Generic OOB Knowledge Management Document Phases

KM documents pass through the following generic out-of-box phases:

  1. Draft

    A Knowledge Contributor creates a draft document by first selecting one of the following document types:

    • Error Message/Cause: a specific error message a user encountered and what the user was doing when the error occurred
    • External: files, such as text or graphic files, that can be associated with incidents and problems
    • Question/Answer: a general question and its corresponding answer
    • Problem/Solution: a specific problem, including its probable cause, and a corresponding solution
    • Reference: general information

      Once a draft is created, the Knowledge Document is said to be a Working copy. Note that in the Service Manager Knowledge Management application, a working copy of a published document has an "R" appended to the document ID. A new document submitted to be published is also considered a working copy while it is in workflow waiting to be published, but there is no "R" appended to the document ID.

  2. Triage

    After the contributor enters the relevant details and submits the draft document, it enters the Triage state. The purpose of the Triage state is to allow a KM analyst to review the submission and determine if it would make an appropriate document. The analyst can also perform minor modifications of the content to ensure stylistic quality. If the document is acceptable, the analyst submits it to a specific KM expert for revision.

  3. Revise

    The purpose of the Revise state is to give a subject matter expert the chance to add or modify content that would improve the document. After revising the document, the KM expert submits the document for review to the KM team.

  4. Review

    The purpose of the Review state is to give the KM team a chance to finally decide if the document is ready for publication. The KM team can send the document back for further revision or to accept the document.

  5. Conclude

    Note This is the Publish phase in the out-of-box KM workflow.

  6. The purpose of the Conclude stage is to allow the assigned owner on the KM team to determine what to do with the document. The owner has the following options:

    • If the document is new, the owner can approve and publish the submission, or terminate the KM record to prevent publication of the document.
    • If the document already exists and was resubmitted for revision and review, the owner can publish the revised version, revert to the original version, or retire the document.

Documents can also be retired when they are no longer useful. A retired document is a knowledge document that is no longer searched during a knowledge base search.