ServiceNow PM Deep Dive - 05-08-2015

Attending: Kian, Marina, Cheryl, Eric P, Ying, Paul, Briandy, Diane, Brian, Eric T, Carman Cedola (carman.cedola@servicenow.com), Jon Crane (jon.crane@servicenow.com)

Notes:

Discussion re: role/ACL based partitioning of UCI's SN instance for pseudo-multi-tenancy
- Select UCI business/academic units and groups handling sensitive/restricted data (incidents, projects, etc)
SN Project/Portfolio Management
- Jon also referenced Demand Management (project demand pipeline) also "Ideation" for collecting/managing ideas
- Idea => Demand => Project
Portfolios, Portfolio Projects and Projects
- A single Project can be related to a single Portfolio Project which can be related to multiple Portfolios
  - That let's one project and it's health indicators show in multiple portfolios with only having to maintain the health indicators in one place
  - Not sure whether this relationship is only in Juno or wether it's also in Eureka
  - We should follow-up with John on that
- We can associate a Project with a single Configuration item, but any way to have more complex relationships across SN applications
  - sys_m2m_list can be used to establish a new relationship betwteen two tables
    - That will then show a Relationship with the related objects
  - Can also create list fields and add them to an object - and they'll show in the UI
    - Like adding a list of team members
    - Could also be a way to associate a project with multiple business services
- Add custom new project KPIs to Portfolio Projects
  - Add the new KPI data element to each
  - Augment the Business Rule that updates Portfolio Projects when Projects are edited to also update the new data KPI element
- Business Service Maps in Fuji have been improved and the user can save a view as an image
  - GANTT charts cannot yet be presented easily for printer/image
    - Jon will ask their project team whether it's being worked ok
- Organizing tasks/subtasks/phases
  - Jon showed adding/arranging tasks via the GANTT chart
    - The graphical bar item you drag/drop onto another defines which is the precedent
    - The task you drag/drop onto another defines which will be the child task
    - This is an area where we could use more training
  - Fuji Project WorkBench
    - The Workbench concept applies to all SN applications
- Any ideas for representing the OIT IT Roadmaps?
  - Nothing clear yet
  - Maybe the SN Resource application will be a better area to try organizing the information
    - Would probably require requesting Resource Plans
- Initiating Project requests
  - Currently can use Record Producers
  - Fuji: Idea -> Demand -> Project
- Projects vs SubProjects and Tasks vs SubTasks
  - Tasks/SubTasks are more easily managed via GANTT chart
  - Projects vs SubProjects decide based on scope and level of details desired
- Any way to differentiate assignments/personal tasks vs Project Tasks?
  - Can use the My Task Boards
  - Can create Team Task Boards - with multiple people added to the board
  - Would like a place to see all incidents, project tasks and personal tasks assigned to an individual
  - Can create task (parent) and then create subtasks under it
- Any way to suspend a project and then reactivate without resetting all the task-level information
  - Business rules were firing when Start Project was selected (or when the state changed)
    - Setting the status to Open appears to reset various task attributes (like percent complete)
  - Would have to find a way to change the state to those business rules don't fire
  - Seems we need to be very careful about when we do what
  - Consider adding controls around items like Status (turn it into a button with confirmation, etc) so changing Status that will have big impact can be known before doing it
- Task Duration changes seem to fire business rules that trigger other changes
  - Task Duration calculations factor in the project schedule and they only filter-in the lowest level tasks
    - User can't set Parent task durations since they're derived from lowest level child tasks
  - Changing task start dates from ASAP to specific dates recalculates subtasks
  - What's the best way to learn Project/Tasks
    - Use Knowledge Labs and the SN WIki
    - SN also offers BPM training
- Can tasks be pegged to a completion date where child/precedent tasks get backward adjusted (finish to start)?
  - User builds task hierarchy wit
  - h durations, then set a master completion date and have it backward schedule the project
  - Currently SN is anchored to the start
  - Jon/Carman will go back and ask if there's anything possible
  - Finish to Finish?
    - Not yet supported the way we were discussing
- Any MS Exchange Calendar integrations?
  - Some partners have done things, SN may build something into the product but no defined timeline
  - Carman will check on the status
  - Any way for Incidents/Tasks to know when someone's unavailable (vacation, sick, planned time out of office, etc.)
- Is there a JIRA API
  - There is a web service API
  - Many things are possible, not sure what JIRA integrations are currently being used
  - One of our use cases may be to update an SN Project item when a JIRA Project Information issue is created
    - We'd likely need to build that integration
  - SN does have some deliverable items eg SCCM, etc
Performance Analytics
- Can take daily snapshots
- Jon showed various analytic reports
Orchestration
- Onboarding new staff
  - Could create a Service Catalog item that prompts for various attributes (need AD account, Exchange mailbox, PC, permissions to network folders, etc.)
    - Orchestration can handle some automated tasks (like mailbox creation) as well as manual tasks
      - Exchange can be on-prem or O365 - create, deactivate, etc.
- Server request/creation
  - Can create VMWare machines and AWS machines
- Service restarts
  - WHen an error condition rises, can auto-restart a server, ship the related log back, etc.
Service Watch
- Autodiscover of business services
- Agentless but requires TCPIP collectors behind our firewalls that examine network traffic and report back to single instance
- Licensing based on number of servers (physical and virtual)
Licensing
- Do Web Service API authentication accounts use/require a license?
  - Carman will look into that