BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines

DRAFT
BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines
February 2011
www.bmc.com
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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 Copyright 2011 BMC Software, Inc. BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. AIX, DB2, and IBM are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. IT Infrastructure Library is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce and is used here by BMC Software, Inc., under license from and with the permission of OGC. ITIL is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is used here by BMC Software, Inc., under license from and with the permission of OGC. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Oracle, J2SE, Java, Javadoc, Java2 Platform, Standard Edition, JSP, and JDBC are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. SAP is the trademark or registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. UNIX is the registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries. The information included in this documentation is the proprietary and confidential information of BMC Software, Inc., its affiliates, or licensors. Your use of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable End User License agreement for the product and to the proprietary and restricted rights notices included in the product documentation. Restricted rights legend U.S. Government Restricted Rights to Computer Software. UNPUBLISHEDRIGHTS RESERVED UNDER THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. Use, duplication, or disclosure of any data and computer software by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions, as applicable, set forth in FAR Section 52.227-14, DFARS 252.227-7013, DFARS 252.227-7014, DFARS 252.227-7015, and DFARS 252.227-7025, as amended from time to time. Contractor/Manufacturer is BMC SOFTWARE INC, 2101 CITYWEST BLVD, HOUSTON TX 77042-2827, USA. Any contract notices should be sent to this address. BMC Software Inc. 2101 CityWest Blvd, Houston TX 77042-2827, USA 713 918 8800 Customer Support: 800 537 1813 or contact your local support center
1. Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Customizing BMC Remedy ITSM applications using overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Workflow change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 User interface change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Forms change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Administration change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM . . . . . . . . . 1.6 BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.1 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.2 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.3 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.4 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.5 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.6 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.7 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.8 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.9 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.10 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.11 Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

The BMC Remedy ITSM solution is highly configurable; for example, it can change behavior based on changes to administration data. You might have unique needs that will require you to customize the solution. This information describes how to adhere to best practice standards when customizing the BMC Remedy ITSM applications in both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM on-premise environments. Customizing the solution using these best practices enables seamless upgrades and ongoing maintenance of the solution. This information discusses how to use the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System Overlays feature to customize BMC Remedy ITSM applications.
Customizing BMC Remedy ITSM applications using overlays

The BMC Remedy AR System Overlays feature enables you to customize applications and avoid conflicts with future application versions. The feature enables you to track customizations and preserve changes to your application objects even if they are modified during an application upgrade. An overlay is a copy of a BMC Remedy AR System structure or workflow object that is used in place of the origin object. Out-of-the-box BMC Remedy AR System application and server objects, and objects created in the Base Development mode of BMC Remedy Developer Studio, are origin objects. To customize out-of-the-box BMC Remedy AR System objects and ensure that the customizations are not lost when a BMC Remedy AR System application or server is upgraded, create an overlay of the origin object, and modify the overlay instead of the origin object. At runtime, the BMC Remedy AR System server and clients (such as the mid tier and BMC Remedy User, use overlay objects in place of the origin objects. For example, if a filter is to be used during an operation and BMC Remedy AR System detects that the filter has an overlay, the server executes the overlay filter instead of the origin filter. Or if a client is required to fetch an object from the server and the object has been overlaid, the client fetches the objects overlay instead. During upgrades, a BMC Remedy AR System installation program ignores overlays---it does not undo their modifications, overwrite them, or delete them; in fact, it is unaware that overlays exist. The install program changes only the objects that were installed with the application or server. After the upgrade, the application or server continues to use the overlays instead of the origin objects for runtime operations. Overlays also make it easy to identify all the customizations in your applications.
Restrictions on using overlays

Overlays do not perform the following functions: Preserve customizations made to an object that is deleted during an application upgrade. If an existing object in your production environment is deleted during an application upgrade, any overlay of the object is deleted as well. Automatically merge customizations with functionality added during upgrades. For example, if a filter has three new actions in an upgraded application, those actions will not automatically be added to the filters existing overlay. Instead, you must identify the new actions by comparing the overlay to the upgraded origin object and then add them to the overlay if you decide to use them. Enable you to make all possible changes to BMC Remedy AR System objects. For example, you cannot make changes that would alter the underlying database, such as changing a fields data type.
Overlayable objects
You can create overlays for the following objects: Active links Images Active link guides Local applications Escalations Menus
DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 Filters Packing lists Filter guides Views Forms Web services Fields
Non-overlayable objects
You cannot create overlays for the following items: Custom objects---A custom object is an object created by a BMC Remedy AR System user. Upgrades do not modify or destroy custom objects. Deployable applications---Overlays of deployable applications are not supported for licensing reasons. You can, however, overlay and customize the objects within the deployable applications. Creating and modifying deployable applications is not permitted in Best Practice Customization mode. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Action Request System Introduction to Application Development with BMC Remedy Developer Studio guide. Overlaid objects---You cannot create multiple overlays for the same object. Overlay objects---You cannot create overlays of overlays. Form data---BMC Remedy Distributed Server Option (DSO) mappings, DSO pools, flashboards, Skins, and templates are stored as data in a form. They are not BMC Remedy AR System objects. Therefore, you cannot use overlays to customize them, and any modifications that you make to them might be lost when an application or server is upgraded. For more information concerning overlays, see the BMC Remedy Action Request System Form and Application Objects Guide.
Best practices for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
To make code changes to BMC Remedy ITSM applications that are retained when you upgrade: Make any customizations to out-of-the-box workflow using overlays when you are customizing BMC Remedy applications. Overlays protect the customization from being lost during an upgrade. Use an overlay to customize a field but ensure that the field continues to be used for the same purpose. Overlays do not protect the contents of fields,so re-purposing an existing field to do something other than what it was originally designed for can cause issues in the applications and the code using the field. When making a user interface change, make a form overlay and then make an overlay of the view that you are working on. During an upgrade, your changes will be saved but you must ensure that making these changes as overlays will not merge user interface changes in future application releases with the overlaid view. Take performance into account when making any code changes. If you add an active link workflow, you must ensure that it does not make the same server calls as an existing workflow, which would impact performance. Tune user interface widgets such as table fields to use indexes and chunking. They should display data only when that data is required. Note In the BMC Remedy OnDemand environment, you must use overlays to customize objects. Also, when you use overlays you still must test your customizations when you upgrade.
Workflow change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
While overlays do provide protection from customizations being overwritten during an upgrade, they do not prevent issues occurring from the workflow interacting with other system components that change during an upgrade. Because of this, you should keep workflow changes to a minimum and keep the the changes separate from the existing application flow. The following information includes some examples of workflow changes that can be done and which will not be impacted by changes to other parts of the application. You can make the following workflow changes for both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and the BMC Remedy ITSM environments. Use overlays for these changes so that there is a way to track the changes that are made, even if the code that is added is new code. To existing forms, add new workflows that do not affect the processing of existing workflows. You must ensure that the new workflow does not change how the existing workflow runs through the process. Because the process workflow can change from release to release, you should avoid these types of code changes. Add new forms to the system and add new workflows to support the processes on these new forms. Add new workflows to read data from your new forms. This can involve either: Adding active links to the main forms associated with new buttons or links Adding table fields to existing forms to read data from newly added forms and the workflow to interact with the tables If you are making changes to key processes in the application, you should avoid changing the following workflow processes: Status flows Permission-based workflow (multi-tenancy, support groups) Interactions with processes such as approvals and BMC Remedy Assignment Engine Interface forms Most of the changes that are required for these processes can be done by configuring the data that drives them. Continue to use this method to make changes to how these processes work, rather than making changes to the underlying code which drives these processes. The following recommendations apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and the BMC Remedy ITSM environments: Use service calls to avoid performance impacts. Evaluate the data that you want to pull into a new form. If you determine that a number of queries must be completed via active links to retrieve the data, perform the following actions: Investigate using filters instead of active links. Use a service call from an active link to reduce the number of server calls required to retrieve the information. Note For more information about customization designs for the BMC Remedy OnDemand environment, see the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document on the "Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand" web page on the BMC Developer Network website. Use escalations sparingly and only to add to new forms due to the potential impact on system performance. Do not change out-of-the-box web services due to the potential impact on applications that might use these web services for integration purposes. Changes to out-of-the-box web services might be overwritten during an upgrade. The best solution is to copy an out-of-the-box web service and extend that web service for any specific requirement.
DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 Use a namespace that does not conflict with out-of-the-box or future system workflows to build any workflow that is added to the system. You can use a unique prefix for your application objects to avoid any future workflow conflicts if multiple companies are running on the same instance of the BMC Remedy AR System server.
Related topics
Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow
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User interface change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
You can change the user interface via data changes at the configuration level, and you can preserve these changes during upgrades. Many of the menus that are displayed in the system can be extended via changes to back-end forms. For more information about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document. If you are updating a view within the system to add new fields or rearrange how a view is laid out, make an overlay of the form and the view you are changing to preserve your changes during an upgrade. Note An overlay of a view enables you to copy the out-of-the-box view and make changes to that view. However, during an upgrade, the application may change the base view. In this case, you will need to merge your view changes either back to the upgraded view of the form or merge the changes from the upgrade view to the overlaid view. For a new view, you can add user interface widgets to: Retrieve data from other forms Change the layout structure of the data The following recommendations apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM environments: Add any new table fields to a view or a form with care due to the potential performance impact. Consider that a table should be refreshed only when the data is needed. It must have a qualification that makes use of indexes in order to search forms with lots of data. The table must use data chunking to limit the rows that are returned at any given time. It must have a qualification that uses indexes to search forms with lots of data. One possible way to reduce the load on the primary forms is to add a new user interface workflow to a newly created form, and then add a view field to the existing form that can load that newly created form. This way enables these changes to be isolated from the exiting form, and better overall system performance. For more information about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document. Avoid polling menus or active links due to potential performance impacts. Any forms or views that are added must use field IDs that are outside of the range reserved by BMC Software. For more information about the customization designs for BMC Remedy OnDemand, see the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document.
Branding the interface using Skins

The goal of branding is to typically change the color scheme, icons, and/or background images to meet your corporate standards. BMC Remedy AR System provides the Skins feature that enables you to brand an application. Use Skins to make changes to an application's color scheme and the images on buttons. Skins are configured using data rather than customized using the application itself so they are fully supported during an upgrade. You can change the icons on the BMC Remedy AR System Mid-Tier login screen. You should not change the CSS file that comes with BMC Remedy AR System. The best way to change the images on the login screen is to replace the image that is referenced: 1. In the BMC Remedy Mid-Tier images directory, replace the login_image.jpg and login_logo.gif files with the files provided for the customer. The reference to the files is as follows:
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DRAFT 1. BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 String login_img = "images/login_image.jpg";String logo_img = "images/login_logo.gif";
Related topics
Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar
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Forms change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
The following guidelines explain how to make form changes so that your changes are not affected by system upgrade. They apply to both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM environments. As with any code changes, they should only be done via overlays. You can add new fields. However, avoid adding new required fields because you may need to change existing integrations. Alternatively, you can provide a default value for the new required field so that it can be set automatically if an older integration interfaces with the application. Add new fields in the field ID range that is not reserved by BMC. For more information, see the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document. Do not remove any existing fields, because it can potentially affect the overall processing of the applications and affect existing workflow. If you do not wish to have a field appear to a user, use an overlay of the form and view to remove the field from the view so that it is not visible to the user. Do not change the properties of existing fields, including whether they are required fields, data types, and pattern matching, because it can affect the existing processing of the record, and are overwritten during an upgrade. If you need to change these properties, create a new field, change the properties on that field as appropriate, and then hide the original field. You can add new forms but add them in your specific namespace. You can add values to a linear selection field, but BMC does not recommend it because it causes data and workflow issues. You can add values to a nonlinear selection field. If you add new fields to a form that should be accessible to integrations, they must also be exposed in the interface forms and web services.
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Administration change guidelines for BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
In general, changes to administrative actions might cause changes to the structure of the production environment. Because of these structural changes, you must adopt a change control process and ensure that the changes are managed and tested before introducing them into the production environment. This section discusses certain areas that should not be configured on the production system. Note This section provides mandatory rules to follow when working in the BMC Remedy OnDemand environment. These rules should be treated as suggested best practices in the BMC Remedy ITSM environment.
BMC Atrium CMDB class model changes

The BMC Atrium CMDB interface enables an administrator to add new classes or attributes by changing the data that represents the data model structure of the application. These data changes result in BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System forms being added or modified in the BMC Remedy AR System server. After making any data model changes, you must make the information available to the BMC Remedy ITSM applications. These changes can affect the applications, so do not make them directly on the production system. Use a change control system and manage the changes in the development environment. Test all changes with BMC Remedy Asset Management and the BMC Atrium Discovery processes to make sure that they have no impact on existing application or integrations.
BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation rules changes

BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation uses data-driven rules that are set up by an administrator. They manage data flow from a provider of data (such as BMC Atrium Discovery), how it is combined with data from other data providers, and how it is published into the BMC Atrium CMDB production dataset. Changing reconciliation rules can affect how data from discovery sources or even manually entered data is put into the CMDB. These changes can cause data to not populate the CMDB or to populate it incorrectly. Because changing these rules can have an adverse impact on the business, make these changes only be done on the development server under change control.
BMC Service Level Management

The BMC Service Level Management application is used to manage service level agreements (SLAs). The creation of SLAs and service level targets causes workflow to be generated in the application and causes data to be collected and evaluated as part of the overall processing of the application. Creating or updating an SLA or service level target can result in escalations and measurements occurring incorrectly, which can result in noncompliance. Because these targets must be built appropriately and because of the impact on the production system if they are not and the potential performance impact of BMC Service Level Management adding workflow to the system, make these changes only in the development environment.
Software License Management

The Software License Management module in BMC Remedy Asset Management defines the rules that ensure that a business is in compliance with its license contracts. The process makes uses a rules-based engine to define how to: Find software configuration items (CIs) in the BMC Atrium CMDB Relate CIs to contracts and the rules for calculating whether the business is in compliance with its license agreements
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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 Software License Management contains the following functionality: Defines the rules that the engine uses to do the connection and compliance checks. Generates contracts and certificates to manage new licenses. Changes to the rules used for the connection and compliance checks can adversely affect the environment by producing inaccurate license counts. Make these changes only on a development system under change management control. Changes to contracts and certificates for managing new licenses leverage existing rules, so you can make changes to them directly on the production system.
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BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM customizations

This information describes the types of customizations that you can make for each application and those which you should not make. These customizations apply for both the BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM environments.
General customizations
For information about the functionality that is common across the BMC Remedy ITSM applications, and to identify components of that functionality that can be customized and those that should not be customized, see: Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs
Module and subsystem customizations

For more information, see: Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields

You can add fields or change field information in your environment. Typically, you make field changes to accomplish the following: Capture some additional information about a record. Provide a way to store a key to link to a separate table. Change the context of an existing field to make it required (this can be accomplished by changing the field itself or adding additional workflow against that field). Manage the values of enumerated fields. The following types of enumerated fields are part of the applications: Custom fields are designed to have a gap between the enumerated values. You can add new values in those gaps as long as you use odd number values. This will ensure that you have no conflicts with values added by BMC. For inline enumerated fields, you will want to add new values only to the end of the list because of the impact that these changes have on existing workflow and data if you make changes to the middle of the list. When making field changes, know how the fields will be used by existing workflow and integrations. To ensure that existing functionality will continue to work, understand the interface forms and application interactions. If one of these interactions expects that a field is not available or is not required, your design must determine how to handle these issues.
Best practices for customizing fields in both BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
Regarding field changes, BMC recommends: Do not change data types for existing fields. If you need a field to hold a different data type, add it as a new field, and hide the existing field. If you make an existing field required, add a default value. You can either change the properties of the field itself or set the default by workflow. This will ensure that existing integrations to the form will continue to work. If a field must be accessible to other systems, ensure the field is added to the interface forms for that application. Each application will have defined interfaces for creating, querying, and updating data. These are documented in the BMC Remedy Action Request System Integration Guide. In general, the naming convention for these forms is to add _Interface and _Interface_ as suffixes to the form name Create. Follow the field ID standards for BMC Remedy ITSM applications to ensure that a field does not conflict with another field added by BMC in future releases. (This requirement will not exist in the future because the BMC Remedy Action Request System server will eventually provide the required functionality.) The following field ID ranges are reserved by BMC and should not be used by you: BMC Remedy AR System Reserved Ranges: 1 536,870,911 1,000,000,000 2,000,000,000 The following custom ranges are not used by BMC, so you can use them: 536,870,912 999,999,999 2,000,000,001 2,147,483,647 Note When creating fields for BMC Remedy ITSM, explicitly ensure that the field IDs are not created within the reserved ranges. Do not change the database name for an existing field. Reports in the system typically make use of the database field name when querying the database. You can change the display label of a field, but the database name should remain consistent. You can add new values to custom enumerated fields, but add only odd number values to prevent any future
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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 conflicts with application upgrades. Enumeration values are incremented with room to allow for values to be inserted between them (1000, 2000, 3000 and so on). You can add values anywhere in the list. Use odd numbers because even enumeration values are reserved for BMC. Following is an example of inserting a value into a custom enumeration field:
For linear enumerated fields, you can add new values only to the end of the list. Otherwise, any value that follows a new value added in the middle now has a new value, which impacts existing workflow. This workflow would need to be updated. Also, any existing data in the system would need to be transformed to handle the new value. Finally, any integrations that use this field would need to be updated. An example of a linear enumerated field: Enumeration values are 1, 2,3,4,5, and so on.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views

One of the benefits of the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System platform is that you are able to customize the layout of your forms. BMC provides a set of Best Practice views that are based on best practice workflows for each BMC Remedy ITSM application. Tip A Best Practice view is an improved version of the related form. In this view, the fields most commonly used are immediately visible. You can access less frequently used functionality from the tabbed sections of the form or from the links in the navigation pane. For example, on the Incident request form, the Templates field is included in the Best Practice view to encourage the use of templates. You might want to update views to: Place a new field appropriately in the user interface so that it can be accessed by an end user. Adjust the layout of a view to make the flow more appropriate for the needs of a company (you might want to hide unused fields, for example) Change the color scheme of a form to make it fit in with your corporate "look and feel." Note Use overlays to make changes to views. The underlying view provided with an application may change from version to version and some work will be required to merge your customizations with changes that might occur for future versions of the application. Ensure that user interface changes you make are limited. As much as possible, use the out-of-the-box forms layout. When making changes to the views, ensure that you leverage the user interface to support the appropriate user flows. Evaluate the views in the context of how an end user will use them, and then you can determine where to place each new data field. The current Best Practice views assume that the user will start entering data in the fields from top to bottom in the left column and then move to the right column to enter any other data that needs to be captured. The BMC Remedy ITSM applications display only data that is required most of the time in the main views. If data is required only for some specific supporting actions, that data is moved to a separate dialog and is accessed via the navigation bar on the left side of the form.
Best practices for customizing forms in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
Use the following best practice approach to making customizations to forms: 1. Instead of changing colors, backgrounds, and images directly in the view, leverage the BMC Remedy AR System Skins feature. With the Skins feature, you use the Skins form to add data to reference the views where you want to change the color or images or add a new color or image. These changes do not affect the form definition itself, so all of these changes are backward compatible. 2. Always make changes using an overlay of the form and view. 3. Use the overlaid view in your workflow. Because the BMC Remedy AR System server uses the view name as a unique identifier, the original view name must be used to ensure that workflow is not broken. You can always go back to the original view provided with the application by disabling or deleting your overlay. When updating views, ensure that you display only the required fields on a view. BMC Remedy AR System does not require that a field be displayed on a view for it to be accessible via workflow. If you have a field that is there only to support referencing other data, you do not have to display the field in any views. In the BMC Remedy AR System view structure, each language has its own separate view on a form. If the change
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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01 that you make must be displayed in multiple languages, you must make the same change for each of the views that represent each individual language, using the steps already given.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons

A button is a type of field that you can add to a form. The same issues concerning field IDs and views also apply to buttons. The main reason to add a button is for workflow navigation to other forms or to enable the form to pull data into it through the use of the new button. When adding a new button, evaluate the functionality provided by the button and determine the most appropriate place to put the button on an existing view. If the functionality will be used infrequently, you can add a link in the left navigation bar instead of adding a button. The navigation bar enables you to add the functionality without cluttering the view itself.
Best practices for customizing buttons in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
For adding buttons, use the same field ID structure that is recommended for fields. Also, if you have the same functionality on many forms, ensure that you leverage the same field ID for all the buttons across all of the forms so that they can share the workflow.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips

Tooltips display information when a user hovers over a field or row in a table. For example, tooltips in the BMC Remedy ITSM applications can include information about the people related to the form, such as the requester, customer, or assignee. They can also display data when the user hovers over a row in a table; for example, the relationships table in BMC Remedy ITSM provides record details when you hover over the rows.
Best practices for customizing tooltips in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
You can change the information in a tooltip; however, the data that you add to a tooltip must exist on the current form. The reason is that pulling data each time you display a tooltip results in performance issues from calls to the database, which should be avoided. Instead, provide the data as a hidden column in a table field and display the data from the table only when required. If the data is about a user, when you retrieve the initial user information also retrieve all the other required information and store it in hidden fields.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow

You can change the existing workflows or add new workflows and still ensure that the new or modified workflows will work successfully with the applications.
Adding a new workflow

You can add a new workflow to extend the functionality of an application. However, that workflow needs to be built so that it does not affect the primary flow of the application. Examples of workflows that you can add that would not affect the processing of an application include: Client-side workflow (active links) that provides for navigation to other forms or displays lookups to select data that is pulled into the existing form Server-side business logic (filters) that perform the following operations: Validation of data in new fields that have been added Additional notifications (either as integration points to the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine or as separate BMC Remedy Action Request System notifications) Pushing data into other forms that have been added Tip The Notification Engine provides a back-end workflow model for defining which notifications should be sent, based on events in the application. For further information about the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine, see the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine Guide. Setting data from newly added forms into fields that have been added Server-side Escalation Logic, which enables data to be polled periodically and permits actions to be performed on this data. You can add this functionality to new forms, but use caution when you are adding it to existing forms because it might impact system performance. Menu Objects, which you can add to fields to enable the lookup of data to populate fields. If you define a menu as a type-ahead menu, it will show values based on the data being entered in the field. However, use this option sparingly to avoid performance impacts on the form.
Best practices for customizing workflow in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
Ensure that existing optional processes are not changed to required processes, because this will affect existing integrations that do not expect required functionality. To ensure that you are not affecting other workflows, BMC Software recommends that you leverage the BMC Remedy AR System functionality that shows the workflow that is associated with a field. This will enable you to see which functions are affected by populating a specific field with data. After you have ensured that your new workflow will not affect existing functionality, build and test your new workflow. Provide a name for your workflow that identifies it as your new workflow. The best approach is to add a new or modified identifier to the name of your object as either a prefix or suffix. This will ensure that the workflow is not overwritten during an upgrade. Also, it will enable you to see which workflow is added or modified. Adding comments to the change history tab for the workflow object will also track changes made to the workflow. Following is an example of how to document workflow changes. Sample customer document
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If changes are required to out-of-the-box workflow to support your customizations, use overlays to make changes to the BMC Remedy AR System workflow objects. This will ensure that these changes are preserved after an upgrade. If you want to revert back to the original functionality of the application, you will disable or remove the overlay for these objects.
Updating existing processes

This information discusses how to update existing application processes.
Status
The status workflow provides functionality that is critical to the running of the applications. Status drives the process flows for the applications. The applications have a specific field that drives status flows (for example, see the Status field in the Incident Request window for BMC Remedy Incident Management that follows). Typically, this is Field ID 7, except for BMC Remedy Change Management, which has a different field ID so it can have more controllable status transitions. The following information describes: The status components that cannot be changed due to their involvement in processing applications The functionality that you can change and how you can implement these changes
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Because status values and basic flows are integral to the processing of applications, you cannot change the workflow that controls these areas. However, you can customize other areas to extend the functionality of applications, and in the case of BMC Remedy Change Management, you can control the process flow via data.
Updating change status transitions

You can access the data-driven model for status transitions for BMC Remedy Change Management and Release Management via the Process Flow Configuration window. This window enables you to change how a change record moves between the existing status values. It also controls the status values that appear in the Status menu so that just the values for appropriate transitions apply for the current state. Transitions are managed via data, so no changes to code are required to manage status flow changes. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Change Management User Guide. Process Flow Configuration window
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Updating status reason

The status reason is a value that is contextual to the current status. You can extend this field is to provide some additional information for the current status or provide a way to trigger workflows from a function that occurs during the specific status. Components on the back-end include base workflow functionality, data, and an enumerated field that drives the status reason. You can add values for additional status reasons, but BMC does not recommend it because you would need to make additional changes to the selection fields. If you make changes, you must perform the following actions: 1. Update the data in the SYS:Status Reason Menu Items form (shown in the following window) to add the additional values for the menu. These items will be based on the value of the current status.
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2. Update the enumerated field Status_Reason (Field ID 1000000150) to add the new value. Use the same enumeration as you did when you created the data record. Add a value that is an odd number so that it is not impacted by future upgrades. 3. Ensure that the changes to this field are done on the HPD:IncidentInterface_Create form and the appropriate forms for data loads for each application that you are changing.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns

You can add data from a form that is referenced from a table field. You might want to do this to enable the data to be seen in the table, or you might want to use the data in your workflow. In order to customize a table's columns, you must create overlays of the BMC Remedy AR System form and view that the table's fields reside on. When adding columns, remember that these columns have field IDs and must be added using the field ID recommendations. Also, follow the naming conventions discussed in the BMC Remedy On Demand Customization Designs document to avoid conflicts with column names added by BMC. There are various reasons for adding table columns. If you want to make the data visible to the end user, make sure that the table column is visible and in a position that makes sense for a end user to see. If you are leveraging this data for workflow, make sure that the table columns are hidden.
Best practices for customizing table columns in BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM
The most efficient way to get data from a table is to include it in the table field and not build additional workflow to get the field. This will make the workflow much more efficient. This is important in tooltips. Use hidden table columns to show data in a tooltip because it reduces the calls back to the system to retrieve record data that you are already displaying.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation

The BMC Remedy ITSM foundation contains all of the common data structures that are used across the BMC Remedy ITSM applications. These include: Operational categorization Product categorization Company information People information Assignment rules Approval rules
Operational categorization and product categorization

Operational categorization is a structure that is leveraged by the BMC Remedy ITSM applications to define what happens in a record. Product categorization is a structure that is leveraged by BMC Remedy ITSM and BMC Atrium CMDB to categorize the configuration items (CIs). Both of these structures are used extensively within BMC Remedy ITSM to perform a number of functions such as: Assignment routing Approval routing Incident matching lookups Reports and queries Software license management Change process management Relationship lookups Any changes that are made to these structures have a ripple effect across all BMC Remedy ITSM applications and BMC Atrium CMDB, so BMC does not recommend changing these structures. These structures can work with each other to help drive the processes listed, so often you will find that designing both operational and product categorizations appropriately provides the required functionality. Examples of how to define effective categorizations are provided out-of-the-box.
Company Information
The company structure determines how multi-tenancy is used within the applications. Do not change the workflow around how multi-tenancy is implemented in the applications, because it would have a ripple effect across all applications.
People information
The People Information form is a key structure for providing information about other structures within the application. The following functions are driven by the People Information form: Application permissions Authentication Notification subscriptions Support group relationships You can can add new fields and buttons to this form, but be aware that the people form also has a built-in model for adding additional variables data. This functionality lets you add name or value part data sets, which will be related to the people record. If all you require is information to be visible on the record, this might be the easiest way. Reporting this information is not easy so the decision to add new fields or to use this functionality should be based on whether you want to report on the data and whether you would want to pull this data into other forms. If you want to pull data into other forms, add the field directly to the form, because this will work better from a performance standpoint.
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Assignment routing
The assignment routing forms provide the following functions: Select a support group upon submitting a record Provide data to the BMC Remedy Assignment Engine that assigns an individual to the record that uses assignment rules This functionality is tightly integrated across BMC Remedy ITSM. The typical customization is to add a field to use the mappings for an application to pick a support group. To add this type of functionality, you must: 1. Add the appropriate data to your main form (for example, HPD:Help Desk). 2. Add the appropriate data to the Assignment Mapping form. 3. Extend the support group lookup workflow and menus to make use of this additional field in the qualifications.
Approval routing
The approval routing functionality is leveraged by BMC Service Request Management, BMC Remedy Change Management, and BMC Remedy Asset Management to assign the appropriate approvers to the record. The following components are leveraged by approvals: Approval process lookups Mappings for level or management of approval chains Tip An approval chain connects different kinds of approval processes together so that they occur in sequence. Approval rules in the BMC Remedy Approval Server In addition, BMC Service Request Management enables to you build custom approval chains. This functionality is data driven and enables you to take advantage of any fields on the form to link an approval process to a request. You can add a new fields to a mapping for selecting an approval process or add an additional field to look up individual approvers, but make these changes with care. To extend the process selection process in BMC Service Request Management, use the approval chain functionality, which is data driven and automatically generates the appropriate workflow to link the approval process based on the required data. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Service Request Management Administration Guide. For BMC Remedy Change Management and BMC Remedy Asset Management, you must make some changes to the workflow and forms. You must add your new fields to the Approval Process Form and then you will need to change the approval process workflow to look up the process based on that data. To add a new field for individual approvers lookup: 1. Add the field to the approval mapping form. 2. Pull the field into the appropriate join forms. 3. Update the appropriate approval rules in the BMC Remedy Approval Server.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships

One of the key structures used to link BMC Remedy ITSM applications is the application relationship model. You can use the relationship module to search for relationships and display the relationships in a table. From the table you can then perform actions on the data via Quick Actions forms. Adding new relationships requires you to make some changes to the data and certain selection fields to support the display of the new relationship type in different languages. Such changes are not recommended. You can easily change the Quick Actions section of a relationship, however, by adding some configuration data and workflow, which triggers the configuration data to perform an action on the selected item in the table. To make changes to the Quick Actions forms: 1. Extend the data in the SYS:Request Type Action Lookup form: a. Define the Association Type as ALL, which means that it appears for all associations. b. For the Request Type Action, enter the name of the action to appear in the menu. c. For the Associated On Form Name, enter the name of the form on which you are working. d. For the Request Type, enter the object to which you are linking.
2. Add the workflow in the Quick Actions execute field that will trigger based on the selected request type.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs

Work logs track the changes that have happened for a record. The work log is composed of text fields that hold the information, attachment fields to support attachments, and a type field that represents the type of captured information. Incident Work Info window
On the Work Info window, you can customize the Work Info Type field to add new values. New values that you add should be odd numbers so they do not conflict with future values that BMC might add. Do not remove an out-of-the-box Work Info Type values because their removal might cause upgrade problems.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar

The process flow bar is the area at the top of the main process screen that shows the overall process involved for a particular application. At each stage of the process, a number of available actions can occur for each process state. You can customize the process flow bar to extend the actions that can occur for any individual process state. You cannot customize the process flow stages. For example, if you wanted to add a new value to the Investigation and Diagnosis stage of an incident, you could add a new action to appear on the drop-down menu via configuration data in the system, and then add your own Active Link workflow that would be triggered based on the selected data.
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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications

Notifications in the BMC Remedy ITSM applications are managed by a dedicated subsystem that sends out notifications. This subsystem enables you to use configuration data to determine which notifications are sent out for a user. You can access this information through the user's people profile record. You can also use data to configure the text of the messages that are sent out. You can add new notifications by performing the following actions: Adding configuration data to define the notifications so that they are displayed in the notification registration interface Adding workflow that passes the notification information into the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine Note BMC does not recommend making changes to the out-of-the-box notification workflow because the changes might affect the processing of the applications. Instead, add new notifications that support your notification functionality changes, and unsubscribe users from the old notifications. This helps you to preserve notification functionality during an upgrade.
Email support
The BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine uses the BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System email engine as the mechanism to send out email notifications. The current integration does not support inbound email or outbound email templates. The system can be customized to provide support for inbound email, which is currently being handled via extensions created by BMC Professional Services. For more information about the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine, see the BMC Remedy ITSM Notification Engine Guide.
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BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines

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DRAFT

BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

BMC Remedy Customization Best Practice Guidelines

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customizing BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customizing BMC Remedy ITSM applications using overlays

Restrictions on using overlays

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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Branding the interface using Skins

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BMC Atrium CMDB class model changes

BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation rules changes

BMC Service Level Management

Software License Management

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BMC Remedy OnDemand and BMC Remedy ITSM customizations

Module and subsystem customizations

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM fields

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM form views

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM buttons

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM tooltips

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM workflow

Adding a new workflow

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Updating existing processes

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Updating change status transitions

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Updating status reason

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM table columns

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM foundation

Operational categorization and product categorization

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DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM relationships

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM work logs

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Customized BMC Remedy ITSM process flow bar

DRAFT BMC Remedy OnDemand 2011.01

Customized BMC Remedy ITSM notifications

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