Process Question: Entering Escalation Paths within Knowledge Articles

[SimonDunsmoor]

Afternoon all!

I have a question that is part process, part how-to, which starts with a lesson learned.

Our current Desk software does not allow the automatic listing of escalation paths within Knowledge Articles (KAs).   As such, we list these group names in all KAs, manually.   This of course presents an issue when group names or escalation responsibilities change.   We just completed this exact update to 1300 of our 3200 KAs (did I mention this was done manually?).

Example:

_________________________________

Adobe Reader: Issue description

Full Description of Issue

This is the solution

Next Level Support

Break-Fix - Workstation

How-To Training - Training Team 1

Full Training - Training Team 2

______________________

Future state is going to be with Service Now (SNow) and I know our KA layout will change.   How does everyone handle listing these groups in KAs?   Do you even list the group or do your support analysts just tell the caller they are going to the next group and let things auto-route?  

I am (kinda) familiar with the fact that Configuration Items (CIs) have Support levels which can be used to escalate calls, but since that process is owned by CMBD, I haven't been fully involved.   Not in a bad way, just that its not KM's process.   I did, however, work with our CMDB and we are discussing an attribute section within CIs that KM can use to list customer support's lateral suppoer groups within KAs.   This would keep our process and KAs looking similar for the analysts, but also allow KM to manage them from the CI (which would HAVE to be better and more automated than updating 3200 (and growing) KAs when things change).

Does anyone handle this in a similar way?   If so, how do you enter that variable in the KA to "call" the correct attribute field within the CI?

Please let me know if you'd like any further clarification.   All suggestions welcome!!

Simon

[britt_champeau · Accepted solution]

Hi Simon,

Services or CIs can have automatic routing set up on task forms like those for Incident, Problem, and Change.   These Systems for Cross-Identity Management, or SCIMs, are assigned when a user goes into the task form and selects a few attributes of their issue.   For example, if a user opened and Incident, selected the Service 'email,' and selected an Issue Type of 'Password Reset,' this would automatically populate the Assignment Group field with 'Service Desk' or any Assignment Group identified as the group who completes this work.

The same rules can be applied to escalations so that if a user selects 'Escalate' on the task form, the issue is auto-routed to the appropriate group.   Now, this doesn't help you specifically with updating your knowledge articles, but it is something you can leverage so you never have to manually enter team names again.  

If SCIMs and auto-routing are used effectively in your instance, there's no requirement for the Assignment Group information in your Knowledge Articles, but you could use reference fields or a related list populated by the SCIMs to provide this information should your organization have this requirement.   Which you choose really depends on which view you want to edit.   If you want the information available on the Knowledge form, I'd suggest related lists, as there are already tabs, and you could easily add one for Escalation Groups.   If you want the information to be available on the kb_view page, I'd suggest reference fields, which could pull information from the SCIM tables.

I hope that helps, and please let me know if you have any additional questions!

Britt

[SimonDunsmoor]

That both helps and raises more questions.  

However, I think that I can hold off on these questions till we get a better look into Fuji to see what other questions I have.   Also, I'm working on our processes so we can discuss when the time comes and be ahead of the curve.   We may drop some of these "bad habits" that seemed so good for us when we started.  

Thank you!!!

[servicenowkevin]

Britt Champeau great reply. Thanks for jumping in.

[Michael QCKM]

@simesime13 I'm wondering how you proceed with this.  I was going to share how we've done it, but no need if it's a moot point, AND, I'm curious how you solved it.