LifeCycle stage vs Status

[Dan Aragon]

There are a lot of different status fields and lifecycle fields. Per the documentation "The life cycle state is a combination of an asset or CI's stage and status in the entire life cycle." I'm trying to understand the use case for using Lifecycle stage and stage status, versus just using status, operational status. It just seems like a lot of duplication. Is one being eventually deprecated? Or is there a usefulness to track all these different status types? Not getting it.

[Maik Skoddow · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dan Aragon 

You are right: for historical reasons, different concepts have emerged for managing any kind of status and now ServiceNow wants to simplify and summarize that with a new concept.

I recommend watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfRv1VTRsgM and reading https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/product/csdm-implementation/concept...

Kind regards
Maik

[Dan Aragon]

This is very helpful, thank you. I have been reading the documentation, but didn't understand the story behind it and where they are taking this. Any idea where this mapping spreadsheet is located, that is shown in the final minute of the video?

[stsuboi]

It appear this mapping is captured in the Life Cycle Mapping, which can be accessed via the navigation pane under CSDM. It’s in table form not as a spreadsheet.

[Joshua Prakash]

The Life Cycle Stage represents the stage or phase of an overall life cycle process. A Life Cycle Stage
Status represents the status or step within a Life Cycle Stage. Together, these data elements provide an
overall place within a life cycle process.

• A life cycle stage is one of the broad phases that an object moves through, from inception or
procurement to operation and then to end of life.
• life cycle stage status is the particular status of an object within its current life cycle stage.

For example, a hardware CI in the Operational stage might change stage status over time from In Use to
In Maintenance to End of Support. A different hardware CI might go from In Use to End of Support
without ever having been in In Maintenance status.
NOTE: Life Cycle Stages and Stage Statuses are not editable. They are provided by ServiceNow in a
manner that allows for data integrity, accountability, and consistency across the different entities.

This chart illustrates how the CSDM domains use of life cycle stage status values.

Life Cycle Stage is the big bucket that tells you where in the life journey the CI/asset is.

Life Cycle Status is the specific step that tells you exactly what’s happening right now.

Life Cycle Stage                                                                     Life Cycle Status

Represents the high-level phase of an entity's journey (e.g., in a product, it could be "Planning," "Operational," or "End of Life").	Represents the specific state within a particular Life Cycle Stage (e.g., "In Development," "In Use," or "Undergoing Maintenance" could be statuses within the "Operational" stage).
The stages are typically progressive and an entity moves through them sequentially. For example, a product moves from "Design" to "Production" to "Obsolete."	The status can be more fluid and may change back and forth within a single stage. For instance, an operational asset could move from "In Use" to "Under Maintenance" and back to "In Use."
It provides a broad understanding of where an item or service is in its overall life span.	It provides a granular, detailed view of the current condition or activity of the item within its stage.
Defines the "what" and "where" in the journey.	Defines the "how" and "when" within the current stage.