Tools for modelling - creating relations - graphical and intuitive tool missing

[erikbartholdy]

When doing the modelling in ServiceNow, creating the entities and relations, I miss a graphical and intuitive tool.   

Once you have created all the Entities, Business Application, Application Services, Business and Technical Services and their Offerings,  you the have to create all the relations. When doing this together with Customers, we are using Miro, since it is easy to build and show stuff in this graphical tool. But after doing that, oy have to do the whole thing again in ServiceNow.  

The tools for doing that is "all over the place" 

- The Application Service Wizard 

- The Service Builder

- Dependency view and Service Maps, which is replaced by the new Unified map - really looking nice, but only for showing the relations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhW1VUZLQcI  

Some partners have added thing like the  Ins-Pi FreeLucy https://www.servicenow.com/partners/partner-finder/ins-pi-gmbh.html 

Searching for new tools, I came across this Create services and configure relationships between them (servicenow.com)  In the Site Reliability Operation application. This actually looks really nice and promising, but does not seem to be a part of the Platform capabilities like Dependency View etc.  (Pictures in attachment)

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Site Reliability Operations > Site Reliability Ops Workspace.
2. In the Site Reliability Ops Workspace, use one of the following methods to create a service record:
   • On the Home page (), in the Services section, click Create New Service.
   • On the Services Overview page (), click Create New Service.
   The Service Dependencies page opens with a blank map canvas. Any service that you add to the Service Dependencies map can be either an existing service or a new service that you create on the page. For a new service, you will start with a parent service and then connect other services to the parent and to each other.

It is also kind of "CSDM-wrong", since Offerings are not part of this instruction. 

So, does anyone know anything about this? 

will this tool, or something like that, be available on platform level? 

@Mark Bodman  Sorry for tagging you Mark, but you might be the best person to ask? 

Br Erik 

[Mark Bodman · Accepted solution]

There are a few options that I’m aware of at this point, and one new option coming soon. 

1. Use the native integration with Lucid Chart. This is available with an Application Portfolio Management product, commonly used by application architects / anpplication owners. 

2.  Use FreeLucy from our partner ins-pi in our store. It is on platform an as the name implies, it’s free. 

3.  Use Designer from our partner ins-pi in our store. It’s a robust modeling tool that is on platform and supports many different modeling domain languages. 

4. Use Data Content Manager from a partner on our store. It has nice graphical data design quality and modeling capability.  

5. Our Unified Map will have a new editing capability in an upcoming release. This will likely be 1H of 2024.  It will require the CMDB workspace and will be focused specifically on managing relationships between existing CIs similar to what the existing relationship editor does on dependency views, only with a better user experience. 

[erikbartholdy]

I had an answer from my old buddie @Ted Norlander 

Hi Erik, I had a look at the sr-ops Workspace. Unfortunately it looks like this is a legacy workspace like Agent Workspace. My idea was that you could find the component used to build services and insert it into other workspaces...but this doesn't work since it is legacy. Continue to ping @Mark Bodman or try to get contact with someone from Site Reliability Operations Product team to see if they are developing a configurable workspace to do the same thing. If they develop a new component for service creation and relationships it will for sure be useable in any configurable workspace on the platform...hence you can use the same way-of-working anywhere you'd like...

BR Ted

[Mark Bodman · Accepted solution]

There are a few options that I’m aware of at this point, and one new option coming soon. 

1. Use the native integration with Lucid Chart. This is available with an Application Portfolio Management product, commonly used by application architects / anpplication owners. 

2.  Use FreeLucy from our partner ins-pi in our store. It is on platform an as the name implies, it’s free. 

3.  Use Designer from our partner ins-pi in our store. It’s a robust modeling tool that is on platform and supports many different modeling domain languages. 

4. Use Data Content Manager from a partner on our store. It has nice graphical data design quality and modeling capability.  

5. Our Unified Map will have a new editing capability in an upcoming release. This will likely be 1H of 2024.  It will require the CMDB workspace and will be focused specifically on managing relationships between existing CIs similar to what the existing relationship editor does on dependency views, only with a better user experience. 

[erikbartholdy · Accepted solution]

hi Mark, NOW it is there 

I just found this "Enterprise Modeling and Visualization in the EA Workspace" 

this is what we have been missing.

you should really promote this a lot 😎

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/xanadu-application-portfolio-management/page/product/application-... 

[TaylorJ78]

When trying to provide a unified view of what a Business App to its related App Services and all included Service/Service Offerings there is a gap in the tool relationship view functionality.  It is difficult to use the tool and provide a unified picture for customers to understand what and why all these connections are required.  Making drawings outside of the tool and having them become outdated as soon as I hit save isn't effective. If there is a tool in the future or a view that can compile these relationships that would be helpful, something like service mapping but for internal relationships in ServiceNow.  I should be able to input a Business App object and pull all relationships at least between cmdb_ci* and service_offering tables.  Eventually, it would be nice to pull the sys_groups/sys_user tables into the mix.  I understand that paid tools can provide this level, but some orgs do not want to continuously add tools to this platform that should have the capability natively, any help on this front would greatly assist with the maturity of CSDM as the framework evolves.