Restrict Knowledge Base Categories on Roles

[Henrik Jutterst]

We've recently moved our ITSM system into ServiceNow and are constantly looking to move of our internal systems into ServiceNow platform. I really like the platform and want to make as much use of it as possible.

One think that I know we would like to move into ServiceNow is one of our systems for handling documentation into ServiceNow knowledge Base. But I still haven't found a good way to set up role based categories to restrict certain parts of the Knowledge Base.

As far as i know there are two ways to handle this:

1. Create a new Knowledge Base for each group/role in the system and setup rights based on that. Thus creating several Knowledge Bases and not an ideal way of gathering knowledge.

2. Set user privileges for each article in the Knowledge Base. Also not an ideal way of working when having thousands of articles to handle.

Question: Is there anyone with knowledge if there will be a feature to restrict knowledge base categories based on roles in ServiceNow? Roles is already an important part of access in ServiceNow, so why not in Knowledge Base?

Kind Regards

/Henrik

[Henrik Jutterst]

can you please attach the script here? I cant see it i my instance

ctomasi

[Chuck Tomasi]

Hi Henrik,

This isn't THE solution, only an example of how you can write a script in a user criteria. You would have to construct your own to look at the categories and identify which roles they apply to.

[Henrik Jutterst]

Thanks! The thing was that I can't see the script in any of my environments, so that's why i asked you for a copy of it so I could modify it for my needs

Thank you and have a nice day!

[Shiva Thomas]

Hi Henrik,

There are indeed many ways to configure a Knowledge Base.

If you want your articles to be integrated as closely as possible to the Now Platform, I would suggest that you create different KB dedicated to distinct intended audiences, especially if they have distinct managed process.

• One dedicated KB for IT Support article, useful for end-users. End-user going to the Self-Service Service Portal or creating incident will be directed to that content.
• One dedicated KB for HR, if you use HR.
• One dedicated KB for Facilities, if you use Facilities.
• ...

This will allow each KB to have their own life cycles, administrators, reviewers, approvers, and intended audience.

Each Service Portal can only point to one KB.

Each ticket type can point to the relevant KB, for the contextual search.

The same logic also applies to Service Catalogs.

[Henrik Jutterst]

Hi Shiva and thanks for your input.

The idea is to have all customer documentation and system(s) documentation and other good to know information in one KB separated by categories. Having multiple KB might work, but is not an ideal way to store the information from our point of view. Therefore I think restricting access with categories is the best way to organise and structure the articles in Knowledge Base.