There are new, exciting features coming out of the new ServiceNow IT Business Management (now called Strategic Portfolio Management) version release called Quebec. In general, the ITBM product has been generous in terms of new features being released with every new product version for a few years now.
The following article will point out the top three most exciting features, which will provide additional value to your business. It starts from the top of the organization, where business executives make strategic decisions about the direction of the company. Then, it goes through a tactical organizational layer, where program managers keep an eye on their program planning and execution to make sure that KPIs are met and risks are mitigated. Finally, it ends up on the operational layer, where project managers follow their activities in an organized manner. Let me take you through each of their improvements.
Scenario Planning
Scenario Planning was first introduced with the previous release version (Paris). The feature addresses the need of business executives to simulate multiple investment scenarios. As a business executive, you can now compare different scenarios by looking at cost, benefit, strategic alignment, and team capacity. Portfolio managers can prioritize their investments and monitor risks. Financial figures (Cost, Benefit, Budget vs. Target) are recalculated in real time based on selected investments. Once the decision is made, the demands, projects and resources are selected for execution. Planning and execution are not limited to a certain fiscal year but can span across multiple years (note: prior to using the module, you will need to decide if you will plan and execute within the fiscal year or define your own period).
Alignment planner workspace with roadmap planning
The alignment planner workspace provides an end-end integrated experience for the ITBM planning personnel to plan the organization roadmap and manage it. The tool allows program, project, or demand managers to build roadmaps on any waterfall or agile work items. It is easy to adjust the plan by dragging the roadmap items around to align them with the overall planning. You can now personalize the road by grouping items; hiding, or showing metrics and the roadmap item owner. The alignment planner workspace can be shared between multiple managers supporting real-time collaboration.
Project Portfolio Management collaboration sync with MS Teams and Slack
Although the previous ServiceNow version release, Paris, brought connectors (spokes) for Microsoft Azure DevOps and Jira, the new release is introducing spokes for Microsoft Team and Slack. It enables teams to align their work on business objectives through bi-directional synchronization between the ServiceNow platform and 3rd party solutions.
At this stage, it is also worth mentioning that the Project Workspace has matured over recent years. The Project Workspace enables project managers to define, plan, track, and monitor a project from a single location. They can also review the status, exceptions, and KPIs in the workspace to take further actions for the project.
Planning Console ~ Analyses provides an instant look at the project overview including its KPIs.
Planning Console ~ Planning is used during project planning and execution (eg. you can create multiple baselines and compare them).
Planning Console ~ Resources ~ is leveraged when looking for and allocating project resources (btw. you can plan resources based on: hours, FTEs and Person days).
Planning Console ~ Financials allows controlling project financials.
In addition to that, the Planning Console integrates Visual Task Boards (a Kanban type of tool), allowing it to drive various types of projects (Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid)
For Agile “gurus”, ServiceNow has introduced the “Scrum Programs” module, which offers scrum executives to drive agile projects with cross-team dependencies on a program (epic) level. A great enhancement of the tool!
Speaking of agile, ServiceNow also supports the Scale Agile Framework methodology that applies lean and agile principles to a large enterprise. With the Portfolio SAFe maturity level, you can align your organizational goals and strategies with your portfolios and apply lean and agile principles to seamlessly manage and deliver your portfolio work.
Conclusion
ServiceNow offers a mature IT Business Management vertical solution to cover entire enterprise processes on one side so that business leaders have instant visibility on how the predefined strategies and goals are met in terms of generated value. On the other hand, ServiceNow can help to resolve specific issues, eg. Dealing with business requests, Driving Agile Projects and so on, and grow into complex solutions covering end-to-end processes related to eg. Demand Management, Project Management, Capacity Planning, Portfolio and Program Management and other ITBM areas. If you would like to discuss the possibilities, feel free to contact me or my colleague Jiří Wotke
Do you have any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us!