Change Management properties

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Change Management properties

    Change Management properties in ServiceNow allow administrators to configure and customize the behavior of the Change Management application. These properties control various aspects such as approval workflows, risk calculations, copying change request details, integration with Discovery, and event generation. Administrators can access and modify these settings by navigating toChange > Administration > Change Properties.

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    Key Features

    • Approval Engine Configuration: The glide.approvalengine.changetask property lets you select the approval engine for change request tasks.
    • Risk Calculation Method: Controlled by glide.ui.riskcalculaterule, enabling risk to be calculated on demand or automatically on inserts/updates.
    • Copy Change Functionality: Properties such as com.snc.changerequest.enablecopy and related attribute lists define what data and attachments are copied from originating changes and their tasks or related lists, streamlining repeated change requests.
    • Impacted Services and CIs: Properties like change.refreshimpacted.includeaffectedcis and com.snc.task.refreshimpactedservices help manage refresh actions on impacted configuration items and services.
    • Data Requirements Enforcement: com.snc.changemanagement.enforcedatarequirements ensures consistent data restrictions across UI, APIs, and workflows when modifying change requests.
    • Unauthorized Changes: The com.snc.changerequest.enableunauthorized property controls the creation of unauthorized change requests triggered by specific CI events.
    • Event Generation: Properties com.snc.changerequest.event.stateupdated.enabled and com.snc.changerequest.event.stateupdated.states manage the generation of state update events, useful for integrations and notifications.
    • Discovery Integration: For customers subscribed to Discovery, properties such as com.snc.changerequest.auto.discovery and related state properties enable automatic or manual triggering of Discovery scans on affected CIs within change requests.
    • Additional Configuration Properties: Various other properties control copying related lists, attachment copying for change tasks, detailed logging for approval policies, and the behavior of CAB meetings in the Service Operations Workspace versus Core UI.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging these configurable properties, ServiceNow customers can tailor Change Management processes to align with their organizational policies and operational needs. This includes automating risk assessment, streamlining change data reuse, integrating with Discovery for CI updates, enforcing data integrity, and managing change approval workflows more effectively.

    Adjusting these settings enables improved consistency, efficiency, and control over change requests, which can reduce errors and speed up change implementation cycles. Customers should review and modify these properties carefully to ensure they support their specific change management strategies and compliance requirements.

    Administrators can use change properties to configure Change Management behavior.

    Navigate to Change > Administration > Change Properties to view and edit these properties.
    Table 1. Change Management properties
    Name Description
    glide.approval_engine.change_task Change request tasks approval engine.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: process_guide
    glide.ui.risk_calculate_rule Change risk calculation method. Business rule calculates on insert/update, UI action calculates only on demand. None disables this capability.
    • Type: choice list
    • Default value: ui_action

    For more information, see Risk Calculator property.
    com.snc.change_request.enable_copy Enable copy change feature.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.copy.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) that are copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: category,cmdb_ci,priority,risk,impact,type,assignment_group,assigned_to,short_description,description,change_plan,backout_plan,test_plan
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.change_task.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from the Change Task [change_task] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: cmdb_ci,priority,assignment_group,assigned_to,short_description,description
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.task_ci.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from the Affected CIs [task_ci] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: ci_item
    com.snc.change_request.attach.enable_copy Copy attachments from the originating change.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.copy.rl.task_cmdb_ci_service.attributes List of attributes (comma-separated) from Impacted Services [task_cmdb_ci_service] related list that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: cmdb_ci_service
    com.snc.task.refresh_impacted_services List of all the Task types where Refresh Impacted Services action is enabled.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: incident, change_request
    change.refresh_impacted.include_affected_cis Lists the impacted CIs or Services with any service supported by a configuration item identified in the Affected CI related list.
    Note:
    This requires any business services identified to be converted to an application service. For instructions, see Convert business services to application services. For information about application services, see Application services.
    com.snc.change_management.enforce_data_requirements

    Enforce change request process data requirements, so that any data modification on the change request has the same data restrictions. This includes, updates made through the change request form, Workflow, REST/SOAP, JavaScript, and GlideRecord updates. For more information, see Change Management API

    In the User Interface, when this property is true, it enables additional server sided restrictions to the UI Policy and Client Script controls that already exist.

    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_request.populate_service_offering Populates the service offering related list from the impacted service list.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.enable_unauthorized Enables the creation of unauthorized change requests when the event ci.change.unplanned is raised.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.enabled Generates the sn_change.state.updated event when the state of the change request is updated.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false
    com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.states Enter the change request state field values, each separated by a comma to generate the sn_change.state.updated event. This happens when any of the state value changes, for example, -5, -3, 0. You can leave the property empty to generate the sn_change.state.updated event for all state changes. For more information on the state values, see State model and transitions.
    Note:
    For this property to take effect, property com.snc.change_request.event.state_updated.enabled must be set to true.

    Change Management properties for Discovery integration

    If your organization is subscribed to Discovery , integration with Discovery is automatically enabled. With this integration, any configuration item (CI) with an IP address that is part of a change request process can be maintained automatically. When Discovery is activated, the following three new properties become available.

    Name Description
    com.snc.change_request.auto.discovery Trigger Discovery for the Affected CIs automatically, manually or not at all.
    • Type: Choice list
    • Values: Off, Both, Automatic, Manual
    • Default value: Off
    com.snc.change_request.disco.auto.state Defines which Change Request states Discovery will be automatically triggered.
    • Type: String
    • Default value: Review
    com.snc.change_request.disco.manual.state Defines which Change Request states allow Discovery to be manually triggered.
    • Type: String
    • Default value: Implement, Review

    Change Management properties available from sys_properties table

    The following properties are available for further configuration. To list them, enter sys_properties.list in the navigator text box and filter for com.snc.change_.
    Name Description
    com.snc.change_request.copy.related_lists Related lists (comma-separated) that will be copied from the originating change.
    • Type: string
    • Default value: task_ci,task_cmdb_ci_service,change_task
    com.snc.change_request.rl.change_task.attach.enable_copy Copy attachments from originating change task.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: true
    com.snc.change_management.policy.approval.log The debug logging property that provides the detailed logging information of the workflow activity when using Change Approval Policies.

    Type: choice list
    sn_change_cab.com.snc.change_management.cab.use_sow_meeting Controls opening of a CAB meeting from the CAB Meeting calendar in the CAB Workbench in Service Operations Workspace.
    Note:
    Users must have the sn_sow.sow_user role to open CAB meetings in SOW.
    • Type: true | false
    • Default value: false, for upgrade customers; true for new customers.
    • true: CAB meetings open in the CAB Meeting workbench in SOW.
    • false: CAB meetings open in the Core UI.