Managing flagged knowledge articles

Important

This topic is applicable to BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management only. If you have integrated BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, see BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround documentation.

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.

Note

In Knowledge Management, the RKM:UpdateRequests form stores data about all activities performed in Smart IT and BMC Helix ITSM. In Smart IT, when you flag an article, an activity with the default status New is automatically created in this form. When you fix the flag in Smart IT, its status is automatically updated to Completed.

Permissions for flagging and fixing knowledge articles

Knowledge Management and Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) users have clearly defined permissions to flag and fix articles.

KCS permissions to flag and fix articles

Article status in Smart IT

Work in progress

Draft

SME review

Optional review 1

Optional review 2

Publish approval

Published (Internal use: Yes)

Published (Internal use: No)

Retire approval

Retired

Cancellation approval

Cancelled

Closed

Flagging an article

KCS Candidate as an article assignee

✅️

KCS Candidate as not an article assignee

✅️

KCS Contributor

✅️

KCS Publisher

✅️

KCS Coach

✅️

Fixing a flagged article

KCS Candidate as an article assignee

✅️

KCS Candidate as not an article assignee¹

KCS Contributor

✅️

KCS Publisher

✅️

KCS Coach

✅️

_{1 KCS Candidates who are not article assignees cannot fix flagged articles.}

Knowledge Management permissions to flag and fix articles

Article status in Smart IT

Work in progress

Draft

SME review

Optional review 1

Optional review 2

Publish approval

Published (Internal use: Yes)

Published (Internal use: No)

Retire approval

Retired

Cancellation approval

Cancelled

Closed

Flagging an article

Knowledge Administrator as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge Administrator as not an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge user as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge user as not an article assignee

Knowledge submitter as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge submitter as not an article assignee

Knowledge viewer

Only read articles

Fixing a flagged article

Knowledge Administrator as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge Administrator as not an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge user as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge user as not an article assignee

Knowledge submitter as an article assignee

✅️

Knowledge submitter as not an article assignee

Knowledge viewer

Only read articles

To flag a knowledge article

If a knowledge article requires an update, you can flag it and add a comment specifying the reason for flagging it.

Open the article you want to flag.
Select the flag icon.
In the comment box on the Activity pane of the article, enter your reason for flagging the article.
Note
An article is not flagged until you provide a justification for flagging it. The Post button remains inactive until you enter a reason in the comment box.
From the Type list, select the nature of improvement you are requesting.
Click Post.

To view notifications about a flagged knowledge article

When an article is flagged, assignee and followers of the flagged article are notified about it.

On the flagged article, the outlined flag changes to solid flag , and an alert is displayed on the article.
Minimized flagged article alert.gif

Clicking Show displays the entire alert.
Maximized flagged article alert.gif

The alert is dismissed when the flag is fixed.

You will also see an alert update under Updates on the Smart IT Dashboard, and under Activities in your profile.

Flagged alert under Updates.gif

Followers of the flagged article see a similar alert update in the Update feed on the Smart IT Dashboard.

Note

Assignees or followers can view a flagged article. However, they cannot reply to comments about the article or fix it from the Update feed and Activity pane of their profile.

To fix a flagged knowledge article

All Smart IT users can comment over the flagging comment. These additional comments are displayed as subcomments under the flagging comment. Thus, a flagging comment could have multiple subcomments, all displayed under a single thread. Flagging comments are time stamped to track the timeliness of fixes.

Flagging Comments_Edited.gif

After updating the article, the user fixing the flag must select the I'm unflagging this check box, and post a reply to the flagging comment. After fixing, Smart IT users can continue commenting over the original comment however, they cannot reopen the same flag. They can raise a new flag on the same article.

Managing flagged knowledge articles

Permissions for flagging and fixing knowledge articles

To flag a knowledge article

To view notifications about a flagged knowledge article

To fix a flagged knowledge article

On this page