For some who just starts with ServiceNow but also for the more seasoned pro's I would like to share some aspects I normally consider when designing an integration.
Make sure you talk to the relevant stakeholders before your even start, each client is different, and clarify following aspects:
With ServiceNow, there are several primary design patterns to chose from, which can be seen on the next picture. Decide accordingly for your use case:
Last but not least, the technical requirements need to be clarified and documented (!):
Over the years and many clients and many projects, I made some learnings of course and would like to share here:
- For large data imports, ServiceNow should trigger the integration and pull the data (you will have it under control!)
- For large data imports, consider more frequent (daily, 4 times a day, …) and smaller delta loads and infrequent (weekly) full loads. The weekly full loads will be necessary in case there is an error in the delta or missing records from the source system for some reason, so that you keep the data properly in synch.
- Consider Integration Hub ETL over standard Transform Maps, especially when targeting more than one table for the imported data (performance!)
- Use appropriate technology architecture to exchange large data in real time (Stream Connect for Apache Kafka)
- Identify already existing integrations in ServiceNow and also integrations related to the external systems to be integrated and determine dependencies or potential impacts.
- Document the Integration Design, using following methods (recommendation):
- ServiceNow Integration Template (DOCX)
- PPT slide for high level architecture
- PPT slides to describe the use case including Security Aspects (process steps and data flow, protocols, authentication, encryption) in more detail
- XLSX file for field mapping and transformation logic
- For high complexity use cases additional documentation (description, process flows etc.) might be required
Hope this helps you to get started. Happy integrating!
