Service Catalog item designer

The Service Catalog item designer enables non-administrators to create, maintain, and publish catalog items. It uses a structured design and publishing process to ensure consistency of usage.

Starting with the Washington DC release, Service Catalog Item Designer is no longer deployed, enhanced, or supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
The item designer is best suited to manage items that have basic questions, approvals, and tasks.
Note: To create and manage more complex items, use the Service Catalog features for creating items.

Item designer process flow

  • Administrators or catalog administrators set up the design environment to enable a controlled item design process, and process category requests.
  • Catalog managers request categories, then manage their categories. A user requests a category, either requesting to become the manager of that category, or assigning another user as the category manager.
    1. An administrator or catalog administrator processes that request, creating the category with a selected category manager.
    2. The category manager optionally assigns catalog editors to a category that they manage.
  • Catalog managers and catalog editors use the catalog item design to perform the following activities.
    1. Create items within a category that they are assigned to.
    2. Create questions, approvals, tasks, and sections, for the item.
    3. Publish items to the category after review.
  • Self-service users can use the Service Catalog to request items in the category, like any Service Catalog item.
Table 1. Catalog item designer roles
Role title [name] Description

Administrator [admin]

Catalog administrator [catalog_admin]

 Can set up the catalog item designer environment and process requests for categories. Can also perform other service catalog functions.
Catalog Item Designer [catalog_item_designer] Can view the status of category requests.
Catalog Manager [catalog_manager] Can view and assign catalog editors to their categories. Can also create, modify, and publish items within their categories.
Catalog Editor [catalog_editor] Can create, modify, and publish items within the categories that they are assigned to.