Creating an article in the Knowledge Management console

To create a knowledge article in the BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge ManagementConsole

Use the following steps to create How To, Known Error, Problem Solution, and Reference knowledge articles. For information about creating a Decision Tree article, see Creating-a-decision-tree.

1. On the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console.
2. In Functions, click the Create icon, or click New Article.

3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select the required template from the list and click Create.

     
   For more information, see Knowledge-article-templates.

4. On the Content tab of the Knowledge article page, enter the appropriate information in the rich text fields.
   1. You can type directly into a field, or you can click the Edit icon at the top right corner of the field to view the rich text editor with expanded functionality. Some fields have an internal editing toolbar, which you can open by double-clicking inside the text box. For more information about using the rich text editor, See the related topics.
   2. You can also use the View HTML Source toggle key to switch between entering rich text and HTML code in the text boxes.
5. Assign the article to a user.
   For more information, see Assigning-a-knowledge-article.

6. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see How-knowledge-articles-are-found. 

   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.

7. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article.
   For more information, see Improving-the-findability-of-knowledge-articles.
8. (Optional) Click the Search for Duplicates link in the Quick Actions menu to perform a search for knowledge articles that have similar titles or content.
9. (Optional) Click Preview to see what the knowledge article will look like when it is published.
10. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it. For more information about watch lists, see Monitoring-the-knowledge-article-changes.
11. (Optional) 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.
12. Click Save.

Knowledge management recommendations for support staff

Search early and search often! This Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) maxim means that before you create a knowledge article, you should search the knowledge base to check whether articles on the issue already exist.

It also means that you should conduct multiple searches using different criteria, which increases the likelihood that you will find a match. 

Creating a knowledge article when you create an incident request ensures a tighter integration between incident management and the knowledge base, which is important for good knowledge management. It helps to resolve similar incident tickets.

When you create a knowledge article, be sure to capture the full context of the incident. This context includes technical information, such as hardware and software details, and non-technical information, such as what the customer thinks could be causing the incident and what impact the incident is having on the customers.

We recommend that you use the following information categories when capturing technical information.

• Incident — The situation (or question) in the customer's words; what are they trying to do or what is not working.
  Capturing the issue in the customer's words is important because other customers are likely to view similar issues if they search knowledge with the similar keywords. If the customer's description is reworded or re-categorized by technical staff after the incident request is created, it might not be found as a match when searching the knowledge base the next time a similar issue arises.
• Environment — What technology does the customer have? Has anything in the environment been changed recently?
• Resolution — The steps required to resolve the incident or to answer the question.
• Metadata — High-level categorization of the article's content aids searchability, maintenance, reporting, and other processes related to the handling of the article.

Over time, the way that a user who reports an incident remembers and interprets non-technical information can change. It is therefore important to capture non-technical information in a knowledge article early in the incident handling process.

Even if the incident resolution is not yet known, you can start the knowledge article and then add resolution information later. This ensures that known details are captured and are available to others who might be working on the same or a similar incident request. By always creating incident requests and knowledge articles simultaneously, you also ensure that knowledge articles become an integral by-product of incident registration.

To create a knowledge article from an incident request, a problem investigation, or a known error

1. Open theBMC Helix ITSM: Service Deskrecord for which you want to create a knowledge article.
2. Click Functions > Create Knowledge. 
3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select the required template from the list and click Create. 
   For more information, see Knowledge-article-templates.
4. On the Content tab of the Knowledge article page, enter the appropriate information in the rich text fields:
   1. Type directly into a field, or click the edit icon at the top right corner of the field to view the rich text editor with expanded functionality. Some fields have an internal editing toolbar, which you can open by double-clicking inside the text box.

   2. Use the View HTML Source toggle key to switch between entering rich text and HTML code in the text boxes.

      
      

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

6. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see How-knowledge-articles-are-found.

   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.

7. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article. 
   For more information, see Improving-the-findability-of-knowledge-articles.
8. (Optional) Click Preview to see how the knowledge article will look like when it is published.
9. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it. For more information about watch lists, see Monitoring-the-knowledge-article-changes.
10. (Optional) 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.
11. Click Save.

After creating a knowledge article from an Incident, Problem, or Known Error record, you can click Use or Relate to add a relation with the article. If you entered values in the Resolution Categorization tab of a knowledge article that you created from an incident record, the same values are copied to the incident when you click Use.