Knowledge workflows

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Knowledge Workflows Extend ServiceNow AI Platform Capabilities

    Knowledge workflows in ServiceNow control the publishing and retirement processes of knowledge articles based on defined workflows for each knowledge base. You can utilize default workflows or create custom workflows tailored to specific knowledge types. Workflows that require approvals can be configured to designate which users can approve or reject articles through the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.

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    Key Features

    • Default Knowledge Workflows:
      • Knowledge - Approval Publish: Requests managerial approval before publishing. Articles are either approved, scheduled for later publication, or remain in draft if rejected.
      • Knowledge - Approval Retire: Seeks managerial approval to retire an article. Rejections keep the article published.
      • Knowledge - Instant Publish: Publishes a draft article immediately without approval.
      • Knowledge - Instant Retire: Retires a published article instantly without approval.
      • Knowledge - Publish Knowledge: A subflow for moving articles to the published state.
      • Knowledge - Retire Knowledge: A subflow for retiring articles.
    • Email Notifications: Configurable notifications can alert approvers of submitted articles and inform authors of approval statuses. Notifications are sent when the glide.knowman.enableapprovalnotification property is enabled, which is default for versions from New York onwards. Existing customers can enable this property if not available.

    Key Outcomes

    By utilizing knowledge workflows, ServiceNow customers can effectively manage the lifecycle of knowledge articles—from creation to retirement—while ensuring necessary approvals are in place. This process enhances content governance and aids in maintaining the relevance and accuracy of knowledge management.

    The publishing and retirement processes for a knowledge article are controlled by workflows defined for the knowledge base that the article belongs to.

    You can assign different workflows to each Knowledge Base .

    You can use one of the default workflows, or create your own workflows to define custom publishing and retirement processes for different types of knowledge.

    For the workflows that require approval, you can configure which users can approve or reject by editing the getApprovers() function in the KBWorkflow script include.

    Table 1. Default knowledge workflows
    Workflow Description
    Knowledge - Approval Publish Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base. Articles in approval are In Review state before moving to Published state once approved or to Scheduled for publish if set to publish later. If the manager rejects the request, the workflow is canceled and the article remains in Draft state.

    If ownership groups is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If ownership groups is not enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to knowledge base managers for approval.

    A notification is also sent to authors or revisers of articles to inform them that their article has been approved or rejected.

    To turn on approval email notifications, set the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property to true.

    Note:
    Only the active user receives the notifications.
    Knowledge - Approval Retire Requests approval from a manager of the knowledge base before moving the article to the retired state. The workflow is canceled and the article remains in the published state if any manager rejects the request.

    If ownership groups is enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to the ownership group members for approval.

    If ownership groups is not enabled, email notifications with a link to the article are sent to knowledge base managers for approval.

    Knowledge - Instant Publish Immediately publishes a draft article without requiring an approval, or publishes on the scheduled publish date if set to publish later.
    Knowledge - Instant Retire Immediately retires a published article without requiring an approval.
    Knowledge - Publish Knowledge A subflow that moves the knowledge article to the published state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    Knowledge - Retire Knowledge A subflow that moves the knowledge article to the retired state. You can use this subflow when defining your own workflow.
    Note:
    • Only administrators and knowledge administrators can view the retired knowledge articles. To reuse a retired article, administrators and knowledge administrators can republish the article. For more information, see Republish a retired article.
    • An article and its translations have a parent-child relationship. Retiring a parent article does not automatically retire all its translated child articles.

    Email notifications for approval workflows

    You can send email notifications for approval workflows.
    • Notify approvers about knowledge articles submitted for their approvals.
    • Notify authors about the approval status of their knowledge articles.
    To send email notifications for approval workflows, enable the Send notification to approvers and authors in article approval workflow property (glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification). Beginning with New York, the property is enabled by default. Existing customers on release versions prior to New York can enable this property to send email notifications. Disable any custom notifications for article approvals before enabling this property. If the glide.knowman.enable_approval_notification property is not available, an administrator can create the property and set its value to true. For more information, see Knowledge Management properties.