Once an internal team has convinced their management that a project is required, there’s some momentum building, so this is an opportunity to get started.But what should you get started on before your ServiceNow project is stood up?
If the project has anything to do with the Common Services Data Model (CSDM), then we recommend you start by performing your own review of your foundation data. The reason this is important is that the foundation data is used across the whole ServiceNow platform, and this data will be used in much of your tickets and reporting.
Sitting at the bottom of the CSDM v4.0 is the foundation data such as groups, users, locations and companies.
How to commence a review of foundation data?
So how would you start a review? Simply put, look at the data and see what’s missing, what’s duplicated and what doesn’t look right.
In one recent review, we found some inactive users with no end date, yet the majority of entries did have an end date. This could be due to some migration activity missing data, some manual entries being made when workflows should do that work, or something else.
Look for the gaps
Gaps are the easiest thing to spot. For instance, if you look at user records in a list view - can you see the departments and company fields being populated? If they are being populated, how is the data quality?
It’s worth grouping data (for instance, users by department) and then looking at the departments being used. You may notice issues with naming standards, or names that look too similar. Sometimes you can find duplicates this way as well.
When performing this type of analysis keep your searches to current data. So using the same example, filter your users so you only include the “active” ones. You don’t want to be seeing the organisational data from your past three restructures!
The data always tells a story!
Is source data of good quality?
Think about where your source data is coming from, and whether that is well structured. We have seen customers who have their procurement team provide the company data, however, a new company record is added per contract.
In this example, you could work with the procurement team to have contract details provided separately, or you could look to normalise the company data. Normalisation allows the original data to remain, while ServiceNow starts to use the normalised data (which are added fields). An example of normalisation might be company records named AC3 NZ, AC3 AU and AC3 are all normalised to AC3.
Data normalisation can help standardise key data
Some ServiceNow applications (such as Software Asset Management and ITOM Visibility) provide data normalisation, however, it is also available as a plugin, meaning it can be used elsewhere on other ServiceNow tables.
Upcoming changes to ServiceNow foundation data
ServiceNow is continuing to develop the Common Service Data Model, and one area receiving focus is foundation data, which is getting lifecycles added. Businesses do move locations, so being able to see the current lifecycle of a floor, desk or building is valuable for reporting, and to ensure current tickets only use current foundation data.
How to plan for your ServiceNow project
If you are not sure how to resolve the issues you observe, ensure you start a register of things you would like your ServiceNow project to address. You could also include what ”good” looks like, so you have some acceptance criteria for your project team to work to. If you have time, you could also build up a register of stories or changes you would like implemented.
Should you like our help, AC3 can perform a review of your foundation data for you.