Chapter 7 - Task Management Overview Flashcards
What is a ServiceNow task?
-Any record that can be assigned or completed by a user in ServiceNow.
-Users can create tasks and are notified as the task moves along a workflow.
-Tasks can be assigned to specific users or user groups.
Why do we use tasks?
-Tasks are repeatable processes across the enterprise.
-Users with similar issues (i.e no network access) can have their issues automatically assigned to the appropriate user and assignment group.
-Note: This results in quicker resolution time and minimizes the possibility of human error.
Ex.
-Incident submitted: Fred comes back after a vacation and can’t access the corporate network so he submits an incident.
-Incident Assigned: Since it’s a network-related issue, it’s assigned to Donna automatically in the Network group.
Note: Getting the incident routed to the correct person helps resolve the incident faster.
-Incident in Progress: Donna updates the state of the incident into ‘In progress’.
-Incident Resolved: Once Donna fixes Fred’s network issue, she updates the state to ‘Resolved’.
-Increased customer satisfaction: Fred verifies that he has network access and is pleased that the response time was short and required little effort on his side.
What is the ‘task’ table?
The task table is one of ServiceNow’s core tables and provides a series of standard fields available to other tables that define the specific type of task (i.e. Incident, problem, change request)
Note: These classifications extend the ‘task’ table.
What are approvals in ServiceNow?
Approvals can be generated to a list of approvers, either manually or automatically, according to approved rules. Approvals can be incorporated into workflows or can stand alone.
What are ‘assignment rules’ in ServiceNow?
Assignment rules can auto assign tasks to users or groups, ensuring that tasks are handled by the most appropriate team member (assigned to/assignment group fields).
Note: You can view assignment rules by navigating to the ‘System Policy’ > Rules > Assignment.
What are ‘service level agreements’ in ServiceNow?
Service levels agreements can track the amount of time that a task has been open, to ensure that tasks are completed within an allotted time.
What are ‘inactivity monitors’ in ServiceNow?
Inactivity monitors ensure that tasks don’t fall by the wayside by notifying users when tasks have been untouched for a predefined period of time.
What are ‘workflows’ in ServiceNow?
Workflow processes are specified by administrators and apply to tasks that meet certain conditions. After a task is created that meets the condition, the workflow applies an automated process to the task.
What are the logical steps to ‘assigning tasks’?
Add users to groups
-Groups identify a subset of users based on roles. A user can belong to more than one group.
-Users in groups can be assigned permissions to:
-Approve, change or resolve incidents/requests
-Provide a reference for alerts/notifications
-Receive email notifications
Apply roles to groups
-Every user belonging to a group inherits that group’s roles so the preferred method of role management is:
-Add user to group
-Apply roles onto groups
-When removing a user from a group, roles inherited by that group are revoked for that user
-A group may contain other groups, where a child group inherits all roles owned by its parents.
-Users added to child groups gain roles of that child group + any parent groups
Assign tasks to groups
-With groups defined, tasks can be assigned to them.
Note: Group names must be unique in ServiceNow.
Assign tasks to users
-Tasks can also be assigned to specific users within a group.
-A task record can be assigned to an assignment group and an assigned user.
How do you create an assignment rule? (Step 1)
-Creating an assignment rule is a fairly straightforward process that can be done in a few minutes.
-Select New: You’ll create a new assignment rule to auto assign incidents with a category of Hardware to Winnie Reich in the Hardware Group.
Note: Select ‘New’ beside (Assignment Rules)
What do you do on the ‘Applies To’ tab? (Step 2)
Complete Applies To tab:
On the Assignment Rules form, enter Hardware Issues in the Name field.
Set Conditions to Category is Hardware. This means when a Category of Hardware is selected on an incident, apply this assignment rule.
Select the Assign To tab to identify the Assignment group and User.
How do you complete the ‘Assign To’ tab? (Step 3)
Complete Assign To tab:
-Enter Winnie Reich in the User field.
-Enter Hardware in the Group field.
-Submit your assignment rule.
How do you create an incident? (Step 4)
Create an Incident:
Create an incident to test your assignment rule. Enter Fred Luddy in the Caller field.
Select Hardware for the Category.
Provide a Short Description of the problem
Save your incident.
How do you verify your assignment rule? (Step 5)
Verify Your Assignment Rule:
Verify the Assignment Group now indicates Hardware
Verify Assigned to now indicates Winnie Reich.
What are assignment rule criteria to execute?
Assignment rules must meet the following criteria to execute:
-The Task record has been created (or modified) and then saved on a form.
-In the example above, a new incident was created and therefore, this criteria was met.
-The Task record must be unassigned (no values in the Assigned to or Assignment group field).
-In example above, the Assignment to and Assignment group fields were initially blank since a new record was created.
-The assignment rule is the first rule that matches the specified table and conditions. If more than one assignment rule matches the conditions, only the rule with the lowest Order value runs.
-The example above had the lowest order value (100) for a Hardware Category incident.
