States for an exercise and crisis event

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of States for an Exercise and Crisis Event

    This document outlines the various states involved in managing exercises and crisis events within ServiceNow. Understanding these states is crucial for effective event management and ensures that all stakeholders are aware of the event's progress and status.

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    Key Features

    • Pending: Initial state of the event where updates are limited to the Work notes field.
    • Pending Approval: State when an approval is requested. Approvals can be viewed in the Approvals tab, and the event can be either approved or rejected.
    • Returned: Indicates the event has been rejected. It allows for updates to the description, results, and work notes, and can transition to other states such as Submit for Approval or Closed Complete.
    • Closed Incomplete: Marks the event as incomplete.
    • Closed Complete: Indicates all tasks are complete, transitioning the event to this final state.
    • Approved: State where the event is approved, allowing actions such as generating PDFs, copying events as templates, and viewing 360° representations.
    • Event Task States: Various states such as Open, Pending, Work In Progress, and Closed (Complete/Incomplete) help manage tasks associated with the event.

    Key Outcomes

    By understanding these states, ServiceNow customers can effectively track and manage the lifecycle of exercises and crisis events. This ensures timely approvals, clear communication of status changes, and efficient task management, ultimately leading to successful event execution and documentation.

    This section describes the states of progression for an exercises and crisis event.

    States for an exercise and crisis event

    Table 1. States for an exercise and crisis event
    State Description
    Pending First state of the event.
    Pending Approval

    State of the event when an approval is requested. When you select Submit for Approval, the event is set to the Pending Approval state. In this state, you can only update the Work notes field in the event form.

    If any approval rules are configured for the event, then the approvals are generated and sent to the approvers. If no approval records are associated with the event in the requested state, then you can either select Reject or Approve.

    You can view the approval details of an event in the Approvals tab with the name of the approver, level of approval, and state of the approval.

    You can view the approval history of the event in the Approval History tab such as the approval state, name of the approver, event number, and so on.

    Note:
    If you are a BCM program manager, you can see the Approve and Reject buttons.
    Returned

    State of the event when an event is rejected. The state is set to Returned. It can be moved to the Submit for Approval, Closed Complete, or Closed Incomplete states. Since this action is related to an event only, you can update the description, results, and work notes in the form.

    When an event is in the Returned state, you can edit the state of the event asset.

    From the Returned state onwards, you can only add your comments and the attachments to the event task.
    Closed Incomplete

    State of the event when an event is incomplete.
    Closed complete When all tasks are complete, the event moves from the Work in progress to the Closed complete state.
    Approved

    Approved state of the event. When an event is approved, the state is set to the Approved state.

    You can perform additional UI actions:
    Generate PDF

    Download the PDF of an exercise or crisis event for reference. When you select Generate PDF, the PDF attachment is available in the Activity panel of the Details tab.

    For information on generating the PDF of an exercise or crisis event, see Generate event reports in PDF or Microsoft Word.

    Copy
    Save a copy of an exercise or crisis event for future reference as a template.
    360º view

    Visualize the 360º representation of an exercise or crisis event.

    For information on how to view 360º relationships of an exercise or crisis event, see View 360° relationships for exercises and crises.

    Delete
    Delete an exercise or crisis event.
    Edit
    Edit an exercise or crisis event.
    Save
    Save an exercise or crisis event.
    Closed Closed state of the event.

    The state transitions of an event task are described in the table.

    Table 2. State transitions of an event task
    State Description
    Open

    Open state of the event task. When an event is started, its event tasks that do not have a dependent recovery task move to the Open state.
    Pending

    Pending state of the event task. The event tasks that are dependent on other recovery tasks are in the Pending state when the event is started. After the dependent tasks are closed, the parent event task moves to the Open state.
    Skip Task

    Skip Task action for the event task. This action is available only if you have logged in as the BCM program manager. The Skip action is displayed when the task is in the Pending or Open state and the event must be in Work in Progress state. Selecting Skip Task moves the task to the Closed Skipped state. The actual start time and actual end time at this state are empty.
    Trigger

    Trigger action for the event task. This action is available only if you have logged in as the BCM program manager. The task is in the Pending state. Selecting Trigger moves the task to the Open state irrespective of its dependencies.
    Work In Progress

    Work In Progress state of the event task. The task is in the Open state. Selecting Work In Progress moves the task to the Work in Progress state. You can update the actual start time of the task in the Actual start field in this state. If you do not update the actual start time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual start time. The next available options are Closed Complete or Closed Incomplete state.
    Closed Incomplete

    Closed Incomplete state of the event task. Actual end time of the task is recorded in the Actual end field. If you do not update the actual end time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual end time. Update necessary information in the Work notes field and save the task.
    Closed Complete

    Closed Complete state of the event task. The task is closed and complete in this state. Actual end time of the task is recorded in the Actual end field. If you do not update the actual end time, the current date and time are recorded as the actual end time.