Knowledge Base allows building your library of articles providing necessary information for users: instructions, service descriptions, release notes, etc. Here, you can store articles for users with specific roles and public articles for any authorized user.
Knowledge Base allows categorizing the content on different levels and arrange articles in a particular order to navigate through them easily in the Self-Service Portal (SSP) consists of five elements:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
Content Database (Content DB) | It helps to arrange knowledge base into several greater sets of articles. It is the most general and wide section of the KB and may be called first level. |
| Content Category | It provides an additional level (second) of categorization for content items (articles, known errors). It stands for a more specific and narrow KB section in comparison to Content DB and may be called second level. |
| Content Item Class | It defines classes of content items and access to them. It may be referred to as third level, yet, it does not depend on any of the previous KB sections. That is, it may contain items from any content DB and any content category. |
| Content Item | It works as a storage for such KB items as articles and known errors. The Self-Service Portal (SSP) displays only articles. Known Errors and other content items are available only through the agent interface. |
Knowledge Base Category (KB Category) | It sets hierarchical order of articles and categories, allows nesting articles and sort them into something that can be called "folders". There are no limitations for nesting levels. |
Role required: admin, knowledge_admin.
In the screenshot above you can see a Knowledge base portal page. Let us dwell upon what has been done to build it.
Preparation stage includes the following results:
- A Content DB was created. We named it Company Knowledge Base. Along with this knowledge base we may need to build a separate KB for other needs.
- To categorize articles within our knowledge base, three Content Categories were added:
- General information
- Process description
- Change protocols and checklists
- To restrict access to specific articles, two Content Item Classes were used:
- Processes protocol – internal specifications, custom class.
- User Self-Study – external specifications, out-of-the-box SimpleOne class.
- To make the portal knowledge base page structure, the following KB categories were created:
- Change Implementation
- Process
- Change Advisory Board (CAB)
Our example knowledge base has the following structure:
Two articles without a KB category, i.e. they belong to the root "folder" of the KB:
Article Content Category Content Item Class About IT services General information
User Self-Study (external) Company structure Process description User Self-Study (external) The Change Implementation is a KB category that may be referred to as the first level "folder". It has two articles:
Article Content Category Content Item Class Conditions for changing services Change protocols and checklists Process protocol (internal) Change suggestion General information
User Self-Study (external) The Process is a KB category that is a second level "folder", child category to the Change Implementation KB category. It has two articles:
Article Content Category Content Item Class Change implementation process (stages) Process description Process protocol (internal) Quality checklist Change protocols and checklists Process protocol (internal) The Change Advisory Board protocol is a third level folder, child category to the Process KB category. It has one article:
Article Content Category Content Item Class CAB protocol Change protocols and checklists Process protocol (internal)
Please note that Content Category is not equal to KB Category: one KB Category may contain articles with different Content Categories. Yet in some cases they can be closely connected to each other. This depends on the structure you build.
Content Item Class does not depend on Content Category nor KB Category either.
User Roles
Knowledge base articles are displayed to all authorized users in case the content item class is External.
Users with the following roles can access Internal articles:
- admin
- ITSM_agent (and its related roles such as problem_manager, incident_manager, etc.)
- service_owner
- service_catalogue_manager
- knowledge_admin
- knowledge_agent
See the Role Structure article to learn more.
Create a Content DB
Content Databases are designed for storing knowledge base content items.
For example, within the Knowledge Base Dictionary, you can establish the following storages:
- IT Service Catalog containing service descriptions and SLA documentation that are necessary for the Service Catalog Management purposes.
- Known Errors Database used in Problem Management.
To create a Content DB, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content DB.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Content DB form description
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Y | The name of the content database appropriate to its purposes. |
| Description | Y | Additional information about the content database. |
| Responsible Group | Y | Define a group responsible for the content DB. |
| Responsible Person | Y | Define a user responsible for the content DB. |
Create a Content Category
Content Categories determine the way items stored in the Content DBs. They provide adding new groups of articles within one content DB.
Create a Content Category following the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Categories.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Content Category form description
Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Y | Content category number. This field is populated automatically. |
| Name | Y | A name of a content category appropriate to its purposes (for example, Article for service SLAs and descriptions, Known Error for keeping KEDB records). |
| Description | Y | Additional information about content categories. |
| Content DB | N | Select a content database from the list to bind a category with some database previously created. |
Create a Content Item Class
Content Item Class defines the content item purpose (SLA, OLA, UC, Service Description, Known Error, etc.) and application area (external/internal).
A good practice is to configure content item class records in a developer instance. After the necessary configurations applied, create a configuration pack to transfer the content item class to the main instance.
Create an Item Class following the steps below:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → Content Item Class.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
Click Save or Save and Exit to apply the changes.
Content Item Class form description
Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Y | The name of the content item class appropriate to its purposes (SLA, OLA, UC, Service Description, Known Error, etc.). |
| Description | Y | Additional information about the content item class. |
| Object Category | Y | Specify the field with one of the following options:
|
Before starting your work with SimpleOne ITSM
Create the following Content Item Classes used for specifying the External specifications:
- SLA
- Service Description
- Request Description
- User Self-Study.
Create the following Content Item Classes used for specifying the Internal specifications:
- Incident Model
- Request Model
- Contacts
- Escalation Rules.
Content Item Class versions are stored in the VCS Records (sys_vcs_record) table for keeping the access settings. You can implement changes to unrelated instances using the configuration packs.
Create a Knowledge Base Category
Knowledge Base Categories define the tree of articles on the portal. It is the KB Category that divide sets of article from each other. Add categories to group articles.
To create a new KB Category, perform the following steps:
- Navigate to KB Dictionary → KB Categories.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number | N | The unique number of the KB Category. This field is populated automatically. |
| Name | Y | Define the name of the category to be displayed in the portal Knowledge Base. |
| Content DB | Y | Specify the content database to which the category is related. |
| Parent KB Category | N | Specify a parent KB category to create a nesting category. |
| Description | N | Enter a brief description of the category and articles it contains. |
| Responsible Group | Y | Define a group responsible for this KB category. |
| Responsible Person | Y | Define a person responsible for this KB category. |
| Object Category | N | This field defines access to the category according to the Content Item Class selected. If the Content Item Class is External, then the KB Category will be External. This field is populated automatically after specifying the Content Item Class field value. |
Create a Content Item
In SimpleOne, each service documentation has a set of a specification which, in turn, are divided into external and internal ones. The Knowledge Base contains these service specifications as Content Items.
Before creating the KB content items, make sure you have configured content DBs and content item classes.
Create an article
To create an article to be displayed on the SSP, perform the following steps:
- Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Articles in the Draft and Retired states are not displayed on the knowledge base portal page. To display them, change the state to Published.
Create a Service Description
This is a service description, informative, and related to the company infrastructure.
To create a Service Description, follow the steps below:
- Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
- Click New to open the form.
- Fill in the form and specify the following fields:
- Content DB – select the Service Catalog option.
- Content Item Class – select the Service Description option.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Create a Service SLA
This specification is for SLM-relevant parts related to this service (indicators, etc.). It describes various aspects of service quality, like maximum requests handling time, and others.
- Navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles.
- Click New to open the form.
- Fill in the form and specify the following fields:
- Content DB – select the Service Catalog option.
- Content Item Class – select the SLA, OLA, or UC option.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Form Description
| Field | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Y | This field is populated automatically and contains an item unique identifier generated automatically. |
| Name | Y | Name of the content item. |
| Content DB | Y | A database as a content item storage. |
| KB Category | N | Specify a knowledge base category in which this content item will be displayed on the SSP. |
| Content Category | N | The category of the content item. |
| Content Item Class | Y | Specify your content item with one of the following options:
See the Create a Content Item Class section in this article to learn more. |
| Object Category | N | This field is populated automatically with Internal or External values after specifying the Content Item Class field. |
| Service | N | Select a Service from the list. |
| State | Y | The field specifies the actual state of your content item with one of the following options:
|
| Owned by | N | Automatically filled with the service owner name according to the service selected. |
| Responsible Group | Y | Specify a group responsible for the content item. |
| Responsible Person | Y | Specify a person responsible for the content item. |
| Body | Y | Describe your content item using this text field. |
| Metainfo | N | Fill in the field with the metadata. |
