ServiceNow IT Operations Management – Tips and Tricks for Efficient Delegation

Delegating is the capacity to assign and engage with activities and permissions posted or given to you and get duplicates of any email updates forwarded to you. If you select a delegate, your ServiceNow approval requests can be completed when you are away or unavailable.

Delegates have access to all assignments and permissions given to you, as well as copies of email notifications.

Levels of Delegation

When you delegate a task as a leader, you must make the delegate’s responsibility clear. This prevents unnecessary confusion that leads to bigger mishaps. The following multi-level communication is an ideal way to go about delegation:

• Level 1: 

Following instructions: – This involves the delegate doing precisely what you tell them. You have already researched and decided what you want them to do, so they should follow your instructions strictly.

• Level 2: 

Authoring a report: – This entails researching the topic, gathering information, and reporting on what they find.

• Level 3: 

Providing recommendations: – This entails researching the subject, outlining the options, and selecting the best one.

• Level 4: 

Deciding and notifying others: The delegate makes a choice and tells you what they did. You trust them to conduct the necessary research, make the best conclusion possible, and then keep you informed. You don’t want to be caught off guard by someone else.

Delegating Your Tasks within ServiceNow

Now that you are clear with the general steps involved in the delegation, it is time to explore the same across ServiceNow. Within the ServiceNow IT operations management main navigation pane, utilize the drop-down arrow next to your username and select Profile.

• To add a new delegate, click “New” under the “Delegates” tab.
• Insert the person’s name in the “Delegate” area, or find them using the search magnifier.
• The start and end dates of your absence are in the “Starts” and “Ends” columns. The “Starts” date/time is set to today’s date and time by default. However, it is changeable.
• Choose the sort of tasks you want to assign to this individual (check one or more boxes):
• Decision-making power: The delegate has the power to act in your place.
• Tickets entrusted to you can be viewed and worked on by the delegate.
• Tickets assigned to you will appear in your delegate’s “My Work” queues.
• CC notifications: Except for Meeting Invitation emails, all other notification emails sent to you are copied to the delegate.
• Meeting invitations: Any meeting invitations provided to you by the ServiceNow professional services are copied to the delegate (for example, Change Calendar invitations).
• To save or submit your changes, use the “Save” or “Submit” buttons. “Submit” will save the “Delegate” record and return you to the main navigation page.

Modifying a Delegate Record

You can change the values in an active Delegate record to change your delegate’s obligations or to end their delegation period. To make such modifications, follow these steps:

1. Select Service Desk – My Profile.
2. Open the “Delegates Related List” tab at the bottom of your “User Record” by clicking the “View/Info” icon.
3. Check/uncheck the appropriate boxes to change your delegate’s responsibilities.
4. To end the delegation earlier than planned, change the “Ends” date to today or yesterday.
5. “Save” and close.

Delegation of Approval

Approval Delegation allows Approvers to delegate pending and incoming approvals’ processing to another Approver for a set period. This option might be utilized if an Approver is on vacation and their licenses must be managed while they are gone.

Approval delegation works even if it is delegated to someone with a lower approval threshold than the delegator. However, approval delegation only applies to Orders/Expenses/Travel. Only Superusers can control Approval Delegation for other users, but any user can delegate approvals.

Approval Delegation must be disabled manually. Even if a date range is specified, delegation does not switch off automatically. If Approval Delegation is enabled, and the delegatee is already in the approval workflow, the delegate must approve twice.

Things to Remember

• Make it clear to delegates that they will be in charge while you are away.
• Only active system users should be delegated.
• You can delegate different tasks to different people.
• Delegation is NOT system retroactive.
• Delegates do not own your tickets or approvals; they work for you while you retain control of those records.
• Regardless of the delegation period, users assigned to you allocate responsibility to see all pending tasks and approvals.
• When a user is delegated to another user, the delegate cannot assign it in turn to a third party.
• The user who gets the assignments and other notifications will remain the original delegate.

Conclusion

The capacity to delegate, participate with assignments and permissions given to you or transmitted to you, and get copies of all email notifications forwarded to you is known as delegation. Choosing a delegate allows your ServiceNow approval requests to be processed while you are on vacation or otherwise unavailable.

Your delegate will receive the same email notifications as you. When the representative receives “Incident co-ordinating to you” emails, ensure they understand they are your delegate.