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Handling Assignment Rules in ServiceNow

Handling Assignment Rules in ServiceNow

In ServiceNow, if one is looking for automatic assignments then he can rely on the instance’s ability to assign the tasks automatically to different users and groups depending on the specified conditions. In order to achieve this, ServiceNow has the following modules:

  • Assignment Lookup Rules
  • Assignment Rules

Assignment Lookup Rules:

This module appears under the ‘System Policy application’ menu. This table is basically generated out of the box as its definition is provided in the ‘Data Lookup Definition’ table in the instance, specifically for field assignments in the incident table. Assignment lookup rules mainly provide the functionality of changing any field value and not just the assignment fields.

Assignment Rules:

This module appears under the ‘System Policy application’ menu. It helps to automatically assign the tasks to a particular user or a particular group using the assigned_to and assignment_group fields respectively, depending on the specified set of conditions. One can define these assignment rules readily for their desired table.

Following are the steps for defining the assignment rule:

  • Navigate to System Policy -> Assignment -> New
  • Fill in the appropriate details. The below figure is for reference:
    Handling Assignment Rules in ServiceNow
  • From the above figure, one can see that the dot-walking can also be done in the condition builder field. Just select the ‘Show Related Fields’ option in the condition and then select the appropriate attribute.
  • Further, in the ‘Assign To’ tab, select the appropriate user and group to whom the task is to be assigned.

If two assignment rules conflict, then the assignment rule with the lowest execution order runs first. The lower the execution order, the higher is the precedence.

Distinguishing Factors between the Data Lookup Rules and Assignment Rules:

Data Lookup Rules Assignment Rules
  • Has the ability to change the value of any field
  • Changes the value of assigned_to and assignment_group fields only under specified conditions.
  • These rules apply during record insert, record update and even to unsaved changes on the form.
  • These rules apply during record insert, record update but not to the unsaved changes on the form.
  • These rules are able to overwrite the existing values in the fields, along with the default values.
  • These rules do not have the ability to overwrite the existing values in the fields.

Precedence among the assignment rule and business rule:

In certain circumstances, the business rules gain precedence over the assignment rules.

The business rules and assignments rules run in the following order:

  • All the ‘before record insert’ business rules having order less than 1000.
  • First and foremost, assignment rule with lowest execution order and matching condition.
  • All the ‘before record insert’ business rules having order more than 1000.
  • All the ‘after record insert’ business rules.

We are pretty sure that this blog must have given an overview of dealing with Assignment Rules in ServiceNow.

Any comments\suggestions are most welcome. We have posted further blogs as well on other topics and will frequently come back with something innovative.