Change Management properties

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Change Management properties

    Change Management properties in ServiceNow enable administrators to configure the behavior of the Change Management application. These settings are accessed viaChange > Administration > Change Propertiesand allow customization of approvals, risk calculations, copying features, and integration with Discovery. Understanding and adjusting these properties helps tailor the change process to organizational needs and improves automation and control.

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    Key Features

    • Approval Engine Configuration: The glide.approvalengine.changetask property manages how change request tasks require approval.
    • Risk Calculation Methods: glide.ui.riskcalculaterule defines whether risk is calculated on insert/update or on demand via UI action, or disabled entirely.
    • Copying Change Request Data: Multiple properties control what attributes and related lists (such as change tasks, affected CIs, impacted services) are copied from an originating change, including attachments. These include com.snc.changerequest.copy.attributes, com.snc.changerequest.copy.rl.changetask.attributes, and related list copy controls.
    • Data Requirement Enforcement: com.snc.changemanagement.enforcedatarequirements enforces consistent data restrictions across all change request updates, including UI and API changes.
    • Service Offering Population: com.snc.changerequest.populateserviceoffering controls automatic population of service offerings from impacted services.
    • Unauthorized Change Requests: com.snc.changerequest.enableunauthorized enables creation of unauthorized changes when triggered by specific events.
    • Change Request State Event Generation: Properties control generation of snchange.state.updated events on state changes, with customizable states and enablement flags.
    • Discovery Integration: When Discovery is enabled, properties such as com.snc.changerequest.auto.discovery and related state properties allow automatic or manual triggering of Discovery scans on affected CIs during change requests.
    • Additional Configurations: Other sysproperties provide further customization, such as copying related lists, change task attachment copying, detailed approval policy logging, and controlling CAB meeting behavior in Service Operations Workspace.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Customize change task approvals and risk calculations to align with internal processes and compliance requirements.
    • Automate copying of critical change data and related configuration items, improving efficiency and consistency when creating new changes from existing ones.
    • Enforce strict data requirements to maintain integrity and compliance across all change data updates, including integrations and API calls.
    • Leverage Discovery integration to keep configuration item data current within change requests, reducing manual updates and errors.
    • Control change lifecycle events and enable automated notifications or integrations triggered by state changes.
    • Manage CAB meeting workflows effectively within the Service Operations Workspace or Core UI based on organizational preferences and user roles.

    Administrators can use change properties to configure Change Management behavior.

    Navigate to Change > Administration > Change Properties to view and edit these properties.
    Table 1. Change Management properties
    Name Description
    glide.approval_engine.change_task Change request tasks approval engine.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: process_guide
    glide.ui.risk_calculate_rule Change risk calculation method. Business rule calculates on insert/update, UI action calculates only on demand. None disables this capability.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: ui_action

    For more information, see Risk Calculator property.
    com.snc.change_request.enable_copy Enable copy change feature.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.copy.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) that are copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: category,cmdb_ci,priority,risk,impact,type,assignment_group,assigned_to,short_description,description,change_plan,backout_plan,test_plan
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.change_task.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from the Change Task [change_task] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: cmdb_ci,priority,assignment_group,assigned_to,short_description,description
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.task_ci.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from the Affected CIs [task_ci] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: ci_item
    com.snc.change_request.attach.enable_copy Copy attachments from the originating change.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.task_cmdb_ci_service.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from Impacted Services [task_cmdb_ci_service] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: cmdb_ci_service
    com.snc.task.refresh_impacted_services List of all the Task types where Refresh Impacted Services action is enabled.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: incident, change_request
    change.refresh_impacted.include_affected_cis Lists the impacted CIs or Services with any service supported by a configuration item identified in the Affected CI related list.
    Note:
    This requires any business services identified to be converted to an application service. For instructions, see Convert business services to application services. For information about application services, see Application services.
    com.snc.change_management.enforce_data_requirements

    Enforce change request process data requirements, so that any data modification on the change request has the same data restrictions. This includes, updates made through the change request form, Workflow, REST/SOAP, JavaScript, and GlideRecord updates. For more information, see Change Management API

    In the User Interface, when this property is true, it enables additional server sided restrictions to the UI Policy and Client Script controls that already exist.

    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.populate_service_offering Populates the service offering related list from the impacted service list.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.enable_unauthorized Enables the creation of unauthorized change requests when the event ci.change.unplanned is raised.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.enabled Generates the sn_change.state.updated event when the state of the change request is updated.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.states Enter the change request state field values, each separated by a comma to generate the sn_change.state.updated event. This happens when any of the state value changes, for example, -5, -3, 0. You can leave the property empty to generate the sn_change.state.updated event for all state changes. For more information on the state values, see Legacy: State model and transitions.
    Note:
    For this property to take effect, property com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.enabled must be set to true.

    Change Management properties for Discovery integration

    If your organization is subscribed to Discovery , integration with Discovery is automatically enabled. With this integration, any configuration item (CI) with an IP address that is part of a change request process can be maintained automatically. When Discovery is activated, the following three new properties become available.

    Name Description
    com.snc.change_request.auto.discovery Trigger Discovery for the Affected CIs automatically, manually or not at all.
    • Type: Choice list
    • Values: Off, Both, Automatic, Manual
    • Default value: Off
    com.snc.change_request.disco.auto.state Defines which Change Request states Discovery will be automatically triggered.
    • Type: String
    • Default value: Review
    com.snc.change_request.disco.manual.state Defines which Change Request states allow Discovery to be manually triggered.
    • Type: String
    • Default value: Implement, Review

    Change Management properties available from sys_properties table

    The following properties are available for further configuration. To list them, enter sys_properties.list in the navigator text box and filter for com.snc.change_.
    Name Description
    com.snc.change_request.copy.related_lists Related lists (comma-separated) that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: task_ci,task_cmdb_ci_service,change_task
    com.snc.change_request.rl.change_task.attach.enable_copy Copy attachments from originating change task.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_management.policy.approval.log The debug logging property that provides the detailed logging information of the workflow activity when using Change Approval Policies.

    Type: choice list
    sn_change_cab.com.snc.change_management.cab.use_sow_meeting Controls opening of a CAB meeting from the CAB Meeting calendar in the CAB Workbench in Service Operations Workspace.
    Note:
    Users must have the sn_sow.sow_user role to open CAB meetings in SOW.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false, for upgrade customers; true for new customers.
    • true: CAB meetings open in the CAB Meeting workbench in SOW.
    • false: CAB meetings open in the Core UI.