Assessing knowledge-centered service articles

Two types of AQI question sets are available for article assessment: the default set and the custom set. You can create, edit, and delete custom question sets in the Article Quality Assessment Question Sets window.

Default question set

 If you have not created a question set for your company, then the default question set is used for article assessment. The default question set consists of seven out-of-the-box questions. You cannot edit or delete the default questions, or change their weighting value. However, you can clear the Question is visible for assessments check box to make the questions invisible during article assessment.

Custom question set

If your company has standards to measure article quality and author performance, you must create a custom question set to incorporate those standards. You can add questions to review those aspects of articles that are not covered by default questions. You can create one question set for each organization within a company, and one question set for a company without specifying its organization.

You must use the Default question set as the base for creating a custom question set. In the custom question set, you can add new questions, but you cannot edit or delete the default questions. However, you can omit the default questions from article assessments by clearing the Question is visible for assessments check box to make them invisible during article assessment. Custom question sets are specific to a company and organization, so you must indicate the company and organization when you create custom question sets. You can edit or delete a custom question set.

You can localize questions in the languages that Smart IT supports. For example, you localize questions in French if your browser's language is French. When you open an article for assessment, the questions and answers are displayed in French. 

When you add questions, you must specify their weighting as per your company standards. You must ensure that the weighting of each question is within the specified 0.01 - 9.99 range. You can edit them to change their weighting.

BMC Helix ITSM: Smart ITdoes not support descriptive answers, so you must ensure that the questions you add can be answered with yes or no. You must also choose whether the expected answer of the question will be yes or no. If you select the ‘Yes’ answer is desirable check box, the expected answer is Yes. If you do not select the check box, the expected answer is No. On the question set, expected answers are set as default answers, so if a question remains unanswered, the article author will get points for that question.

To create a custom question set for assessing knowledge articles

1. Use one of the following methods to navigate to the Article Quality Assessment Question Sets window.

   • Open the Knowledge menu, and click Configure AQI Assessment.
   • From the Configuration menu, select AQI Question Set.

   In the Article Quality Assessment Question Sets window, click Copy  in the Actions column. 

2. Alternatively, click + Add New Question Set to copy the default question set. 
3. In the Article Quality Assessment Questions window, enter the following details:
   • Name of the new question set
   • Name of your company and organization
4. Click + Add New Question.
5. In the Question Text box, enter an assessment question.
6. (Optional) To localize the question, follow these steps:
   1. Click Add Additional Languages.
   2. From the Languages list, select a language.
   3. In the Question Text box, enter the localized question. 
7. (Optional) If the expected answer is Yes, select the 'Yes' answer is desirable check box.
8. In the Weighting field, enter a weighting value for the question.
9. (Optional) To assess articles using the new question, select the Question is visible for assessments check box.
10. (Optional) To reorder questions, select .
11. Click Save.

In addition to creating Article Quality Index (AQI) assessment questions, Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) Coaches can also assess their team's articles.

BMC Helix ITSM: Smart ITsupports the default AQI assessment question set. If you have not created a question set for your company, the default question set is used to assess articles.

You cannot create a question set for an organization without specifying the company that the organization belongs to. However, you can create one question set for a company without specifying an organization. This set is used for assessing articles written by authors who are part of that company's organization, but the organization does not have a corresponding question set.

You can also create question set for each organization within a company. Thus, if a company has three organizations, you can create only three question sets, one for each organization. For example, Calbro Services has three organizations: Human Resources, Information Technology, and Finance. You can create one question set for Calbro Services and one for each of its organizations. The following table lists the question sets that are available for this fictional company and its organizations.

The following diagram shows the logic the system uses to select the correct question set to assess knowledge articles:

To maintain a healthy knowledge base, the knowledge team must ensure that knowledge articles provide correct and complete information to resolve issues. Flagging articles for necessary improvements is a means to achieve and maintain high-quality articles.

As a Smart IT user with the appropriate Knowledge or Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) permission, you can flag an article to request for improvements and updates. You can participate in the discussion, and you can comment over the flag. You can flag articles in all statuses except Publish approval, Retired, and Cancelled. Only one user can flag an article at a time. When the article is updated as per the flagging comment and the flag is fixed, you can flag the same article again, if needed.

After an article is flagged, users with Knowledge or KCS permission to fix the flag are expected to update and fix the article in the shortest possible time. Fix is a response from the person acting up on the flag to the flag and flagging comments.

BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Managementand Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) users have clearly defined permissions to flag and fix articles.