Change Management release notes
Summarize
Summary of Change Management release notes
The ServiceNow® Change Management application in the Yokohama release offers enhanced tools to manage the complete life cycle of organizational changes. It enables rapid changes while maintaining stability and governance. The release focuses on improving operational efficiency for service desk agents, enforcing mandatory data entry, and strengthening security controls.
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Key Features
- New User Role for Service Desk Agents: The
snservicedeskagentrole is introduced to streamline information gathering and resolution processes for tier 1 service desk agents. This role bundles several write permissions for incidents, problems, changes, and requests, along with tracked file reading capabilities. When the ITSM Gen AI plugin is installed, it also includes knowledge and assist panel user roles. It is compatible starting with Service Operations Workspace version 6.1. - Change Model Type Field: A new "Model" option in the change model Type field helps users easily identify changes controlled by change models. It becomes the default if no other type is set for a change request.
- No Default Risk Value: The Risk field on the Change Request table no longer has a default value, ensuring risk is explicitly assessed before advancing a change.
- Mandatory Field Transition Condition: Change managers can now enforce completion of required fields before a change request moves through states, as defined by the Change Model, improving data accuracy and governance.
- Deny-unless ACLs on Core Tables: To prevent unauthorized access, deny-unless Access Control Lists are applied to the
changerequestandchangetasktables. This restricts unauthenticated users from reading, writing, deleting, or creating records. This feature requires the ITSM Enhanced Security Features plugin and is recommended for new or zBoot customers; existing customers should test in sub-production environments before deployment. - Workflows Removed for New Customers: Traditional Change Management workflows have been replaced by flows for new customers, providing a more modern and customizable approach using ServiceNow Workflow Studio and Flow Designer. Existing customers using workflows remain unaffected.
Activation and Compatibility
Change Management is an AI Platform feature that is active by default in ServiceNow. The new features require installation of related plugins such as ITSM Roles, ITSM Gen AI, and ITSM Enhanced Security Features to fully leverage the enhancements introduced in the Yokohama release.
The ServiceNow® Change Management application provides a tool for managing the life cycle of all changes in your organization, enabling rapid changes without compromising stability and governance. Change Management was enhanced and updated in the Yokohama release.
Change Management highlights for the Yokohama release
- Increase operational efficiency of tier 1 service desk agents with the dedicated sn_service_desk_agent role.
- Require specified field details to be updated before transitioning the state of a change request by converting existing optional fields to mandatory fields.
- Restrict unauthorized access to Change Management tables using deny ACLs.
See Change Management for more information.
New in the Yokohama release
- User role for service desk agents
- With the sn_service_desk_agent user role, increase operational efficiency by streamlining the process of asking about, gathering, and verifying information, as well as delivering quick resolutions. This role is designed for
tier 1 service desk agents and is accessible when the ITSM Roles plugin (com.snc.itsm.roles) installed.The sn_service_desk_agent role includes the following roles:The sn_service_desk_agent user role can be used starting with Service Operations Workspace version 6.1.
- sn_incident_write
- sn_problem_write
- sn_change_write
- sn_request_write
- tracked_file_reader
- Change model Type field
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A new Model option has been added to the change model Type field to help users identify a change that is controlled by a change model. Model is the default if a Type has not been set for the change request of a certain change model.
- No default Risk value for change requests
- There is no longer a default value for the Risk field on the Change Request table. The Risk value is set to -- None -- until the risk is evaluated for the change request. This change ensures that no risk value is pre-assigned, allowing for a more accurate assessment before advancing the change
- Mandatory field transition condition
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Ensure mandatory fields are completed before advancing through states for a change request, as defined by the Change Model. This feature enables change managers to mandate the completion of required fields before states can progress according to the Change Model.
- Deny-unless ACLs on core tables
-
Prevent unauthorized access to change_request and change_task tables using deny-unless ACLs. The deny-unless ACLs restrict access on these tables for a non-authenticated user to perform actions such as read, write, delete, or create.
This feature is available for new or zBoot customers with the installation of the ITSM Enhanced Security Features (com.snc.itsm.enhanced_security) plugin. Existing or upgrade customers must test and evaluate in their sub production instance before installing the plugin and implementing the security change in their production instance.
Removed in this release
Change Management workflows have been removed and replaced by flows for new customers. Existing customers that use these workflows are unaffected. The flows are available to both new and existing customers. You can use ServiceNow® Workflow Studio to customize or extend these flows. For more information, see Flow Designer.
Activation information
Change Management is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.