Question about ServiceNow as a Project Management tool.
Dave DavisSenior Project Manager| Cincinnati Children's HospitalSpringboro, Oh., United States
Does anybody have experience on using ServiceNow as the project management tool to support their PMO (or projects in general). I am in an IT group that is fairly strong on ITIL Processes and uses ServiceNow quite heavily, I also believe we should try and keep our data in one place and am exploring building our processes around the ServiceNow tool. I'm interested in lessons learned, pros or cons of the tool, how your group might use it, etc. Please respond to this post or email me: [email protected]. Saving Changes...
Lori ChalmersRetired| RetiredEssex Junction, Vt, United States
May 02, 2018 11:13 AM
Replying to Destiny Olivas
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Hi David - We are implementing the tool now, the target deployment date is July 2018.It looks great as far as a demand management and portfolio management tool but I am not fully confident about its ability to be an all inclusive project management tool especially if the intent is to solely use the tool. However, it appears the tool is very configurable and maybe we just haven't fully utilized the features.
The Pros: it is a very intuitive tool, it can support waterfall/Agile/Hybrid, there is a nice Kanban feature that allows project teams to report their own progress. The status reporting feature is great and I think Sr. Management will love the transparency the tool provides.
The Cons: I work in the government so we have a tendency to like documentation, I am not sure how electronic records will be received by our stakeholders (although you can attach electronic documents). You can't link Risks to Issues. There isn't a way to link stakeholder needs to requirements, and there is no Traceability Matrix.
Hi Destiny,
I'd be curious to hear if you have any lessons learned either about the PPM implementation process or how the ServiceNow tool is working for you now that you've been using it for a while. Saving Changes...
James ShieldsIS Director - Portfolio Solutions| City and County of San Francisco, SFPDSan Francisco, Ca, United States
Probably most useful for your needs on Demand Management. It is oriented towards Portfolio Management, so from that vantage point you might get some benefit.
But for managing individual projects, I would not recommend ServiceNow. Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
David, I was in an organization that tried to user ServiceNow. I can't recommend it, based on that experience. Be aware that this was a few years ago, and there may have been upgrades that have improved it since then.
What I found was that ServiceNow was simply too cumbersome. It seemed to me that the project management module was tacked on as an afterthought to help sell ServiceNow. Each item on the WBS had to be manually entered and calculated through a difficult series of screens. Once a project started, it would not accept changes. If a work item went beyond its expected end date, for example, we had to enter a new work item to account for that time. When we complained to ServiceNow about this, they told us this was as designed, because projects should not deviate from their schedule. This was the point when I gave up on ServiceNow, because it showed a complete lack of reality.
I will say that some of the reporting tools were nice once they were set up, and I can see how ServiceNow might make a good portfolio management tool if projects were recorded on a high level. But I was unimpressed with the capabilities it offered to manage individual projects. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
My experience is that we had it on the shortlist of a RfP about PMO Software and it did not win. We looked at 20+ packages (doing a RfI) and shortlisted Talaia, HP, ServiceNow, Planview and Jira. All of them have good features.
Regarding ServiceNow, the pros were integration with change management (many small projects come out of change requests), acceptance by IT infrastructure and application support teams. On the con-side the UI was not deemed sexy enough by the agile teams, the licencing cost in comparison high, the need and cost of adaptations too high and communication/collaboration capabilities were deemed midlevel.
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1 reply by Dave Davis
Jan 07, 2020 10:22 AM
Dave Davis
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Thanks for the feedback. I have reached the same conclusions. ServiceNow licensing cost is significant.
Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear David
Interesting your question
Thanks for sharing
Have you even tried ServiceNow as a Project Management tool?
Want to share with us the:
- Strong points
- Weaknesses
Lessons Learned Saving Changes...
Dave DavisSenior Project Manager| Cincinnati Children's HospitalSpringboro, Oh., United States
Jan 07, 2020 10:03 AM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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My experience is that we had it on the shortlist of a RfP about PMO Software and it did not win. We looked at 20+ packages (doing a RfI) and shortlisted Talaia, HP, ServiceNow, Planview and Jira. All of them have good features.
Regarding ServiceNow, the pros were integration with change management (many small projects come out of change requests), acceptance by IT infrastructure and application support teams. On the con-side the UI was not deemed sexy enough by the agile teams, the licencing cost in comparison high, the need and cost of adaptations too high and communication/collaboration capabilities were deemed midlevel.
Thanks for the feedback. I have reached the same conclusions. ServiceNow licensing cost is significant. Saving Changes...
ServiceNow is quite similar to other ITSM on the market that allows you to customize your workflow across multiple systems. Its cloud offering means that it can seamless integrate with you own IT systems. Deciding to go down a specific ITSM over another is based on the requirements, budget and skill level of an organization so knowing what solution suits your organization would entirely based on your own business model.
Daire Saving Changes...
Denathayalan RamasamyChief Technology Officer| Atal Incubation Centre -CIICChennai, Tamilnadu, India
Good lessons learning for me; i will try this tool in my organisation Saving Changes...
I would like to know more about using ServiceNow as PM tool. I'm in training in how to use it but mostly it is self training. Any Demos will be helpful. Saving Changes...
Latha Thamma reddiSr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC TechnologyMckinney, Tx, United States
