Knowledge Base Article Lifecycle

Overview

All knowledge articles go through several stages during their lifespan, beginning with Not Submitted and progressing through Archived. An archived article is one in which the content is no longer relevant (e.g. the corresponding service has been retired) and should not be displayed to the customer; however, the institutional knowledge represented by the article shall be retained. 

The status of an article can be viewed from a search result.

As well as when viewing the article directly. When reading an archived article a banner notice will be added with the text "This article has been archived and may contain outdated information."

Article Status Stages and Definitions

• Not Submitted: A draft or work-in-progress article
  • Any user with TDx Technician access can create an article, and set the status to Submitted.
  • Article owners can continue to edit their own articles or a group they are a member of.
  • It is strongly encouraged, just like when writing a document in a text editor, to click the Save Draft button frequently to minimize the chance of losing edits due to any connectivity or browser issues.
• Submitted: An article that is ready for review
  • Articles awaiting review can be found within the Knowledge Base by clicking the Articles Pending Review menu.
  • Articles should undergo at least two levels of review
    • Level 1: Review by the subject matter expert (SME) the team responsible for the service associated with the knowledge article should be requested to review the article for technical accuracy.
    • Level 2: Review by Service Management (SM) or other SM designated individual(s) who may play a role in review or input in areas such as technical accuracy, adherence to KBA and other standards, etc.
  • Once reviews are completed the article may be set as Approved or Rejected with feedback
• Approved: Represents an article that has been reviewed by both the SME and Service Management Team.
  • TDx Technicians can edit any articles owned by them, or a group they are a member of.
  • Service Management may edit submitted articles and set as approved
• Rejected: An article that has been rejected for approval by either Service Management or SME.
  • If an article is rejected Service Management will include details on why it was rejected/work with the article developer
• Draft Status: From the draft details page, you can take the following actions
  • Compare revisions
  • Approve the draft - this will publish the draft and make it the version available to end users. 
  • Edit the draft - this will allow you to directly edit the draft revision. From there you can save the draft (or publish it with the appropriate permission)
  • Reject the draft - this will mark the draft as rejected and optionally allow you to notify the person who wrote the draft. 
  • Delete the draft - this will delete the draft. 
• Archived: An article that has been retired from the Knowledge Base
  • Articles that have been marked as Archived will continue to show up in knowledge searches for TDx Technicians only, and are clearly marked as such.
  • All article owners who would like to archive an article must notify Service Management of the article desired for archive. Service Management will complete a pre-archive check and notify you once the article has been Archived and no longer published.

Publishing Approved Articles

Articles that have been approved, and published, are available to customers in the client Knowledge Base portals.

• Published is a specific setting on an article that Service Management can apply to an article.
• Only Approved articles can be Published.

Resources:

• Working with article drafts 
• Working with article revisions