Configuring Knowledge Record Approvers

SummitAI Service Management Help

You can configure the Approvers who can verify and approve the Knowledge Records (KRs) that are created by the Analysts KM or any other authorized personnel before publishing the KRs. You can also provide edit access to the Approvers, see Configuring Knowledge Management Module.

Introduction to Approver Types

In certain cases, you may want a KB article to get auto-approved and skip the process of approval and publishing. For example, if a KB article which is already internally reviewed or a critical workaround to be fixed for a network outage that needs an immediate fix using the KB article, are some of the examples, where investing time in approval and publishing may not be needed. Another example where auto approval can be used, is an SOP article prepared which has already undergone a review, you may not want to skip approval and publishing stages.

Using the new feature approval type - you can now configure whether you want to 'Manual' or 'Auto Approve' a KB article. By default, the Approver configuration is Manual. Using a Manual approver type follows the usual approval and publishing process. Whereas, if you select Auto-Approve then categories and sub-categories assigned to a KB, will directly move from Draft to Published status. When you select, Auto Approver, then 'Approver' and 'Publisher' are grayed-out in the Selected Categories screen.

To enable more flexibility and granularity for administrators, you can now configure approvers for sub-categories too in addition to categories. You can view 2 levels of Parent-Child relation for Category-Sub-Category in the Approver Configuration screen.

Example

There are 3 levels of Category and Sub-categories created as illustrated in the following screen. However, in the Approver Configuration screen, you can only view ERP (Category) and Productivity Tools (Sub-Category) which is till 2 levels. You would not be able to see 'Monitoring Tools' which is the 3rd level in Approver Configuration screen.

You can set Approver Type for only 2 levels which is Parent and Child, and not more than 2 levels which is Parent,-Child-ChildOfChild. In the following example, it can be set for ERP and Productivity Tools (2nd level), but not explicitly for Monitoring Tools (3rd level) as 3^rd level sub-category (example Monitoring Tools) is not displayed in Approver Type Configuration screen.
The ‘Productivity Tools’ does not inherit the ERPs approver configuration. You need to explicitly configure Approver Type for ‘Productivity Tools’.
Monitoring Tools, will not be displayed in the Approver Configuration screen.
You also have an option to explicitly configure Approver configuration only for child (Productivity Tools) and skip for parent (ERP). Alternatively, you can configure a different approver type for Parent (example: ERP - Manual) and for child different than Parent (example: Productivity Tools – Auto Approve).
If the Parent (ERP) approver type is configured as Auto Approve and the Child is configured for Manual Approval (example: Productivity Tools-Manual), then a KB article created for the Child Category will get published with the Approver Type category as Auto Approved.
When a KB article is created with auto-approved category and submitted after Draft, it automatically gets published as the Approver Type category to which it belongs is Auto Approved.

Figure: Supported till 2nd Level (Parent and Child)

The Categories and sub-categories for which you have configured Manual will not be displayed for Auto Approve. Similarly, the Categories and sub-categories selected for Auto Approve will not be displayed for Manual Approver Type.

Knowledge Article Lifecyle for Manual and Auto Approve

The following matrix provides various life-cycle phases involved, for Manual and Auto Approve types:

To configure Knowledge Record Approvers (and/or Publishers):

Select Knowledge > Configuration > Knowledge Record Approver.
On the KNOWLEDGE RECORD APPROVER page, click ADD NEW on the ACTIONS panel.
Select the Tenant and type in the new Knowledge Record Approver details. For information about the fields on the KNOWLEDGE RECORD APPROVER page, see Field Description.
Click SUBMIT. A new Knowledge Record Approver (or Publisher) is configured.

Following is a sample screenshot, when Manual approval is selected as a Approval Type. Only those categories and sub-categories configured for Manual are enabled for selection. Those configured for auto approval will be disabled.
Figure: Manual Approval Type

Following is a sample screenshot, when Auto Approval is selected as a Approval Type. Only those categories and sub-categories configured for auto approval are enabled for selection. Those configured for Manual approval will be disabled.

Figure: Auto Approval Type

Field Description

The following table describes the fields on the KNOWLEDGE RECORD APPROVER page:

Field	Description
DETAILS
Approver Type	To provide you flexibility and better administrative capabilities, you now have option to perform Manual or Auto Approve categories and sub-categories. The categories once selected for manual, will not be displayed for Auto-approve and vice-versa. In addition, if you select Auto Approve, the Approver and Publisher options are not displayed as there is no approver and publisher, and KB article is directly published by skipping the Authorized, Submitted, and Approved status.
Approver	Type in the name of the person whom you want to configure as an Approver member for the selected Tenant. To search for a user name, click the Search icon. For information about searching users, see Searching Users.
Category	Available Categories: Select the check box corresponding to the Category that you want to configure for the Approver and click the > icon to move to the Selected Categories list. To use the sub-categories, you can click the expand icon and select the sub-categories. You can also collapse the sub-categories using the collapse icon. Conditions based on Approver Type If Approver Type selected as Manual: Only those Categories and Sub-categories are displayed in the Available Categories List which are not explicitly marked for auto-approval along with the categories that are not configured or inactive. If Approver Type selected as Auto-approval: Only those Categories and Sub-categories will be reflected in the Available Categories List which have not been explicitly marked for manual along with the ones which have not yet been configured or are inactive. Depending on the requirement for approver configurations, the Approver and Publisher can be selected for categories and sub-categories in the Selected Categories List. After the selection, you can search for the Approver using the Approver search field. You should enter at-least 2 characters to search the Approver name for the Search drop-down. Note: Only 2 levels of Parent-Child relation are displayed in the category and can be configured. Example only a parent and child relation and not Child of Child in the Available Categories list. Also, child of child is considered as child. There is no dependency of Parent Approval configurations on Child Approval configurations and vice versa. The Parent will not be selectable if it is mapped for other Approval types, but it will still be displayed just to show the configured/Available child. Selected Categories: To remove any Category from the Selected Categories list, click the < icon. Approver: If selected, the selected Approver is authorized to approve the KRs for the selected Category under the selected Tenant. Publisher: If selected, the selected Publisher is authorized to publish the KRs for the selected Category under the selected Tenant.
Classification	Available Classifications: Select the check box corresponding to the Classification that you want to configure for an Approver and click the > icon to move to the Selected Classifications list. Selected Classifications: To remove any Classification from the Selected Classification list, click the < icon. Approver: If selected, the selected person is authorized to approve the KRs for the selected Classification under the selected Tenant. Publisher: If selected, the selected person is authorized to publish the KRs for the selected Classification under the selected Tenant.
Active	Indicates the status set for an Approver. If selected, the Approver is authorized to approve or reject a KR. If not selected, the Approver becomes an inactive Approver. The inactive Approvers are not displayed in the Approvers list on the other pages of the application.

ACTIONS

This section explains all the icons displayed on the ACTIONS panel of the KNOWLEDGE RECORD APPROVER page.

SHOW LIST

Click SHOW LIST to display the LIST table showing all the configured Knowledge Record Approvers for the selected Tenant. The following screen also shows the Approval Type which is Auto or Manual configured for each of the configurations.

Figure: KNOWLEDGE RECORD APPROVER page: List of Approvers

To change the status of an existing category from active to inactive or vice-versa, click on the link given under Approval Type.
To edit a Knowledge Record Approver, click the Knowledge Record Approver's Name. Make appropriate changes and click SUBMIT.
To display the inactive Knowledge Record Approver, click the Include Inactive check box.

Note:

When the configured Knowledge Record Approvers are displayed under the LIST table, the ADD NEW action is displayed on the ACTIONS panel. Click ADD NEW to configure a new Knowledge Record Approver.

Reusing Category/Sub-category configured for Manual to Auto Approval

If you want to reuse the same category or sub-category currently configured for Manual to 'Auto-approve', you need to inactivate the Manual approval configuration, post which you can use the same category previously configurated as Manual for Auto-approval.

Example

A category ‘Manual’ is configured for ‘Load Balancer’ as the classification. This indicates the KB articles for which classification is selected as ‘Load Balancer’ and Category as ‘Manual’ will have to be manually approved and published.

The same category ‘Manual’ now needs to be converted to ‘Auto Approve’. However, since there is an already an active configuration for 'Manual’, the category ‘Manual’s is not enabled when grayed out when you select ‘Auto Approval’ in the Approver Configuration page as shown in the following figure:

Figure: Auto Approval displays existing category assigned as Grayed out

To reuse the already assigned category configuration, you need to inactivate the respective configuration that you want to reuse and then you can reuse the respective category.

In this example, click Show List and you will be able to see all the configured categories.
Click on respective category for example ‘Manual’ and from the Knowledge Record Approver details page, clear the Active checkbox to inactivate the category configuration.

If the category is used across multiple instances, you need to inactivate all the configurations and then you can reuse it for Auto Approval type.
Click Submit after disabling the category you want to reuse.
Click ADD NEW from the Knowledge Record Approver screen to add a new configuration for the same category that is disabled.
The same category that was disabled (example: Manual) is now available for Auto Approve category as shown in the following figure.

Figure: Reusing same category for Auto Approval
Click Submit.
Click Show List
As shown in the following figure, the previously assigned category ‘Manual’ is now reused for ‘Auto Approve’.

Figure: Reused existing category