In February 2026, UCR’s knowledge base system will be enhanced to support group ownership for knowledge articles. This change will apply to the following UCR knowledge bases:

• ITS (includes XCITE articles)
• Finance and Administration Support (BFS)
• Human Resources Knowledge (Central HR)
• UCPath (CSC)

The group ownership process is designed to provide greater transparency among technical and functional knowledge owners, eliminate bottlenecks in the article approval process, avoid article abandonment, and further empower our campus community to successfully self-help with 24/7 guidance.

What’s Changing for Knowledge Stewards?

With the launch of group ownership, we will transition from individual ownership of knowledge articles to ownership by ServiceNow "groups." Instead of assigning articles to a single contributor, they will now be assigned to a group responsible for managing the entire article lifecycle. These groups typically align with the campus unit’s departments or program/service teams. Each ServiceNow group has a manager, who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the knowledge owned by their group is properly documented and maintained within their respective knowledge base.

Existing knowledge articles will be automatically updated to include an assigned “Ownership Group” field, however, an article author name will remain present if previously assigned. Members of the knowledge article’s ownership group will receive article management notifications (e.g., notices that the article is about to expire, that the article has been checked out for updates, that a Knowledge Feedback Task has been assigned, etc.) for transparency and collective management of the article. Please note that this likely requires your group to discuss how you’d like to manage articles as a team.

From a campus user perspective, nothing is changing. Articles can be accessed just as before.

Why Are We Making This Change?

This shift is rooted in ITS’ commitment to continuous improvement and addresses several key opportunities:

• Increased visibility and accountability: By assigning articles to ServiceNow groups, we will gain better visibility into article ownership at a team level. This will help managers and directors ensure that knowledge base documentation remains current and accurate, especially since ServiceNow automatically removes expired articles from the knowledge portal and filters them out from search results (learn more about AI Search). This new structure will also help to ensure that all knowledge stewards are aware of Knowledge Feedback Tasks so that they can be responsive when a campus user provides feedback on one of their articles.
• Reduced number of unclaimed articles: In the past, when roles changed or employees moved on, articles were often left unclaimed with no clear owner. Group ownership will significantly reduce this risk, ensuring continuity and consistent maintenance of our knowledge bases.
• Streamlined workflows: While the core experience remains largely the same, this change will positively impact approval workflows and notifications, making them more efficient for groups.
• Enhanced collaboration: This new structure encourages a team-based approach to knowledge management, fostering greater collaboration within groups to maintain the knowledge they own as technical experts in their respective areas.

Next Steps

To ensure that your team is well prepared for the upcoming change, please review the Knowledge Base How To Guides, which includes training videos and job aids that provide guidance on knowledge base article standards.

Join the Office Hour Sessions with ITS

Staff from ITS, XCITE, BFS, UCR Central HR, and the UCPath Campus Support Center are all invited to join the virtual office hours hosted by the ITS Communication and Training team. During these sessions, you’ll receive an overview of the new process and have the opportunity to ask questions.

The invitation for the virtual office hours will be shared via email soon, so please keep an eye out for it.