Configuring Mandatory Skills

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Mandatory Skills

    The mandatory skills feature can be configured for the Customer Service Management and Field Service Management applications, enhancing task assignments by ensuring that specific skills are required to complete tasks. This feature is optional and available through the relevant plugins.

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    Key Features

    • Configuration for Customer Service Management:
      • Use the Task Skills table to set mandatory skills by configuring the Case form layout.
      • Set the Mandatory field to True for essential skills.
      • Optionally migrate existing skills using the Migrate Skills to Task Skill M2M script.
      • Adjust assignment workbench criteria to support mandatory skills.
    • Configuration for Field Service Management:
      • Enable mandatory skills through the work.management.use.mandatory.skills system property.
      • Configure Work Order forms to utilize the Task Skills table.
      • Optionally migrate existing skills from Work Order forms.
      • Update dynamic scheduling filters to reflect mandatory skills requirements.
    • System properties related to mandatory skills include:
      • work.management.use.mandatory.skills: Enables the feature (default: false).
      • skillsmanagement.migration: Specifies which task tables to migrate from.
      • com.snc.skillsmanagement.taskskillmigratedtables: Tracks tables where skills have been migrated.

    Key Outcomes

    By configuring mandatory skills, ServiceNow customers can ensure that only qualified agents are assigned to tasks, improving service quality and efficiency. This setup allows for better management of skills across tasks in both Customer Service and Field Service Management applications, leading to enhanced operational effectiveness.

    Configure the mandatory skills feature for use with the Customer Service Management and Field Service Management applications.

    Mandatory skills are an optional feature included with the Customer Service Management and Field Service Management plugins. Use the following steps to configure this feature with the desired application.

    Customer Service Management configuration

    To configure the mandatory skills feature for use with Customer Service Management:
    • In the Case form:
      • Configure the form layout to use the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table.
      • In the Task Skills table, set the Mandatory field to True to identify skills that are mandatory to complete a task.
        Note:
        The Case form should use either the Skills field or the Task Skills table, but not both.
    • [Optional] For existing cases that have data populated in the Skills field on the Case form, run the Migrate Skills to Task Skill M2M script to move this data to the Task Skills table. By default, this fix script migrates the skills from existing entries in the Case, Work Order, and Work Order Task tables to the Task Skills table. For more information, see Migrate skills to the Task Skill table.
    • If you are using the assignment workbench, replace the Matching Skills matching criteria with the Matching Skills - Mandatory Skills Support matching criteria. For more information, see Matching rules for case assignment.

    Field Service Management configuration

    To configure the mandatory skills feature for use with Field Service Management:
    1. Enable the work.management.use.mandatory.skills system property.
    2. Configure the Work Order form and the Work Order Task form to use the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table.
    3. [Optional] For existing work orders and tasks that have data populated in the Skills field on the Work Order and Work Order Task forms, run the Migrate Skills to Task Skill M2M script to move this data to the Task Skills table. By default, this fix script migrates the skills from existing entries in the Case, Work Order, and Work Order Task tables to the Task Skills table and configures them as optional skills. For more information, see Migrate skills to the Task Skill table.
    4. If you are using dynamic scheduling, update the task filter for the dynamic scheduling configuration and replace the Matching Skills for Dynamic Scheduling matching criteria with the Matching Mandatory Skills for Dynamic Scheduling matching criteria. For more information, see Create a task filter.
    For configuring optional skills, navigate to Field Service > Administration > Configuration, select the Assignment tab and set Auto-selection of agents for tasks requires them to have skills to one of the following:
    • All - indicates that the agent must have all optional skills listed in the task for task assignment.
    • Some - indicates that the agent must have at least one optional skill listed in the task for task assignment.
    • None - indicates that the agent is not required to have any optional skill.

    Mandatory Skills system properties

    The Migrate Skills to Task Skill M2M script migrates skills from existing tasks to the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table. Configure the task tables included in the migration using the skills_management.migration system property.

    The mandatory skills feature adds the following system properties.
    Note:
    To open the System Property [sys_properties] table, enter sys_properties.list in the navigation filter.
    Table 1. Properties installed with Mandatory skills feature
    Property name Description
    work.management.use.mandatory.skills Enables the mandatory skills feature and indicates that the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table is being used for work orders and work order tasks.
    • Type: true/false
    • Default value: false
    skills_management.migration Lists the task tables to migrate to the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table when an admin runs the Migrate Skills to Task Skill M2M script.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: wm_task,customerservice_case,wm_order
    com.snc.skills_management.task_skill_migrated_tables Contains a list of tables for which the Skills field has already been migrated to the Task Skills [task_m2m_skill] table. If the table name is listed in this property, it indicates that the data is migrated and cannot be migrated again.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: none