This checklist is for Knowledge Editors to use when approving internal articles in TDX and when publishing public articles to the IT site.
Resources
How-Tos
It is important to understand image copyright when using images in knowledge. If you're searching images on the web, you should confirm their licensing status before using them in any UMN content.
You can send a message to other people working the ticket by using the Comments button down by the ticket Feed.
Approvers will receive a TeamDynamix email with a link to the approval needed. This article is for those people who have the general technician role within TeamDynamix group and supervisor approvals.
Individual Approvers and Key Contacts receive an email notification when they have a request that needs to be approved.
A person who is designated as an approver in TeamDynamix (TDX) can use either of two methods in this article to approve or reject an Access Request Form (ARF).
There may be times when you need to give partial approval of access or service to a Requestor. Depending on the situation, use one of these methods to communicate partial approval:
The TeamDynamix platform has two main areas: the Client Portal and Users (TDNext).
If you see something in the ticket that needs to be changed before you can fully approve the request, DO NOT edit a ticket.
You can see where a request is in its workflow by viewing the ticket Details (static view) in Users (TDNext).
You can see where a request is at in its workflow by looking at the request ticket in the Client Portal.
TDX allows you to Communicate Through the Request Ticket with people associated with the ticket.
This article gives an overview of what you are looking at when you click on the title or ticket ID number of a Request ticket in the Awaiting my Approvals section of TDNext.
The main functionality of a Change ticket in TeamDynamix is similar to that of other ticket classifications.
Once you have filled out and submitted a Change Ticket, the change ticket goes into a series of defined ticket tasks to process the
This article goes through how to make an incident ticket in TeamDynamix.
Use the Edit button to make revisions to the original fields in the ticket, such as associating a different knowledge base article to the ticket or revising the Impact or Urgency of a ticket.
This article shows the process to reduce the occurrence of bouncing tickets. A bouncing ticket is one that is “moved between teams excessively” or “bounced” between teams four or more times.
This article defines when to resolve an Incident ticket in TDX. It also contains the steps to resolve a ticket.
This article covers how to handle situations where a customer does not responds to questions about an incident ticket, making it impossible to resolve.
This article details the Incident Task Process responsibilities for Tier 2 (T2), Desktop Support, and Tier 3 (T3) staff in OIT (Office of Information Technology).
This article explains the different areas found in the Details (static view) of a Incident ticket.
This article covers common steps in working on a ticket.
This article can be used as a template for finding High Security IT Assets that have not checked in with Jamf or MECEM (SCCM, or System Center Configuration Manager) for the past 60 days in order to get them checked in,
This article covers how to create and update an asset record. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for asset creation and updates are also provided. This article covers the follow topics:
This article shows how to search for an Asset Record in TeamDynamix.
This article outlines the ITAM policy in regards to data quality.
Understand how TDX knowledge base articles are displayed and linked on the Technology Help (IT) website.
When you need to use a table in a knowledge base article, follow these guidelines and formatting instructions to make the content accessible to all users.
This article covers:
Alternative text, or alt text, provides a text equivalent for images, charts, graphs, and more. This article discusses how to add Alternative Text in TeamDynamix (TDX) Knowledge Base articles.
Including images in a knowledge base article can help users accomplish their tasks more quickly.
In order to show certain details in instructions, editors can insert excerpts of computer code in knowledge base articles.
You can provide technical information not meant for a public audience using Knowledge Internal Notes for articles published to it.umn.edu.
You can add Related Articles to your knowledge base article to quickly link readers to other related materials.
Table of Contents:
Addressing feedback in a timely fashion is an essential part of keeping our knowledge resources up to date.
Any technician in TDX can create a new Knowledge Base article and submit it for approval by an editor.
When an article has reached the end of its useful life, it should be archived.
The lifecycle of a Knowledge Base article begins with a Not Submitted article and progresses through when an article is archived.
Every knowledge article should have a category assigned to it that represents the Technology, Service, or Business Process that the article addresses.
When you create a ticket, you will need to associate the Knowledge Base article you used to resolve the ticket.
When you create a Knowledge Base article, you will be identified as the Owner.
Before archiving a knowledge base article you need to check for other TDX articles that link to it and either remove those links or update them to avoid breaking those links.
This article covers creating links to other pages external to the article.
When resolving a ticket, you should identify the knowledge you used to resolve the issue.
If you are a technician in TDX, you can draft a new Knowledge Base article.
Before inserting images into your knowledge base article it's important to crop, resize them, and add any highlights if necessary.
TDX allows you to edit an existing article and then save your changes as a Draft. The Draft version won't be visible to others until you Approve This Revision it.
Images can make it easier to follow instructions in a KB article. The most effective images do one of the following:
Before inserting images into your knowledge base article it's important to crop, resize them, and add any highlights if necessary.
This page provides a list of commonly-used TDX knowledge terms and their explanations.
You can use Google Docs to draft knowledge. Drafting in Google Docs allows you to use the collaboration features to get feedback from your colleagues.
To edit an article, you first have to create a draft revision.
Technicians can edit an article owned by them or by their Group until it has been submitted for approval. Once submitted only those people with an editor role will be able to edit your article.
You can embed a video from Kaltura or YouTube into a knowledge base article to help your audience better understand the instructions in the article.
The Knowledge Base is the primary source for how-to content vetted by the IT community.
Knowledge is managed by the Owner.
Expectations by Job Role
All nested numbered lists in TDX default to Arabic numerals. Sub numbered lists should be formatted as lower-alpha and then lower-roman for clarity.
Anyone with a technician role in TDX can leave Feedback on an article and can see all the Feedback left on any article. Feedback helps us keep our Knowledge Base up to date and relevant.
Properly formed subjects greatly help with both searching and identifying which article to use.
Writing Article Titles
Follow these guidelines to better help users find your article:
Locating the names of buttons when writing knowledge allows for increased accessibility for readers, particularly those who use screen readers.
This article covers:
You can make an anchor link or in-page link (sometimes called a jump link) by associating an anchor with selected text on a page, and then linking it to another location on the same page.
Alternative text, or alt text, provides a text equivalent for images, charts, graphs, and more. Some of its benefits include:
Global Knowledge Editors can publish any article, regardless of ownership, to the Technology Help website.
While you can use a variety of editors when drafting a knowledge base article, Google Docs is the most common choice because it is readily available and easy to use.
If there is an article published on the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu) that should not be there, it can be changed to a restricted article or to an internal article.
Restrict access to sensitive content. Publicly available information about processes or systems can be exploited to social engineer our organization, possibly leading to loss of private data or customer trust.
It is the responsibility of every OIT support professional to contribute to our knowledge ecosystem. Effective contribution requires collaboration, both within your team and with others.
Before creating a new knowledge article, it is important to search for existing resources.
All technicians can view all Knowledge Base articles regardless of an article's status or ownership.
In this article:
You can help our users help themselves by providing them with links to knowledge articles published to the Technology Help website or wherever your department publishes its knowle
Anyone can create a new Knowledge Base article and submit it for approval by an editor.
Before someone submits an article, they should have reviewed it for technical accuracy first.
In the TeamDynamix (TDX) knowledge article form there are two settings that determine the availability of an article for viewing or publishing:
Sometimes a knowledge article needs to be removed from the Technology Help website but still needs to be active in TDX. For instance:
Lists can be used to better organize an article and make it easier to scan.
Creating a new knowledge base article may involve writing something completely from scratch or curating an existing resource.
Use headings to identify the topics and subtopics of your article. Headings have several functions:
All articles, regardless of status, are visible to all Technicians, Group Knowledge Editors, and Global Knowledge Editors. The matrix below spells out the visibility for all consumers of TDX Knowledge.
Create a Major Incident when any large scale outage occurs or when an outage impacts a large number of people. Work the Major Incident until the outage is resolved or a workaround is in place.
You can set up a filter in your University email account to automatically forward all Major Incident communications from TeamDynamix to your mobile device.
Once a workaround or permanent solution is found, resolve the Major Incident ticket and all of its associated children Incident tickets.
Major Incident tickets allow a method for managing large scale outages or an outage causing a high volume of incidents.
The focus of working through a Major Incident is to find a permanent fix for what is broken or a viable workaround that will allow affected users to continue working.
The purpose of a Problem ticket is twofold:
Once a solution has been implemented for a Problem, then the Problem ticket can be resolved.
The purpose of a Problem ticket is to manage the analysis process for either what happened during a Major Incident ticket or for analysis of recurring incidents that seem to be related.
Two actions commonly taken when working a problem ticket are assigning tasks and providing status updates for technicians. This article covers common actions you will take such as updating technicians of status,
You can add a report to a Report Folder while you are in the report.
You can change the ownership of any report you own.
You can choose which reports appear in the left-hand Navigator menu.
There are many existing reports already available to you in TDX that might generate the type of information you need.
You can organize reports into folders in the U of M Tickets app for quick access to your commonly used reports.
You can email report results to other people, whether or not they have access to TDNext. You can also set up the report to run on a specific schedule and email the results to users with that schedule.
Before a report can be exported to Excel, you must first run the report.
Favoriting a report folder will raise the folder to the top of the reports section in the Navigator, directly below the Standard Reports.
You can make a new report in TDX if none of the existing reports meet your needs.
After you have copied an existing report, you will need to modify it for your own needs.
You can easily search for reports that you or others have created.
You can share a report with other Groups or individuals. Sharing a report with other groups allows technicians within the group to run the report you created.
TDX comes with some pre-built reports which you can run right away. It also has many report templates that you can copy and modify to pull results for your own purposes.
All technicians have the ability to make reports in TDNext. These reports can then be shared with other groups or kept visible only to yourself.
After a user has already filled out a Service Request form, they may call in to see the status of the request. This article walks through the steps to do that without making a ticket.
You can fill out a request on behalf of a user when the situation warrants. When you do, be sure to open a Service Request ticket in TDNext. Clearly document the situation and what form you filled out on their behalf.
Anytime a user contacts us with a Request (something is needed for a job; not when something is broken), complete a thorough search for a Service Request form in the Client Portal.
Service Request forms are housed in the Client Portal area of TDX. These forms are also available to users throughout the public-facing website of the group or department that they are associated with.
This article walks through how to send a request form to a user AND document the user interaction in a Service Request ticket.
You can send an Access or Service Request form to a user from the Client Portal so they can fill it out and submit the form on their own.
When you are creating or managing a desktop, you may want to add a report. Some existing reports may meet your needs.
You can attach one or more files to a ticket. There are multiple methods of attaching files to a ticket.
During the lifecycle of a ticket, there may be additional stakeholders who need updates as work progresses. Adding them as Contacts to the ticket allows a technician to notify them when updating the ticket.
When updating a ticket, you can specify exactly who should receive a notification regarding the ticket update.
When working with colleagues on tickets and ticket tasks, use the Comment feature in the Ticket Feed to communicate back and forth regarding the work that needs to be done on a ticket.
Ticket Tasks are used to assign a specific job to another Responsible Group.
You can create a ticket template to apply when filling out a ticket. Any field values you set in the template will auto-populate those same fields in the ticket saving time.
Create and manage desktops in the various TeamDynamix applications.
This article gives specific definitions for the impact, urgency, and priority of a ticket when working with users.
When you can remember the name of a technician but not the Responsible Group(s) to which they belong, you can find their group(s) using the Search Filter to find tickets already assigned to that person.
As you work with the customer, you will need to determine if their issue is an Incident or a Service Request.
The TeamDynamix platform has two main areas: the Client Portal and Users (TDNext).
The TeamDynamix platform has two main areas: the Client Portal and Users (TDNext).
After you have Created a Ticket Template to use, you can modify, share, or delete any ticket templates you own.
Group managers in TDX have the ability to manage some permissions for their groups in the People App.
Users may occasionally create multiple tickets for the same problem by accident. Duplicate tickets may be created when:
The TeamDynamix platform has two main areas: the Client Portal and Users (TDNext).
This article outlines the best practices for resolving such unintentionally reopened tickets.
There are several ways to search for tickets in TeamDynamix. Each ticket, no matter what ticket classification it is, receives its own ticket identification number.
The Responsible field for any ticket classification (Incident, Request, Major Incident, etc.) communicates who is responsible for the ticket. The field also communicates which Group is responsible for the ticket.
It is important that each interaction with our users is documented within TeamDynamix.
Tickets occasionally need to be reassigned to a different Group due to new information or initial error.
his article outlines the different types of roles available in TeamDynamix (TDX), and their corresponding permissions.
There are five ticket classification forms that technicians will use in the U of M Tickets application. Each form has fields tailored to the specific type of ticket it addresses.
This article explains how to use the Item ID search field in TeamDynamix
The My Work application of TDX will gather any tickets, ticket tasks, or approval forms that are assigned to the Responsible Group you belong to.
All technicians in TDX have access to the People App, which you can use to find customers and their ticket history or to find groups to view technician members.
The Ticket Calendar displays all scheduled Change tickets in TDX, increasing Change visibility and helping to reduce potential collisions.
A warm transfer occurs when one technician passes a call to another technician.
The instructions below are written for ticket transfers between Tier 1 and Tier 2 in User Support Services.
Once a Ticket Task has been created, the Responsible technician can then begin to work the task.
As you work within TeamDynamix, you will see the language Parent and Child. This article explains what that terminology means and how it works for our processes and procedures.
Sometimes a user's name will not easily be found in the Requestor field. Use this article if you cannot find the name or internet ID of the person requesting help.
This article discusses how to write a clear, concise title for a TDX ticket.
Content that should only be viewed by the University community should not be published to a publicly available website such as the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu).
When you request Technology Help, a request ticket is created.
Self-Help Guides
This self-help guide is for users who create or edit knowledge in TeamDynamix.
This self-help guide is for anyone who approves Access Request Forms (ARF) or Service Request Forms (SRF) that originate in TeamDynamix.
This self-help guide is for TeamDynamix users who want to learn how to run, create, and manage reports.
This self-help guide is for a technician who manages hardware assets in TeamDynamix (TDX).
This self-help guide is for technicians working in TDX to track Incidents, Requests, Major Incidents, Problems, or Change tickets.