Use > Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management administration > Knowledge Management workflow

Knowledge Management workflow

Knowledge Management uses a multi-step workflow to manage the lifecycle of a knowledge document. In the workflow, the document goes through the following phases:

  • Draft
  • Triage
  • Revise
  • Review
  • Publish
  • Published Internal
  • Published External
  • Retired

When a user submits a document for approval, the document enters the workflow in the Triage phase. In a typical document workflow, the document is routed to the Revise, Review, and Publish phases before it is actually published internally or externally. In some cases, users with applicable access rights can publish a document immediately after creating it, without going through the formal Revise and Review phases.

Note When you need to update a knowledge document attachment, you must save the attachment to your desktop, make the necessary updates, save the changes, and then re-upload the attachment to the knowledge document.

Knowledge Management uses knowledge groups and document categories to control access to knowledge documents along with document view and Knowledge Management profiles. Individual users are able to view, contribute, edit, and publish documents based on the knowledge groups in which they are members and the security mappings between the knowledge groups, knowledge profiles, and knowledge categories.

Upgrading to the Process Designer Knowledge Management workflow

As of Service Manager 9.30, Change Management no longer implements the workflow for Knowledge Management documents. Change Management records with Category “KM Document” close and convert to the applicable Knowledge Management (KM) Document records, as Process Designer now manages KM Documents.  Additionally, you do not need a Change Management license to operate Knowledge Management.

KM Document records are created with an applicable status, based on the current phase of the Change Management records. The mapping is described in the following table.

cm3r (based on current.phase) kmdocument (status)

KM 1 Triage

Triage

KM 2 Revise

Revise

KM3 Review read-only

Review

KM 4 Conclude

Conclude

Two fields are also mapped from a Change Management record to a Knowledge Management document, as described in the following table.

Change Management Knowledge Management

assigned.to

assignedEditor

Coordinator

documentOwner

Another functionality is included in the upgrade script. Operators with the capability word “SysAdmin” or “KMAdmin” will have a security role in their operator record as System Administrator and Knowledge Administrator.

Note When using the new Process Designer workflow, the following applies:

  • All open change records of category ‘KM Document’ close with the completion code
    ‘1’ – Successful.
  • The corresponding KM document status changes from working copy to the status based on the current phase of the change record.
  • The upgrade to Process Designer for Knowledge Management is mandatory.