Creating a decision tree

Decision trees are a special type of knowledge article in BMC Knowledge Management. Decision trees enable you to progress through a series of steps to resolve a problem. When you create a decision tree, you can create branches or decisions the user makes to progress through the tree. Decision trees have more formatting requirements than other knowledge article types and can require more time to set up.

You can integrate knowledge articles that were created in a decision tree format with incidents or problems in BMC Remedy AR System.

To create a decision tree, you choose the Decision Tree template and enter information in the knowledge article fields — just as you do when you create other knowledge article types. You build your tree branches in the decision tree section of the knowledge article.

To create a decision tree

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console.
2. Click the Create icon.
3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select Decision Tree from the list of templates, and click Create.
   
   
   A blank decision tree template appears.
   
   
4. In the Title field of the decision tree, type the descriptive title of the decision tree. In the Description field, type the first question for the decision tree. For example:

   • Title — Unable to connect to the internet

   • Description— What is your operating system?

     The decision tree title and the knowledge article title are separate values.

     

5. Add sub decisions (branches) to build the tree.
   When building a tree, you can use the following options
   • Ctrl + Shift + Enter — Adds a new subdecision.
   • Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow/Left Arrow — Moves the subdecision right and left. The indents control how the tree branches line up, and are useful for both readability and navigation.
   • Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow/Down Arrow — Moves the subdecision up and down.
     
     
6. To create a cycle or link in a tree, click the Link icon in the decision tree description field and then click the description (location) of where to link.

7. To add a text box in which users can record their decisions when following the branches, click Add Text Field on the authoring toolbar.

   The Text Field remains non-editable when you view a published knowledge article.

   
   

8. Assign the article to a user. For more information, see Assigning a knowledge article.

9. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see Managing knowledge article visibility.

   If you do not specify a visibility group, the article will be visible only to the Author, the Assignee, and others members of the support group that the Assignee belongs to.

   
   

10. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article.
    For more information, see Managing knowledge article metadata.
11. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it.
    For more information, see Using watch lists.
12. (Optional) If you are ready, promote the knowledge article from the In Progress status to the Draft status.
    On the Status Flow Bar, click the drop-down menu in the highlighted In Progress segment, and select Draft. The In Progress segment of the Status Flow Bar should appear highlighted.
    
    
13. Click Save.