Business Capability to Business Service relationship - which SN features actually use this?

Tom Sienkiewicz
Giga Sage

‎08-28-2025 02:49 AM

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been trying to find any actual dependency on the above relationship in ServiceNow and so far I'm failing to find any feature/workspace/etc that would actually require the above relationship to be maintained.

 

Of course I know the value from insight/reporting perspective, I'm just looking for any "hard-coded" dependencies on this relationship.

 

Perhaps someone can point me to any specific logic/functionality/dashboard where this is being used OOTB.

Many thanks!

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Mark Manders
Tera Patron

‎08-29-2025 12:02 AM

I think the relationship is only there to create insight/reporting. Business Capabilities are part of the Design & Planning domain, while the Business Service is part of the Service Consumption domain. The relationship between them is Provided by::Provides, so that's about it. I think IRM or DPM would be something that use this relationship. And I think it's an architectural thing to maintain/manage it (maybe through SPM).


Since the Business Capability is defined as 'a high-level capability that an organization requires to execute its business model or fulfill its mission', a change or incident related to a Business Service, can impact the the company's mission. 

 

I think it's more about if you maintain the business capabilities at all. If you do, you can tie them to the Business Services and Business applications.

Mathew Hillyard
Tera Sage

‎08-29-2025 01:05 AM - edited ‎08-29-2025 01:06 AM

Hi @Tom Sienkiewicz 

 

ServiceNow does not typically use System Properties to store CI Relationship Types, so a quick SNUtils search of the Sys ID for the Provided by::provides CI Rel Type yields quite a few results. Some of these results are relevant to the Business Service > Business Capability relationship but the below seem to relate to Business Capability > Business App:

  • Certification Audit "Business Applications related to multiple Business Capabilities in the same hierarchy" - to ensure the relationships have been established correctly
  • Certification Audit "Orphaned Business Capabilities" - to highlight where a capability is not being provided
  • Script Include "AddCapabilityUtils" - used by EA Workspace
  • Script Include "APMBusinessPlanner"
  • Script Include "APMConstants"
  • Script Include "APMEAWHealthUtils" - used by EA Workspace
  • Script Include "APMModellingCommonUtil" - used in Enterprise Modeling and Visualization
  • Script Include "AppRationalizationBubbleDataBroker" - used in the Bubble Chart in EA Workspace
  • Script Include "DPMConstants" - used by Digital Portfolio Management

 

In terms of visualization, the examples that comes to mind immediately are in EA Workspace:

  • Insights > Business Portfolio: Orphan Business Capabilities
  • Business Portfolio: Business Capabilities Hierarchy: You can drill down through the Capability hierarchy and view which Business Apps provide that Capability.

 

DPM Workspace will also show the relationship between a Business App and its Business Capabilities.

 

I hope this helps!

Mat