Granular Delegation

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Granular Delegation

    Granular Delegation in ServiceNow Zurich release enables employees to delegate specific tasks or approvals to other employees within defined date and time ranges based on customizable delegation rules. This feature enhances task management by allowing delegation of particular records filtered by table and conditions, such as priority levels or task types. It is designed primarily for employee users rather than fulfiller or agent roles, which are better supported by Advanced Work Assignment.

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    Key Features

    • Specific Record Delegation: Delegate tasks or approvals by filtering records based on table, conditions, or record types (e.g., only approvals, only certain task assignments).
    • Role Definitions:
      • Delegate Admin: Manages delegation rule tables, creates delegation rules, and assigns delegates.
      • Delegator: An employee who assigns their tasks to a delegate for a specified period and according to defined rules.
      • Delegate: An employee who receives delegated tasks and notifications during the delegation period.
    • Integration with HR Service Delivery: Supports delegation specifically for HR tasks with filters for delegators and delegates. ACLs are updated to enforce delegation rules based on the assigned person on HR tasks.
    • Rule-based vs Ad-hoc Delegations:
      • Rule-based: Delegation admins configure rules that automatically assign tasks to delegates.
      • Ad-hoc: Delegators can manually delegate tasks via the My Delegates widget in the Employee Center.

    Practical Use and Configuration

    ServiceNow customers can configure delegation by setting up delegation rule tables, defining specific delegation rules, and assigning delegate users. This granular control allows tailoring task delegation to meet organizational requirements, such as limiting delegation to high-priority tasks or specific approval types. For domains beyond HR Service Delivery, customers must update access control rules to support delegation logic. The feature promotes better task ownership management and ensures continuity when employees are unavailable.

    Granular delegation allows employees to delegate their tasks to other employees for specific date and time ranges based on delegation rules.

    Granular delegation provides the ability to delegate specific records by table and condition. It also allows admins to delegate approvals and/or task assignments for task tables they administer.

    A task is delegated when it matches the delegation rules specified for a delegation. For example, William can assign Jane as a delegate for approvals or tasks when the priority is set to High.

    Service delegation options are available, like limiting a delegation to specific record types. For example:
    • Limiting records that match a filter condition.
    • Limiting records to only approvals.
    • Limiting records to only task assignments.
    Note:
    Granular Delegation is intended for employee users, not fulfiller or agent users, such as in ITSM. Depending on your use cases, fulfiller and agent delegation is better managed via Advanced Work Assignment.

    Terms

    The following terms are applicable:
    • Delegate Admin: An employee that defines the tables used for delegation rules, defines delegation rules, and can assign delegates for employees.
    • Delegator: An employee who delegates their tasks to another employee through a delegation record, specifying the delegate user, time frame, and delegation rules.
    • Delegate: An employee who is delegated tasks that are assigned to another employee. The delegate also receives tasks assigned from the delegator. The delegate also receives notifications of these assignments and the time frame the delegation covers.

    Granular Delegation with HR Service Delivery

    Granular Delegation with the HR Service Delivery base system supports the HR task (sn_hr_core_task) table. Along with filter conditions, you can filter delegations for delegators and delegates.

    For more information on how user criteria filters delegations for delegators and delegates, see Create delegation rules.

    For information on HR criteria and user criteria, see:
    Access control rules (ACLs)
    Access control rules (ACLs) in HR Service Delivery were modified to look for the Assigned to person on an HR task. Other domains that want to use Granular Delegation must modify their ACLs to use this feature. For more information about ACLs, see Access control list rules.
    Rule-based and ad-hoc delegations
    • Rule-based: The delegation_admin configures delegation rules, which automatically reassign tasks to specific employees.
    • Ad-hoc: An employee who is defined as a delegator can delegate their tasks from the My Delegates widget in the Employee Center.
    Note:
    The delegation_admin must define a delegation rule table, delegation rules, and delegates. For more information on defining a delegation rule table see Add delegation rule tables. For more information on defining a delegation rule, see Create delegation rules. For more information on defining delegators and delegates, see Create a delegate.