Getting information related to the open record
Summarize
Summary of Getting information related to the open record
ServiceNow Workspace provides a Related Items menu that allows users to access and enter information related to the currently open record. These items function like tabs, displaying contextual data in the form pane when selected. The configuration of the menu—such as which items appear, their order, and the default open item—is controlled by your system administrator.
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Key Features
- Details: Displays editable fields and detailed information about the open record, enabling users to update data such as resolution notes. The fields shown are determined by system configuration.
- Task SLAs: Shows service level agreements and deadlines relevant to the task at hand.
- Affected CIs: Lists Configuration Items related to the incident, providing insight through the CMDB to aid in incident resolution.
- Impacted Services/CIs: Displays services and CIs affected by the incident, helping to assess the scope of impact.
- Child Incidents: Lists incidents linked as children to the current parent incident, with notes and comments synchronized and resolution status cascading from parent to children.
- Outages: Shows service outages connected to the incident for broader situational awareness.
- User’s Calls: Provides historical call records between the requester and Service Desk agents, available with the Service Desk Call plugin. The retrieval period is configurable (default 7 days).
- User’s Task: Displays all tasks associated with the requester—including incidents, problems, change requests, and catalog requests—helping agents view related work during interactions.
Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers
By leveraging the Related Items menu in Workspace, ServiceNow customers can efficiently access comprehensive, contextual information about the open record without navigating away. This enables quicker analysis and resolution of incidents or tasks by understanding dependencies, impacted services, and related communications. The menu’s configurability allows tailoring the workspace to fit organizational processes and priorities, enhancing productivity and user experience.
Use related items to gather information about and to enter information into the open record.
Title
The items in the Related items menu behave like tabs. When you click one, the corresponding content appears in the form pane. Workspace underlines the item that's active in the form pane. What items appear in the menu, what order they're in, and which one opens automatically are configurable by your system administrator.
The items contain information related to the record open in the form pane. You click the different items to get contextual information. For example, if the open incident is about a failed service, you might click Impacted Services/CIs to see if other services are also down. If the incident is a power outage, you might click Outages to see if there are outages in other locations.
The Details item usually displays first by default. It is the only item that contains details of the open record. It also provides text fields that you can edit. For example, when you solve an issue, you should enter the resolution description in the section, Resolution notes. Your system administrator determines which fields from a record appear in the form pane.
Your configuration of workspace might include the following related items.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Details | Detailed information about the open record and text fields for you to enter information. The system administrator specifies the record fields that appear in the form pane. You use this item to read about the open record and to make entries in the record. |
| Task SLAs | Service level agreements (SLAs) for a task. Expected deadlines for resolving a task of this type. |
| Affected CIs | Configuration items (CIs) related to an incident. Often, an incident is related to one or more specific configuration items (CIs). If the configuration management database (CMDB) is populated, the CI records hold valuable information to help resolve incidents. You can associate configuration items to an incident to see how the incident affects dependent CIs. |
| Impacted Services/CIs | Services and configuration items (CIs) affected by this incident. |
| Child incidents | Child incidents are incidents related to the parent incident, the incident open in record view. All work notes or comments in a parent incident are copied into a child incident. When a parent incident is resolved, the child incidents are resolved. |
| Outages | Service outages related to the incident open in record view. |
| User's Calls | The User’s Calls related list displays historical calls between a requester and Service Desk agents. This feature is available to the users who has the Service Desk Call plugin (com.snc.service_desk_call) already activated. Note: The customer name in the Opened for field in Interaction is matched with the
Caller field in Service Desk calls and records are retrieved based on the number of days mentioned in the interaction property Number of days (integer) for which past user call records are retrieved. The
default value is seven (7). A setting of zero (0) disables this feature. (glide.new_call.interaction.records_age). |
| User's Task | When a requester contacts an agent through chat, phone call, request, or walk-in, the User’s Task related list shows the agent all of the other tasks (incident, problem, change request, request, and so on) that have been created for the requester. For example, if a requester calls about the status of a request that was made the previous day, the User’s Task related list shows the request. Workspace includes the other tasks in the User’s Task related list when the value for the Opened for field in the interaction record matches the: |