Service Manager

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Configuring Approvers and Approval Workflows for Knowledge Articles

•About Knowledge Article Approval Workflows

•About Knowledge Article Approvers

•Creating Approval Groups for Knowledge Articles

•Configuring Individual Approvers for a Knowledge Article

•Configuring the Knowledge Article Approval Sequence

•Configuring the Approval Criteria for a Knowledge Article Type

•About Emailing Notifications for Knowledge Article Approvals

•Configuring Approver Notifications for Knowledge Article

•Configuring Owner Notifications for Knowledge Articles

•Configuring a Voting Deadline for a Knowledge Article Approval Request

About Knowledge Article Approval Workflows

Knowledge management provides an approval workflow for each knowledge article type:

Article Type	Workflow Name	Business Object
Document	Document Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Document
Error Message	Error Message Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.ErrorMessage
Issue and Resolution	Issue Resolution Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.IssueResolution
Patch	Patch Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Patch
Q&A	Q and A Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.QandA
Reference	Reference Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Reference

Workflows consist mostly of the Get Approval workflow block and the Notification workflow block.  These define who the approvers are, the approval sequence and criteria, who receives notification during the approval process, and voting deadlines. You can change any of these settings to customize the approval process as described in the following sections.

About Knowledge Article Approvers

Approvers can be configured on a group or individual basis.

Groups

By default, approvers are configured using these contact groups:

•Knowledge Business Approval Group

•Knowledge Technical Approval Group

•Knowledge Presentation Approval Group

For example, if a knowledge article requires business approval, all of the members of the Knowledge Business Approval Group are notified when the article is ready for review by one or more group members. You can specify who reviews articles by adding or removing users to or from this group.

You can also create a new approval group and then reconfigure an approval workflow to use the new group instead of a default group.

Individuals

Approval workflows can also be configured to specify one or more individual approvers rather than an approval group. Under this scenario, approval is required from each specified individual.

Creating Approval Groups for Knowledge Articles

You can also create a new approval group and then reconfigure an approval workflow to use the new group instead of a default approval group.

1.From the Configuration Console, click Configure > Users and Permissions > Groups to open the Contact Group workspace.

2.Click New Contact Group.

3.Fill in the contact group form.

4.Reconfigure one or more approval workflows to use the new contact group:

5.Access the approval workflow that you will reconfigure.

6.Double-click the Get Approval block that will use the new approval group. (Approval workflows typically have three Get Approval blocks; one each for technical, presentation, and business approval). The Get Approval properties window appears.

7.In the Approvers area, use the drop-down list in the From a Group field to select the new contact group.

8.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

9.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Configuring Individual Approvers for a Knowledge Article

You can use Get Approval workflow blocks to specify individual approvers rather than approval groups. However, only one individual approver can be specified in a Get Approval block. To specify multiple individual approvers, you must use multiple Get Approval blocks.

1.Access the approval workflow that will use individual reviewers.

2.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure.

3.In the block properties dialog Approvers area, select From a User and use the drop-down lists in the group and user fields to select an individual approver.

4.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

5.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Configuring the Knowledge Article Approval Sequence

By default, the Get Approval blocks in all of the provided knowledge approval workflows are arranged in this sequence:

1.Technical approval

2.Presentation approval

3.Business approval

All three approval types are not always required for a knowledge article. The knowledge collection in which you place the knowledge article determines the types of approval that are required.

To change the approval sequence in a workflow, see Using Workflows.

Configuring the Approval Criteria for a Knowledge Article Type

Approval criteria are controlled by the information in the Approval/Denial Criteria area of the Get Approval block properties window. Criteria that you can configure are:

•Approve if all approved: The article is approved if every member of the approval group approves it.

•Approve if any approved: The article is approved if one member of the approval group approves it.

•Approve if at least N% approved: The article is approved if the specified percentage of approval group members approve it.

•Deny if any rejected: The article is rejected if one member of the approval group rejects it.

•Deny if at least N% rejected: The article is rejected if the specified percentage of approval group members reject it.

To set the approval criteria for a knowledge article type, do the following:

1.Open the knowledge workflow for the knowledge article type.

2.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure.

3.In the Approval/Denial Criteria area of the Get Approval block properties window, select an approval method.

4.Click Save.

About Emailing Notifications for Knowledge Article Approvals

Email notification occurs at two general stages in a knowledge approval workflow:

•Approvers are notified when an article is ready for them to review.

•The owner of an article is notified about the article status after it is reviewed or after a review deadline expires.

Configuring Approver Notifications for Knowledge Article

The Send Notification for Knowledge quick action (affiliated with the FRS_ApprovalVoteTracking business object) sends email to approvers when an article is ready for them to review. By default, this notification is sent to $(OwnerEmail).

To reconfigure this quick action, do the following:

1.From the Configuration Console, click Build > Automation Tools > Quick Actions to open the Actions Manager workspace.

2.Scroll to FRS_ApprovalVoteTracking and click Add/Edit.

3.Under Your Actions, double-click Send Notification for Knowledge and reconfigure it as necessary.

4.Click Save.

To specify that another quick action be used:

1.Log in to the application as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, then click Open Definition. The Workflow Designer appears.

5.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure it.

6.In the Approval Notification Quick Action area, use the drop-down list to select another quick action.

7.Click Save in the Workflow Designer.

Configuring Owner Notifications for Knowledge Articles

Notification blocks in the knowledge workflows are configured to send the following notifications to an article owner after an article is reviewed or if a review deadline expires:

•Failed Technical Review: Notifies the article owner that the article failed technical review.

•Failed Presentation Review: Notifies the article owner that the article failed presentation review.

•Failed Business Review: Notifies the article owner that the article failed business review.

•Technical Review Deadline: Notifies the article owner that the deadline for technical review expired and that the article must be resubmitted for approval.

•Presentation Review Deadline: Notifies the article owner that the deadline for presentation review expired and that the article must be resubmitted for approval.

•Business Review Deadline: Notifies the article owner that the deadline for business review expired and that the article must be resubmitted for approval.

•Notification to Owner: Notifies the article owner that the article was approved.

To change or create new owner notifications for knowledge articles, do the following:

1.Log in to the application as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, then click Show Definition. The Workflow Designer appears.

5.Double-click the Notification block to reconfigure it. The Notification properties window appears.

6.You can use the default template that appears, or modify it as needed.

7.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

8.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Configuring a Voting Deadline for a Knowledge Article Approval Request

Voting deadlines for article approvers are configured through Get Approval workflow blocks. Deadlines can be based on a duration (in days, hours, and minutes) or on the date in a field that you specify.

To configure a voting deadline for a knowledge article, do the following:

1.Log in to the application as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, then click Show Definition. The Workflow Designer appears.

5.Double-click the Get Approval workflow block that is labeled as default, to reconfigure it. The Get Approval properties window appears.

6.In the Approval Voting Deadline area, do one of the following:

Click Field and use the drop-down list to specify a field name.

Click Duration and specify the duration length in the provided fields. (The duration clock starts when the Get Approval workflow block is triggered; the deadline is reached when the duration ends).

7.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

8.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.