This introduction article will help Enterprise or Technician users to approve Knowledge base articles using the TDNext and TDClient interfaces. The user must have the “Review Articles” in Client Portal application. This permission requires the “View Knowledge Base” permission and “TDNext” access.
Overview
As part of documenting your knowledge management process, a good practice is to review the suggested workflow diagram below which highlights the different types of knowledge base approval structures you would like to implement. Please note that this is a process diagram vs. the actual configuration within the TeamDynamix application.
Where to Start
Permissions for Creating a Knowledge Base Article
You must at least have the Add Articles permission on your security role and have TDNext access to add articles to your knowledge base.
Permissions for Editing or Reviewing a Knowledge Base Article
If an article has been submitted for review, or is approved, it can only be edited again by users with the Always Edit Articles permission or by the article owner if they have the Edit Owned Articles permission.
In conjunction with Always Edit Articles is the Review Articles permission, this allows users to approve the article and publish it in the knowledge base. Having the Always Edit Articles permission does not allow you to avoid having the Review Articles permission to publish them.
A third permission that can appear alongside those mentioned above is the View All Articles permission. Users with this access can view anything that is in your knowledge base regardless of its published or public status.
These permissions are not all necessary together for users to edit or review a knowledge base article, but hopefully the details about them can help your organization to match them together to allow your KB moderators, contributors, and reviewers the access they need to carry out their duties.
Types of Workflow Paths
The workflow diagram below highlights five different workflow paths for a knowledge article approval.
They are as follows:
- No Oversight
- "Local" Oversight (also known as Group or Team Lead)
- Knowledge Manager Oversight
- "Local" and Knowledge Manager Oversight – Owner group manages revision work
- "Local" and Knowledge Manager Oversight – Knowledge manager manages revision work
Suggested Permissions for Knowledge-Centered Service Roles
- KCS 1 - Candidate: A KCS Candidate can create articles, modify their own articles, and can view all articles unless they're protected with group permissions. These users will not be able to publish draft articles.
- KCS 2 - Contributor: A KCS Contributor can create published articles and publish Candidates’ articles but cannot typically edit articles that are publicly visible.
- KCS 3 - Publisher: A KCS Publisher can create public articles, edit public articles, archive articles, and help structure how the knowledge base is used.
What about KCS Coaches and Knowledge Domain Experts (KDEs)? These roles typically use the Publisher role and would not require additional security permissions.
The following table indicates which roles would have which KB permissions. KB permissions are assigned in a client portal application security role.
| Permission |
KCS 1 - Candidate |
KCS 2 - Contributor |
KCS 3 - Publisher |
Notes |
| Add Articles |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
All KCS users should be able to add articles. Candidates' and Contributors' articles will be reviewed by a Publisher. |
| Address Feedback |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
| Always Edit Articles |
Maybe |
Yes |
Yes |
KCS promotes trust and typically that would mean you would allow knowledge workers, regardless of role to perform edits. You can further control the updating of the article via the Review and Update Article permission. This means there is a fail-safe for committing the edits.. |
| Delete Article Feedback |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
| Delete Articles |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
| Edit Archived Articles |
Maybe |
Yes |
Yes |
You may consider allowing all roles to edit archived articles if there may be situations where you bring back retired articles. You may consider keeping this only to Contributors and Publishers. |
| Edit Owned Articles |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
All KCS users should be able to edit their own articles, changing article settings and attributes and creating draft revisions. |
| Modify Article Templates |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
| Modify Categories |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
| Modify Shortcuts |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
| Publish Articles |
No |
Maybe |
Yes |
This permission lets the user determine which articles are published to the KB. Per KCS practices, Contributors may be set to "Yes", but they should be aware they should only publish internal articles. Note there is no designation in this permission between public and internal articles, so there is a trust factor for Candidates with this permission. Since unpublished internal KB articles can seen and used by knowledge workers (assuming the View Articles Regardless of Status permission is checked), it may not be necessary to publish internal articles. In this case, you would keep this set to "No". However, this may cause confusion for Publishers when they look at articles approved but not published as they would not need to publish them. |
|
Review and Approve Drafts
(drafts in already submitted articles)
|
No |
Yes |
Yes |
This permission grants a user the ability to see all drafts (regardless of article owner) to existing articles content and to update the published content from that draft. Any KB contributor can view and make drafts to articles they are an "owner" of, however, they will need this permission to update articles from a draft. Note there is no designation in this permission between public and internal articles, so there is a trust factor for Candidates with this permission.
Please note a "draft" in TDClient KB refers to an update to the body of content in an existing article. A newly submitted article, not published, is not a "draft" but rather an article with "submitted" status. See permissions on "Publish Articles" and "Review Articles" for controls around submissions, approvals, and publishing.
|
|
Review Articles
(newly submitted articles)
|
No |
Yes |
Yes |
This permission grants a user with permissions to access the sub menu button "Articles Pending Review" under Knowledge Base in the Client Portal. This sub menu allows the user to see new articles that have a status of submitted. The user can "approve" or "reject" the article. It does not grant permission to publish. Note there is no designation in this permission between public and internal articles, so there is a trust factor for Candidates with this permission. |
| View All Articles |
No |
No |
No |
All knowledge workers should have visibility on any articles/categories they would contribute toward. This permission is better suited for administrators. |
| View Articles Regardless of Status |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
With this permission, KCS Candidates can view articles in any status, but they still cannot see articles that are protected by group security permissions. Users with more permission can still see all articles.
Users with View All Articles do not need this permission. |
| View Knowledge Base |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|