Using the Agile Module

jamesmcwhinney
Giga Guru

‎11-21-2016 03:40 PM

Could anyone offer guidance on how to best use the Agile module (as is, OOTB) to track changes to ServiceNow?

Here is my understanding of   how to best use the module so far out of the box.

If anyone can offer any good procedural suggestions or good articles I would appreciate it.


Thanks!

Using the Agile Module

ServiceNow Incident Triage

  1. Create enhancement or defect record for the incident or requested item
    1. Specify the incident or requested item # at the beginning of the short description
    2. Set state to "Awaiting Approval"
  2. Update the incident or request to explain a defect or enhancement has been logged, and notify the end user that it is pending approval.   Provide a workaround if one exists.

Weekly ServiceNow Meetings

  1. Review each enhancement and defect
    1. Decide if business owner approval is needed before it can be considered approved
    2. Decide if a BA needs to be assigned for requirements gathering based on the perceived size/scope
    3. Set state to "In Progress" (to signify that it has been reviewed)
    4. Set the priority.
    5. Document the approval or rejection in the work notes.

Incident Closure & Story Creation (By developer or assigned BA)

  1. Review each defect and enhancement with status "In Progress"
    1. If approved, set status to "Scoping"
      1. Right click->Create Story
      2. Set "story points" based on how many development hours are expected to be required
      3. Set acceptance criteria
      4. Set Priority
      5. Set State to "Ready"
  2. If denied, set state to "Cancelled".
  3. Update the original incident or request with the outcome of the decision and close it out. (Ensure the end user is notified)

Monthly ServiceNow Sprint Meeting

  1. Create a new sprint record
  2. Decide on sprint timelines (Start and End)
  3. Open Stories
  4. Change view to "Product Backlog View"
  5. Filter on stories with no sprint
  6. Decide which stories should be addressed in the next sprint and associate them with the sprint record
    1. (Only add as many stories as can be completed within the sprint)

Development

  1. Set State to In Progress
  2. Open each story and perform development
  3. Set state to ready for testing

Testing

  1. Set State to Testing
  2. Open story, perform testing, attach test results file
  3. Set state to Complete
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Michael Fry1
Kilo Patron

‎11-22-2016 05:22 AM

We avoid the Incident -> Enhancement step as we allow our employees to request an enhancement from the catalog.


We do follow the out of box States for enhancement, seeking weekly Governance approval after Scoping and understanding successful criteria.


We release enhancements Friday - Sunday (some weeks nothing is ready) with a Change control submitted and approved.



Here is a blog that talks about Agile: Zero to Sixty: Using Agile Development to Accelerate ITSM


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anthonybrown
Tera Contributor

‎02-14-2017 10:19 AM

We aren't using the defect records at the moment.   We are just working those through the incident management module that ties SLA's to them.   We are following a very similar process.   We have modified our Story records so you can right-click create Change since the non-Agile teams in our department use the Change Management module and they need our changes to go through the CI approval/CAB process.   So we end up working both a Change record and the Story which is a little clunky.   I am hoping we can somehow use
Tasks nested in Stories to manage changes in the future somehow, but we aren't there yet.


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