workflow mechanisms in place.

This is a tough subject not so easy to answer.