Knowledge Management - How To Create a Knowledge Article in TeamDynamix

Objective

Following these steps will lead to the creation of a new knowledge article in MSU IT's instance of TeamDynamix.

Environment

TeamDynamix

Before You Begin

You will need to have rights within the system to create a new knowledge article. Depending on your role you may be able to both create and publish an article, making it immediately available, or you may need to submit it for review and eventual publishing later.

Steps

1. Start at the main Knowledge Base (KB) screen in TeamDynamix (TDX): https://tdx.msu.edu/TDClient/32/Portal/KB/ (link)
2. Check to make sure you are logged in (and log in if not already)
3. OPTIONAL - navigate to the category where you want to create the knowledge article
   By default, new articles are created in the same category where you selected the button. You can change the category during the editing process.
4. Select the New Article button
5. Update the following fields accordingly:
   • Category - this will be pre-filled out with the category you were in when you selected New Article. You can change the category, but each article can only have one.
     Shortcuts will allow an article to appear in more than one category, but the article itself only resides in the category chosen here
   • Order - this determines how the article gets sorted among other articles within the same category. See this article (link, KB 40) for the table of Orders by Article Type.
   • Subject - this is essentially the Title or Name of the article. It should follow the format: <Service or Configuration Item> - brief description of the article's contents.
     If the article is not for the public, the subject should end with " - Internal Only"
   • Body - this is the main text of the article, and is where all information is presented. All but the most very basic articles should be started with a Template.
     • Select the Templates button and then choose the appropriate template based on the type of article from the General Top Level Templates section
     • Refer to the Style Guide (link, KB 760) for guidance how to format your information.
   • Article Summary - this text appears below the article subject when being viewed in the list of articles. This text also appears in the notification email sent when you share an article with another user. Write a brief synopsis of the article that will help the user decide if this is what they are looking to find.
   • Tags - these add to the search prioritization. See this article (link, KB 38) for a description of how TDX uses different fields for search prioritization.
   • The following fields are only available to Knowledge Champions and others with publishing permissions and will not appear otherwise:
     Additional Fields (select to expand)

     • Status - Set to the desired level to indicate what should happen to the article next
     • Published to KB (checkbox) - when checked, the article will be available to all users with sufficient access to see it
     • Next Review Date - set this six months out from today's date to the next first day of a month. Example, if today is 1/11, set the date to 8/1 (first first day of the month after six months)
     • Notify Owner of Review Date - this allows the automatic reminder notifications when the Review Date is approaching
     • Owner - set this to the group name that is responsible for the content of the article
   • Notify Owner on Feedback (checkbox) - check this so the Owner gets notified when a user leaves comments and ratings.
6. Once all the fields have been set appropriately, select the green Save button at the bottom of the page
7. After saving, select Edit Article. Additional options will be available across the top of the edit screen now.
   • Need to Check:
     • Permissions - this will show who can access this article, whether it inherited its permissions from the category, and what groups are allowed or blocked from viewing it (only if Inherit Permissions is unchecked). Double-check this to make sure non-public information is not made available and/or that an article intended to be public actually is.
       Most categories are Public by default, so they will be available to EVERYONE unless you remove the inheritance here.
       • To restrict an article in an otherwise Public category:
         1. Uncheck Inherit Permissions
         2. Uncheck Public when it appears
         3. Select the Allow ONLY the associated groups below to view this article radio button that appears
         4. In Add Groups, check **Technicians Only
            If you have a more restrictive goal in mind, select the appropriate groups here instead. The Technician's Only option will restrict the article from Public view, but will be expansive within IT staff.
         5. Select Save
     • Related Articles - here you can add articles that have content related to what this article covers. We recommend adding any articles that you put direct links to in the body of the article in addition to any others you might select.
     • Related Services - if the article covers a service provided by MSU IT, you can relate the article to that service here. For each service you add, there is an option to add a Request Service button that will appear on the article, allowing readers to go directly to the service offering form associated with the service.
   • Don't Need to Check (informational):
     • Settings - these will all have been set during the process above, you can review (and change) what you picked, or ignore this.
     • Files - here you can upload files to be attached to the article, available to download by anyone with rights to view the article
     • Revisions - each time an article's content is changed and re-published, it creates a new revision. You can view past versions of the article here. There is an option to run a comparison on a revision you select vs the current version. This is handy to see quickly what changed from version to version.
     • Read By - you don't need to fill anything out here. This shows a log of who has accessed the article. It shows their first access time and their most recent access time.
     • Shortcuts - you don't need to fill anything out here. Shortcuts allow articles to appear in the KB in multiple places, even though it really only resides in one.
8. If the article is ready to publish and you don't have publishing rights you will need to submit the article at this stage, otherwise skip this step:
   • Go to the article itself and select Submit Article.
     Screenshot

     

9. You're done! The article is now on its way to be reviewed and/or published.

Additional Info

The following articles give greater detail about certain aspects of articles in the Knowledge Base:

• Style Guide for Knowledge Articles (link, KB 760)
• Rules for Tags (link, KB 38)
• Selecting the Category for the article (link, KB 759)