Customizing a CAB
A default CAB structure is described above, but you may need to modify it according to organizational structure or business needs. You can do it in several ways:
- Modifying an include script containing parameters responsible for CAB gathering. These modifications will affect all change requests created later.
- Adding new participants to a specified change request CAB while processing it.
Modifying a CAB script
To bring in some global modifications into default CAB, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to System Definition → Script Includes.
- Click the magnifier icon
Image Addedat the top of the list; the search string appears. - Enter calculateCAB to the Name field and press Enter; the relevant script should be found.
- Click on the script title to open it.
- All role sets for different CABs are defined in this script with a corresponding comment, like this:
Code Block |
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language | js |
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theme | Eclipse |
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title | Complex CAB |
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// Complex CAB
const roles = [
'change_manager',
'problem_manager',
'incident_manager'
]; |
Add or delete a role into an appropriate section to modify any CAB, basic or complex.
For example, you want request managers to participate in the Complex CAB, and, at the same time, you want to relieve problem managers from these duties. Then you need to delete the problem_manager role from the script and add the request_manager role.
Tip |
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Note that this approval process works when these roles are applied to employees. It is not enough to create a user record and grant it a role; a relevant employee record must also exist. |
Modifying a specified CAB
You can also modify a CAB for any specified change request with no effect to further requests. For example, you want a particular change request to be approved by some specified employees.
- A CAB can be customized for change requests in the Registered or Authorization state.
- For change requests in the Authorization state, when a necessary user is added to the CAB and the change request is saved, an approval ticket is automatically sent to that user.
- The Customize CAB widget allows to add users with the itsm_agent role.
- The users are added as mandatory participants of the approval process.
- The Ignore Automatically Generated CAB option allows for overriding CAB participants, designated by the included script described above, with those chosen from the list. This option is only available for change requests in the Registered state.
To customize a CAB, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to the change request to extend.
- Make sure that State IS Registered or Authorization and Change Type IS NOT Standard.
- Select the General tab.
- Click the Customize CAB button and select the necessary users from the list (you can select as many users as you need).
- Click Add.
Change Templates
You can create a template that can be used later to create change requests with predefined tasks. In addition, the templates make the processes easier by populating the fields automatically.
You can create a template of any complexity, prefilling any fields, including assignments. A template can be nested, so you can include change tasks into it if necessary.
Templates can be created in two ways:
- from scratch
- from the change request processed earlier.
Templates can be created for Standard or Normal changes. The difference between the two options is that a standard change template is already authorized. So any standard change request created out of the change template does not go through the authorization stage. And both the normal change template and its change request will be created with the Authorization state.
To create a change template from scratch, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Change Enablement → Change Request Templates.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Change template form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
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Name | Y | Specify a template name. It should be unique. |
Table | Y | Select the Change Requests table. |
Created From Change Request | N | A change request number is specified if a template is created out of an existing request. |
Short Description | N | Specify a short description for this template. |
Template | N | Select fields and specify their values that will be populated in requests created on the basis of this template. Note |
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Note that for a correct request creation, all mandatory fields must be specified (such as Change type, Subject, Reason, etc.), also do not specify read-only fields, such as Priority or Risk. Attempts to create a change request without following these recommendations lead to validation errors. |
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State | Y | Available options: - Draft
- Authorization
- In Use
- Archived.
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Active | N | Select this checkbox to make a template active or inactive. |
Change Request Templates |
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On this tab, create change task templates and relate them to this template. If a change request created is based on a template with a related task templates, it will also have subtasks. |
Requested Approvals |
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On this tab, you can find template approval tickets that were sent but not processed yet. |
Completed Approvals |
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In this tab, you can find already processed declined or approved tickets. |
Change template state model
The following picture describes the state flow of change templates:
Image Added
In the following table, you can see state descriptions and available transitions.
State | Description | Available Transition |
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Draft | This state is for the newly created change request templates. | |
Authorization | Approval tickets are send to the users that are responsible for the authorization. - If anyone rejects, then the template returns to the Draft state.
- If all responsible users approve, the template state is changed to In Use.
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In Use | This state is for approved templates. Change requests can be created based on the template. Info |
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To create a change request based on the template, pick a Create Change item in the hamburger menu Image Added. |
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Archived | This is the final state for outdated and approved templates. |
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Creating a template out of a change request
Info |
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A template can be created only from a change request in the Closed state. |
To create a template out of a change request, complete the following steps:
- Navigate to Change Enablement → Closed and open the change request you need.
- In the hamburger menu
Image Added, select the Create Template item. - Edit the change request template form.
- Click Save or Save and Exit.
As a result, created template appears in the Change Request Template table and inherits all attributes from the parent record. That means, for example, if the request had some change tasks, the newly created template would have relevant related change tasks templates. The template will have a reference to the change request on the base of which it was created in the Created From Change Request field.
Template Approval Procedure
By default, template approval procedure is disabled. To enable it, activate the rule of approval for the table Change Request Template.
Assignment of the responsible users for the template approval happens automatically when setting a rule of approval.
If a Change Template is created from a change, the CAB participants take part in the approval process. The templates created “from scratch” should be approved by all the users with the change_manager role.
See Approval Management for more information.
Based on the SimpleOne state model,