Overview of change templates and template selection rules
This section provides information to a change administrator about Change templates and Change template selection rules.
Change templates
Change templates are used to populate data during creation of change record. Templates expedite the creation of change record by populating missing or required data.
To configure change templates,ensure that you have the following permissions:
- Infrastructure Change Master
- Infrastructure Change Config.
For information about configuring change templates, see Configuring change templatesin the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite 9.1 online documentation.
Change template selection rules
BMC Remedy Change Management provides several templates to create a change record. However, it is a tedious process to choose a correct template during creation of a change record. A template selection rule defines the criteria to search a relevant template. Rules enable you to apply the right template by filtering for a template with the best match to your input criteria. The template is then applied to the change record.
In BMC Change Automation, the template selection configuration UI enables you to create, update, delete, and search these template selection rules.
Template selection rules are beneficial when an external system sends a request to create a change record. The external system is unaware of the change templates, so based on the input criteria sent by the external system, a relevant rule is searched and a corresponding template is applied to the change record.
A change admin defines these rules by using the template selection configuration UI. For information about configuring template rules, see Managing-change-template-selection-rules.
Criteria for searching a change template selection rule
The following attributes are considered for searching change template selection rules |
|---|
Change Management attributes
Other attributes (used for customization or for mapping external system attributes)
|
Sort order for a template selection rule
You can facilitate searching of a rule that is the best match against given search criteria by providing a sort order for that rule.
Best practice
- When you create a generic rule, ensure that you set a lower sort order to that rule.
For example, for a rule having just one input criteria, set a sort order as 100. - When you create a specific rule having several input criteria, ensure that you set a higher sort order to that rule.
For example, for a rule having several, specific input criteria, set the sort order to 400.
Example
Consider a scenario where you have defined the following rules:
Rule Name | Company | Class | Impact | Urgency | Template Name | Sort order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Automation Rule 4 | Calbro Services | Standard | 4-Minor/Localized | 3-Medium | Calbro Services Standard-Medium | 400 |
Automation Rule 3 | Calbro Services | Standard | 4-Minor/Localized |
| Calbro Services Standard-Minor | 300 |
Automation Rule 2 | Calbro Services | Standard |
|
| Calbro Services Standard | 200 |
Automation Rule 1 | Calbro Services |
|
|
| Calbro Services template | 100 |
In the following screenshot, the rules appear in the search box as per the sort order. The rule with highest sort order appears at the top in the search result.
If a request contains the following input:
- Class - Standard
- Impact - Minor/Localized
- Urgency - Medium
The "Calbro Services Standard- Medium" template corresponding to Automation Rule 4 is applied to the change record. This template is applied because Automation Rule 4 has high sort order and has the best match against input criteria.
If a request contains the following input:
- Company - Calbro Services
The "Calbro Services template" template corresponding to Automation Rule 1 is applied to the change record. This template is applied because Automation Rule 1 has low sort order and the rule is generic.
Where to go from here