34 Knowledge Management

I. Knowledge Management

• Definition (from ServiceNow Docs): "The ServiceNow Knowledge Management application enables the sharing of information and knowledge bases. These knowledge bases contain articles that provide users with information such as self-help, troubleshooting, and task resolution."
• Purpose:
  • Information Sharing: A central repository for sharing information (technical and non-technical) across the organization.
  • Self-Service: Empowers users to find solutions to common problems independently, reducing the burden on the service desk.
  • Troubleshooting & Task Resolution: Provides step-by-step guides and solutions for common issues.
• Structure:
  • Knowledge Bases: Collections of articles, often organized by topic (e.g., IT, HR). ServiceNow supports multiple knowledge bases.
  • Categories & Subcategories: Hierarchical structure within a knowledge base to organize articles.
  • Articles: The individual pieces of content within a knowledge base.
• Article Lifecycle:
  • Draft: The initial state when an article is being created.
  • Review: The article is submitted for approval (typically by a Knowledge Management team).
  • Published: The article is approved and visible to end-users.
  • Retired: The article is no longer relevant (often based on a "Valid To" date).
• Key Features:
  • Internationalization (i18n): Support for multiple languages.
  • Public Articles: Articles can be made visible to all users.
  • Feedback: Ratings, comments, "Helpful" votes, and flagging of outdated/incorrect information.
  • Valid To Dates: Articles can have an expiration date, after which they are automatically retired.
  • Content Creation: Articles can be created from scratch, copied from other documents, or imported from HTML.
• Article life cycle includes Draft, Review, Published, Retired

II. Demo: Knowledge Management in ServiceNow

• Accessing Knowledge (Self-Service):
  • Type "knowledge" in the application navigator.
  • The "Knowledge" module (under Self-Service) displays a UI page showing all active knowledge bases.
  • Each knowledge base shows the number of questions and articles.
  • Featured Content, Most Useful, and Most Viewed articles are displayed.
• Navigating a Knowledge Base (IT Example):
  • Categories and subcategories are displayed in a tree structure on the left.
  • Articles belonging to the selected category are shown in the main section.
  • Search functionality allows searching within a specific knowledge base or across all knowledge bases.
  • Tags can be used to further categorize and search for articles.
• Viewing a Knowledge Article:
  • Favorite (star) icon.
  • Breadcrumb navigation (showing the article's category hierarchy).
  • Flag Article and Create Incident UI actions.
  • Article title, number, star rating, and view count.
  • Article content (HTML).
  • Metadata (author, last modified date).
  • Helpful (Yes/No) feedback.
  • Comments (may require moderation).
• Social Q&A:
  • Similar to Stack Overflow.
  • Users can ask questions, provide answers, upvote/downvote, and track view counts.
• Knowledge Application (Admin View):
  • Homepage: The same view as the Self-Service module.
  • Articles:
    • Create New: Creates a new knowledge article.
    • List Views: Filtered views (Unpublished, Published, Retired, etc.).
    • All: Shows all knowledge articles.
• Knowledge Article Form View (Admin):
  • Knowledge Base: Selects the knowledge base the article belongs to.
  • Category: Selects the category/subcategory.
  • Published & Valid To Dates: Control the article's visibility and retirement.
  • Short Description: The article title.
  • Article Type: The type of article.
  • Workflow: Shows the article's current state (Draft, Review, Published).
  • Article Text: An HTML field for the article content.
• Creating a New Knowledge Article:
  • Select Knowledge Base and Category (using the category picker).
  • The category picker allows creating new categories.
  • Provide Short Description and Article Text.
  • Set the Valid To date.
  • "Search for Duplicates" feature checks for existing articles with similar content.
  • Submitting the article sets the workflow to "Draft."
• Publishing an Article:
  • The Publish UI action changes the workflow state to "Review."
  • An approval request is sent (typically to a Knowledge Manager).
  • Admins can approve the request directly.
  • Once approved, the workflow state changes to "Published," making the article visible.
• Viewing and Providing Feedback:
  • The View Article related link opens the article in the UI page.
  • Users can provide "Helpful" feedback and comments.
  • Feedback is tracked in the Knowledge Feedback related list on the article form.
• Knowledge Bases Module:
  • Lists all knowledge bases.
  • The Knowledge Base form view allows configuring settings:
    • Title, Icon, Description.
    • Disable Commenting, Suggesting, Category Editing.
    • Default values for articles.
    • Owner, Managers.
    • Publish Workflow and Retire Workflow (inherited by articles in the knowledge base).
• Workflows (Publish and Retire):
  • The "Knowledge - Approval Publish" workflow is shown. It starts with an approval step. If approved, it calls the "Knowledge - Publish Article" workflow. If not approved, it sets the state back to "Draft."
• Related Lists on the Knowledge Base Form:
  • Knowledge Articles: All articles in the knowledge base.
  • Questions: All questions in the knowledge base.
  • Can Read: User criteria defining who can read the knowledge base.
  • Can Contribute: User criteria defining who can create articles in the knowledge base.
  • Featured Content: Articles displayed in the featured content section.
  • Knowledge Categories: All categories within the knowledge base.
• User Criteria (for Read and Contribute Access):
  • Used to control access to knowledge bases.
  • Examples:
    • All users from a specific company (ACME North America).
    • Users from a list of companies.
    • Users from a specific company AND in a specific department (IT).
• Search Logs:
  • Logs all user searches within the knowledge base.
  • Tracks the search term, user, session, and selected category/topic.
  • Useful for improving the knowledge base and identifying content gaps.
• Knowledge Management Properties: Various settings for the Knowledge Management application.
• Overview: Statistics about Knowledge Management.
• User Criteria (Module): Lists all user criteria records.

Key Takeaways:

• Knowledge Management is a powerful tool for self-service and information sharing.
• ServiceNow provides a structured approach to creating, managing, and publishing knowledge articles.
• User criteria are used extensively to control access (read and contribute) to knowledge bases.
• The workflow system manages the article lifecycle (draft, review, published, retired).
• Feedback mechanisms (ratings, comments) help improve the quality and relevance of knowledge articles.
• Search logs provide valuable insights into user search behavior. This helps identify areas where the knowledge base can be improved.