Who is more powerful ServiceNow Administrator or ServiceNow Developer

[neehas710]

Who is more powerful: a ServiceNow Administrator or a ServiceNow Developer? What is the role of an Administrator and what are their responsibilities? What is the role of a Developer and what are their responsibilities?

[YaswanthKurre]

Hi @neehas710 ,

In the world of ServiceNow, both Administrators and Developers play crucial roles, but their responsibilities and influence differ. Let’s break it down:

ServiceNow Administrator

Role:

A ServiceNow Administrator is primarily responsible for the day-to-day operation, configuration, and maintenance of the ServiceNow platform. They ensure the platform runs smoothly and meets the needs of the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

• User and Group Management: Creating and managing users, roles, and access controls.
• Configuration: Setting up forms, fields, tables, and workflows using built-in tools.
• System Maintenance: Managing updates, patches, and performance tuning.
• Incident and Request Management: Ensuring ITSM processes like incident, problem, and change management are configured and functioning.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Creating dashboards, reports, and performance analytics.
• Security: Managing ACLs (Access Control Lists) and ensuring data security.
• Support: Troubleshooting issues and supporting end users (Incidents, tasks..)

ServiceNow Developer

Role:

A ServiceNow Developer focuses on customizing and extending the platform using code. They build new applications, automate processes, and integrate ServiceNow with other systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Scripting: Writing server-side (e.g., Business Rules, Script Includes) and client-side (e.g., Client Scripts, UI Policies) scripts.
• Custom Applications: Designing and developing custom applications and modules.
• Integration: Creating and managing integrations with external systems using REST, SOAP, etc.
• Advanced Workflows: Building complex workflows and flow designer automations.
• UI Customization: Customizing the user interface with Service Portal, UI Pages, and Widgets.
• Performance Optimization: Writing efficient code and optimizing queries.

In many organizations, Developers have deep technical power to customize and extend the platform, but Administrators are essential for governance, stability, and user experience.

If this answer helps mark this as helpful/correct.

Thanks,

Yaswanth.

[Uncle Rob]

To be super honest with you, its a lot more of a grey area than most people admit.
EVERY ServiceNow admin is a developer to some degree.
EVERY ServiceNow developer is an admin to some degree.

The labor pool tends to divide along "how much code based development do you do on the platform".
But nobody's got a firm line on that.

POWER is definitely the wrong measure:  
A better measure is what are the expectations of both.

[YaswanthKurre]

@Uncle Rob ,

Yeah, I totally agree — this is something people don’t talk about enough.

If we collate what people actually do day to day, we’ll see that most of us are doing a mix of both. It’s more about the balance of tasks than strict job titles.

[neehas]

@YaswanthKurre Thank you