Exploring Granular Delegation

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

    Granular Delegation in ServiceNow Zurich release enables employees to delegate their tasks and approvals to other employees with fine-tuned control. This feature enhances operational flexibility, especially during out-of-office situations, incorrect task assignments, or when escalation is needed.

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    Key Features

    • New Tables:
      • Granular Delegate [sysgranulardelegate]: Defines who the delegate is, the delegation time frame, and notification settings.
      • Delegation Rule [sysdelegationrule]: Defines conditions for which tasks get delegated based on rules.
    • Application Menu Access: Users can manage delegation rules, view their delegates, and see tasks delegated to them through dedicated menus.
    • Separate Approval and Assignment Delegation: Delegation rules can specify distinct approval or assignment authority on task records (including Change, Incident, and Problem).
    • Role and Access Requirements: Delegates must have appropriate roles (e.g., itil) to access assigned tasks and approval permissions. Approval roles such as approvaluser or businessstakeholder are required for IT request approvals within Employee Centre.
    • Notifications: Delegates receive notifications at the start of delegation, when tasks or approvals are assigned, and optionally copies of all notifications or meeting invitations. Notifications can exclude delegates to protect sensitive data.
    • System Property Configuration: Administrators control which delegation features are enabled (prior service delegation, granular delegation, or both) via the glide.approval.delegation.version system property.
    • Scheduled Jobs: Included jobs handle notifying new delegates and cleaning up delegation records.
    • E-signature Support: Delegates can fulfill approvals requiring e-signature by entering their credentials.

    Important Considerations

    • Flows and workflows do not support granular delegation rules; they require existing service delegation features.
    • Granular delegation does not grant new record access; delegates must already have the necessary roles to view or work on assigned records.
    • Notification settings default to protect sensitive information and require explicit configuration to forward all notifications or meeting invites.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    Granular Delegation provides customers with detailed control over task and approval delegation, improving task management continuity in various scenarios. It allows delegation based on specific conditions and roles, ensuring compliance and security while enhancing productivity. Administrators can tailor delegation behavior and notifications to meet organizational needs.

    Use Granular Delegation to allow your employees to delegate their tasks to other employees.

    The base system provides your employees with the ability to delegate their tasks to other employees. This feature provides flexibility to your employees when:
    • Out-of-the-office
    • Assigned tasks are for the incorrect employee
    • Assigned tasks require escalation

    Tables

    Granular delegation introduces two new tables:
    Granular Delegate [sys_granular_delegate]
    This table specifies:
    • Who the service delegate is
    • When the service delegation occurs
    • What notifications to send the delegate
    Delegation Rule [sys_delegation_rule]
    This table specifies the condition for which task records are delegated if the rule is used in a delegation.

    Application menu

    Users can access the granular delegation tables from the Granular Delegation application menu.

    Delegation Rules
    Link to the Delegation Rule [sys_delegation_rule] table.
    Delegation Rule Tables
    Link to the Delegation Rule Table [sys_delegation_rule_table].
    My delegates
    Link to the Delegate [sys_granular_delegate] table showing records where the current user has delegated tasks to another user.
    Delegated to me
    Link to the Delegate [sys_granular_delegate] table showing records where the current user is the delegate.

    Approvals and assignments

    Granular delegation allows you to delegate approvals and assignments separately. Task records include extensions of the Task table such as Change, Incident, and Problem records. Use a delegation rule to grant a delegate approval or assignment authority.

    Note:
    Flows and workflows ignore delegation rules. If you use flows or workflows to manage task approvals or assignments, you must use the existing service delegation features instead.
    Approvals
    Approval authority allows a delegate to approve or reject approval requests. Add delegation rule conditions to specify which records your delegate can approve. Only records matching the condition appear in the delegate's list of approvals.
    Note:
    A user must have the approval_user or business_stakeholder role to approve IT requests (does not apply to HR approvals) on Employee Centre. This role validation has not been implemented in Core UI 16 because modifying ACLs in UI16 might have broader implications at the NowPlatform level.
    Assignments
    Assignment authority grants a delegate access to the task records assigned by delegation. Add delegation rule conditions to specify which records your delegate has access to work on. Only records matching the condition appear in the delegate's list of task assignments.

    Granular delegation does not change a delegate's access to records. To access records, a delegate must already have the necessary roles. For example, to delegate task records, a delegate must have a role such as itil to access the Task table and its extensions.

    Some HR records explicitly grant access to delegates.

    Notifications

    Each time you authorize a delegate, the delegate receives the following email notifications:

    Start of delegation
    The delegate receives a notification at the start of the delegation period.
    Assignment by delegation
    The delegate receives a notification each time an approval or task is assigned.
    You can also specify additional notifications options.
    All notifications
    Option to send the delegate a copy of all notifications you receive during the delegation period. Select this option when you want the delegate to receive the delegation notification. For example, you want the delegate to receive notifications about activity stream or record updates. It is set to False by default to avoid concerns around getting notifications that has critical and sensitive data.
    All columns are contained in the Granular Delegate [sys_granular-delegate] table.
    Note:
    Notifications with the Exclude Delegates option enabled override the True setting of this option. Use the Exclude Delegates option to prevent delegates from seeing confidential or protected information.
    Meeting invitations
    Option to forward delegates meeting invitations. Select this option to forward the delegate any meeting invitations the instance generates or receives for you. It is set to False by default.

    System property

    Administrators can specify which versions of service delegation they want to support from the glide.approval.delegation.version system property.

    The glide.approval.delegation.version system property specifies the service delegation features to support. Choices include v1, v2, and v3.

    Enter v1 to support only the prior service delegation features. This value disables support for granular delegation features.

    Enter v2 to support only granular delegation feature. This value disables support for the existing service delegation features.

    Enter v3 to support both granular and existing service delegation features.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: v3
    • Choices: v1, v2, v3
    • Location: System properties

    Scheduled jobs

    The following scheduled jobs are provided:
    • Notify new delegates
    • Clean Granular Delegation Records

    E-signature support

    Granular delegation supports Approvals with e-Signature (com.glide.e_signature_approvals). When enabled, the system requires delegates to enter their credentials to fulfill an approval.