The Myth of a “Clean” ServiceNow Instance

[Abhijeet Upadh2]

Every organisation wants a clean ServiceNow instance. In practice, no mature platform ever truly is—and that’s not a failure. It’s a by-product of real use.

The idea of a permanently “clean” instance often comes from early-stage implementations or greenfield demos. Once a platform has supported multiple programs, releases, vendors, and operating models, artefacts inevitably accumulate: unused fields, retired workflows, half-implemented features, proof-of-concept remnants, and configuration patterns that made sense at the time but no longer do.

Problems arise when organisations treat this reality as something to be hidden or ignored. I’ve seen “cleanup initiatives” launched without a shared definition of success. Teams argue endlessly about what should be removed, what might still be needed, and who has the authority to decide. As a result, nothing meaningful changes.

The healthiest platforms I’ve worked with didn’t chase cleanliness. They focused on clarity and intentionality. They documented what was active, what was legacy, and what was deliberately left untouched due to risk or cost. They accepted that some mess is structural, not accidental.

A clean instance is not one with zero legacy—it’s one where legacy is understood, bounded, and governed. Architects should stop promising cleanliness and start designing transparency. The platform doesn’t need to be pristine; it needs to be predictable.