Measure your Application Inventory with the Indicator and Scoring Framework

[mcastoe]

If you want to improve something, you likely need to measure it first.  When it comes to management, disposition and rationalization of a Business Application inventory, the Indicator and Scoring framework is a powerful and flexible tool.   

On June 18, 2024, we have presented a workshop on this topic.  Please see the link below to watch the recording.

Measure your Application Inventory with the Indicator and Scoring Framework 

Indicators and scoring has been part of APM for years now and has grown and evolved with the product and concepts like CSDM.   Here, we seek to help you configure and get best value from the framework to help govern your Application AND Capability inventory.

These are configurable business metrics that provide a key basis for evaluating both Applications and Capabilities.  Indicators provide a normalized score for whatever condition they are evaluating. 

There are five types of indicators:

• Assessments – indicator that uses a score derived from a configurable Assessment/Survey.  Assessments are configurable in content, target user and evaluation.
• Query Condition – a query condition indicator is a configurable query against tables or other data sources such as performance analytics with ability to define differing
• Custom Script – utilize a custom script to generate an indicator score
• PA Analytics – Utilize Performance Analytics to gather historic data such as incidents, problems change to derive an indicator score.
• Indicators – calculated sum or average of a set of child indicators

There are now (as of Washington release) 14 out of the box indicators in the Washington DC release (see details below). 

The chart below also show 7 older cost related indicators that used the ServiceNow IT Financial Modeling engine.  That functionality is no longer available but we include these for completeness with legacy usage. However, as of Washington release, we have a new Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) indicator.

The system also provides a mechanism, Scoring Profiles, for Business Applications and Capabilities to provide a single score value derived from the weighted individual indicator values.  

Out of the box Indicators

The following table details the out of the box Business Application indicators in Tokyo and above. 

Indicator name	Type	Source	How is it calculated?	Description
Customer satisfaction (CSAT)	Assessments	Assessment Metric Type: Customer Satisfaction Assessment Metric Category: CSAT		Template NPS
Technical risk	Assessments	Assessment Metric Type: Technical Risk Assessment Metric Category: Performance		Technical risk captured through survey for the fiscal period.
Business value	Assessments	Assessment Metric Type: Business Value Assessment Metric Category: Business Value		Business Value captured through survey for the fiscal period.
Functional fit	Assessments	Assessment Metric Type: Functional Fit Assessment Metric Category: Functional Fit		Functional Fit captured through survey for the fiscal period.
Usage	Query Condition	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Active User Count field	Number of user sessions and users for the application for a given fiscal period.
Number of Incidents via Service	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new incidents Source = Business Application via Service	Utilizes the Impacted Business Applications related list on Incident	Indicator that gets the count of all incidents associated to the business application tied to the scoring profile of which the indicator is part.
Number of Changes via Service	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new changes Source = Business Application via Service	Utilizes the Impacted Business Applications related list on Change	Indicator that gets the count of all changes associated to the business application tied to the scoring profile of which the indicator is part.
Number of Problems via Service	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new problems Source = Business Application via Service	Utilizes Business application reference on Problem	Indicator that gets the count of all Problems associated to the business application tied to the scoring profile of which the indicator is part.
Application Operational Metrics	Indicators	Sum of Incidents via Service Problems via Service Changes via Service	Sum of operational values  with a registration date (change_request.opened_at) on collection date	Number of incident, problem, and changes opened over the period. Daily and historic data collection.
Total change hours	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Summed duration of closed changes Source = Changes.Closed (Change_Request table) Fields: Opened, Closed State = Closed, Business Application = any of the APM Business Applications, Closed today	Script: Change.CloseTime.Hours. All Change Requests closed today considered	Summed duration of closed changes for an application for the given fiscal period. Time taken to close the changes in hours. Daily and historical data collection.
Portfolio TCO	Custom Script	Total Cost of Ownership [sn_apm_tco]	Sums the costs within the specified fiscal period across various cost types	Sum of costs per application.  the costs are provided by externa; source such as Proven Optics, Nicus, Apptio or other financial modeling systems including simple Excel import.
Technology Lifecycle Risk	Custom Script	Based on Business Application risk as evaluated in the TPM Technology Risk table [sn_apm_tpm_technology_risk]	Risk due to out of date or soon to be out of date technology in TPM are rolled up to the Business Applications	Normalized score of the Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) risk evaluation.
Application's Incident Count*	Custom Script	incident	Data will be available in the incident table only after the business application is associated to the incident.  Not often used since Business Application is not OOB exposed.	Indicator that gets the count of all incidents associated to the business application tied to the scoring profile of which the indicator is part.
Application's Instance – Incident Count*	Custom Script	incident	Gets incident count attached to all Application Instances, which are mapped to a business application and rolls it up to application.	Indicator that gets the count of all incidents associated with application instances. The application instances, in turn, are associated to a business application tied to a scoring profile of which the indicator is a part. The incident count is calculated first at the application instance or application service level, and then it is rolled up to the business application level.

* these Indicators are no longer best practice.  They allow for only one  Business Application and require some form of mechanism such as a business rule to set the Business Application on incident.   They shoudl be disabled and removed from an scoring profile unless it is explicietly part of your process and you have made appropriate considerations in the Incident process.

Retired/Deprecated Indicators

These indicators rely upon an older and less mature data model where Business Application has to be directly specified on the Incident/Problem/Change.   CSDM and latest maturity woudl advise use of Impacted Service/Business Application lists.

Indicator name	Type	Source	How is it calculated?	Description
Number of incidents*	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new incidents Source = Incidents.New (Incident table)	Number of incidents opened today	Number of new incidents. Daily and historic data collection
Number of changes*	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new changes Source = Changes.New (change_request table)	Number of changes with a registration date (change_request.opened_at) on collection date	Number of changes opened today. Daily and historic data collection
Number of problems*	Performance Analytics	Mapped to Performance Analytics > Indicators > Automated Indicators > Number of new problems Source = Problems.New (Problem table)	Problems created today	Number of problems opened today. Daily and historic data collection

Cloud Readiness Indicators (from the Store download)

The APM product team provides a ServiceNow Store plugin designed to aid in analysis of Cloud Readiness.  This plugin adds a few new attributes and the following indicators.

Indicator name	Type	Source	How is it calculated?	Description
Strategic Importance	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Emergency tier (emergency_tier) field of the business application record.	Evaluates the emergency tier of the business application.
Data Classification	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Data classification (data_classification) field of the business application record.	Evaluates data classification of the business application.
Cloud Version Available	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Cloud version available (cloud_version_available) field of the business application record.	Evaluates if there is an available version of this application that fits cloud deployment.
Core Architecture	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Core architecture (core_architecture) field of the business application record.	Evaluates if this business application is part of the core architecture.
Business Criticality	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Business criticality (business_criticality) field of the business application record.	Evaluates the business criticality of the business application.
Regulatory Implications	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Regulatory implications (regulatory_implications) field of the business application record.	Evaluates the regulatory implications of the business application.
Business Impact	Indicators	Not applicable	Calculated from the sum of the following indicators: Core architecture (core_architecture) Strategic importance (emergency_tier) Business criticality (business_criticality)	Evaluates the business impact score for the business application, based on other indicators.
Cloud Readiness	Indicators	Not applicable	Calculated from the sum of the following indicators: Data classification (data_classification) Cloud version available (cloud_version_available) Complexity of integration (integration_complexity) Regulatory implications (regulatory_implications)	Evaluates the cloud readiness score for the business application based on other indicators.
Complexity of Integration	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the Integration complexity (integration_complexity) field of the business application record.	Evaluates the complexity of integration to the business application.
User Base	Custom Script	APM product. cmdb_ci_business_app table	Calculated from the User base (user_base) field of the business application record.	Evaluates the user base of the business application.

Old Financial Modeling (ITFM) indicators

These indicators are no longer provided though older APM installation might have them.  The ITFM module for SPM (formerly ITBM) is no longer available.  Our Partners, Proven Optics, Nicus, and Apptio each have solutions.

• Application TCO
• Facilities Cost
• Hardware Cost
• Software Cost
• Service Cost
• Labor Cost
• Other Cost

** note that as of March 2021, the Financial Modeling application and therefore the APM TCO and other cost indicators based upon the ITFM functionality are no longer available. 

Operational Indicators

In order to support viable Operational scoring, you must first understand how Incident, Problem and Change are managed at your company.  The key is to understand how Application Services are related in the Incident, Problem and Change processes and gather your metrics at the Application Service level then roll these up to the Business Application.

For example, if your company follows CSDM recommended practice, Application Services may be found as the Configuration Item Or, in the Impacted Services related list on Incident.  Your configuration of the indicators must follow that data model. 

For Incident, you might consider activating Populate the Business Application related list for incidents (com.snc.incident.populate_business_application ) system property and utilizing the related list of Business Applications.

Assessments

Assessments are a platform facility in ServiceNow.  In the system, an Assessment is called a Metric Type.  Within the assessment, you define Metric Categories and categories contain Metrics (questions).   An Assessment, when completed, calculates a score on each contained category based on weighted values of the metric/question results and then derives and overall assessment score based on weighted category values.  

Once you have defined the Assessment contents, you identify the SME(s) that will complete the assessment.  Assessments can be automated to be sent on a schedule such as quarterly, bi-annual, etc.  They may also be launched on demand.  The user will see assigned assessments in Self Service > My Assessments & Surveys. 

The four Application assessments are Customer Satisfaction, Business Value, Functional Fit and Technical Risk. Typical target users for the assessments are shown below.

• Customer Satisfaction – a select sub-set of users for the Business Application
• Business Value – Application Business Owner
• Functional Fit – IT Owner/Business Owner
• Technical Risk – IT Owner

The out of the box assessment questions will need to be defined as they are merely place-holders.   Also, it is not required to use all four assessments. 

Each Business Application is evaluated on a scale of 1(Low) to 5 (High) for each of the following example criteria. 
 

1. Customer Satisfaction
   • What is the overall customer/consumer satisfaction?
   • What is the customer/consumer perceived performance?  Does the application perform well during peaks for the business process?
   • What is the customer/consumer perceived availability?
   • Is the data within the application current and up to date, trustworthy and readily available (per business goals)?
     
     
2. Business Value
   • Does the application deliver all of the requirements for the capability it supports?
   • Does the business intend to maintain and scale this application for the future or get rid of it?
   • How widely is the application used within the assigned user base?
   • Is the application able to our changing business needs?
   • Are all aspects of the application in use and fit for purpose?
   • The application requires little in depth training and user support?
   • The application positively impacts our bottom line?
     
     
3. Functional Fit
   • Does the application deliver all of the requirements for the capability it supports with none or minimal configuration and no customization?
   • Does this application fully automate the processes it supports?
     
     
4. Technical Risk
   • Does the application adhere to established architecture (data, integration, infrastructure) guidelines/patterns?
   • Is the application used out of the box or customized?
   • Does introducing new functionality break existing functionality?
   • Is the base technology on a current version that is supported by an internal team or vendor?
   • Is the basic technology stack for the application allowed within the enterprise or similar to the greater ecosystem?
   • Can the application be easily scaled to add more business functionality, users or integrations to other systems?
   • Does the application execute functionality with efficiency (low error rates, average time to execute queries  low resource utilization, etc. are all within desired thresholds)?

Business Capabilities and scoring

Business Capabilities are evaluated out of the box via Assessment.  the three key, and traditional, evaluations are: People, Process, Technology.   See the following examples of questions to configure for these assessments.

1. People
   • Is the Capability supported from a Knowledge / Skills Staffing perspective to deliver on business goals?
   • Do people consistently have the same knowledge or awareness of the capability?
2. Technology
   • Rate the relative health of the technologies providing this Capability.
   • Are there redundant Business Applications providing this Capability?
   • Is the capability supported by the right technology in order to deliver the business goals?
3. Process
   • How mature are the processes underlying this Capability?
   • Are these processes evaluated for continual improvement?
   • Is the process related to the capability structured, streamlined and automated?

Each dimension is scored using the following scale:

1 – Capability exists and meets future-state business needs

2 – Capability exists and will need minor changes to meet future-state business needs.

3 – Capability exists and need major changes to meet future-state business needs.

4 – Capability does not exist but will be needed for future-state business needs.

5 – Capability exists but requires significant changes to meet current needs and/or future-state business needs.

Indicator Score Calculations

When an indicator is run, it captures a value that is called the Application Weight for each Business Application.  Then the system will generate a Normalized Value.

Once the Indicator has processed all application for all date ranges (the system passes in the date ranges for which the indicator will evaluate the business Application that way things such as incidents and Changes don’t keep getting counted if they are outside the date range), it will calculate the Normalized value of the Application indicator. 

This normalized value is essentially a “ranking” value from 1-10 of the Application’s value or weight compared to the Minimum and Maximum values found across the set of Applications evaluated.  See the normalized calculation below:

Normalized Value  = [ (app weight – minWeight)/ (maxWeight – minWeight) ] * 9 + 1

If the Indicator direction is set to Minimize (you want to minimize incidents and the like), the calculation is:

Normalized Value = (10 - Normalized Value(above)) + 1.

For example, if I get a score of 8 for # of Incidents meaning out of all the apps, I am ranking 8 out of 10 in highest number of incidents, I should have a bad Indicator score or at least worse than another app with a 2 or 3.

Indicator Score

After finding the Normalized Value, the system can now generate an Indicator Score which is the weighted value of the Normalized Value within the Scoring Profile for which the indicator score is being generated.

When an Application (or Capability) Scoring Profile is created, the user selects one or more Indicators and assigns the “Weight” it carries in the overall score for the Application. 

The Indicator Score is the “weighted” value calculated as:

Indicator Score = Normalized Value * (Indicator Weight from Profile / Total of all Weights on Profile)

Application Score

 Now that we have the Indicator Score, the system can calculate the Application Score for the fiscal period.  

Application Score = per Application, Sum of all Indicator Scores for the Application during the fiscal period identified.

Application Profile

As you can tell from the discussion above, it is very important to consider the indicators in use and properly configure your Scoring Profile then appropriately set the correct profile on the Business Applications.

Important Note (Feb 2025):  As of the February 2025 release, Enterprise Architecture Workspace Rationalization effectively only supports a single Scoring Profile at any given time.   The Default Application Scoring Profile is referenced as that single profile out of the box.   In order to specify another Scoring profile, you will need to create (or update) the system property, sn_apm_ws.app_indicator_scoring_profile, and set the sys_id of your new/custom scoring profile as the value of the system property.  This will tell the bubble chart mechanism to use your scoring profile instead of the default.

[fibssy]

@mcastoe  ; Last year I started with the technical implementation of APM at one of my customers. Now things are technically running as it's supposed to accroding to the documentation, but we find it difficult to proceed to get out the real value with the OOTB possibilities: Transform the data to information, present this information to be able to make business decisions. Is there a way to get in contact with an e who can help us to continue this journey to get the real value out of APM? This is also the case for TPM.

Thank you in advance.

[mcastoe]

Hi @fibssy ,

Is EA Workspace installed and in use?  that is current the primary avenue of output for decision support. 

There are several possible avenues for specific engagement.  Via your customer, have them engage their account team to see what options are available.  If you are a certified Partner, you should be able to find options from your ServiceNow Partner support.

the key is primarily to

1) classify and categorize

2) measure and understand

3) take actions based on inform criteria

Are they working with Technology Risk management yet?  TPM and TRM?

Do they have at least a rudimentary source for Application costs?

hope this helps,

mark

[fibssy]

hi @mcastoe ,

At the moment we have the following in place for APM/TPM:

1. APM/TPM/EA Workspace/SAM/Pro installed

2. Business Applications in correct table (CSDM)

3. Application Services in correct table (CSDM)

4. Business Capabilities in correct table (CSDM)

5. Relationships between 2/3/4/ by following CSDM standards.

Furthermore:

Assessments on Business application are done anually and have been conducted in Januari (Indicator and Application Scores are now populated).

The challenges:

1. Since much of the indicators/calculations are based on quarterly information for assessments, the OOTB (highlighted) cards under Insights are not Working.

I was told that these are based on scores of the last quarter (but as mentioned, we asses our business applications once a year in January, so there are NO assessment scores each quarter. I still need a solution for this, (probably another customization 😞 ).

2. For TPM/TRM:

We have huge issues with the way the system normalizes de Products. TPM Product versioning (SAM Pro) isn't always available or accurate AND a lot of our products are missing lifecycle information which causes issues upstream (depending how you look at it), so our technical debt information is a mess t.b.h. This gives us a huge challenge in getting the most value out of these features. Help with this would also be greatly appreciated.

3. Adding custom filters to certain pages on EA Workspace requires customization (Addressed in another thread).

I hope that this provides you more insight in our challenges and if you can help with this in whatever way (via other experts), I will be greateful :)..

Regards,

Fabian

[mcastoe]

Hi @fibssy,

For the EAW Insights, you can see the code & algorithms used by checking out the script include, 

InsightsUtils.   What I recommend is create your own "InsightUtils" script include that extends the out of the box script include.  You can then build you own Insights handlers and EA Configs that match your processes and needs (yearly vs the current month/period).  

For example, the code below is the recommendation from the investment insight.  You woudl simply adjust the encoded query to match your process and configuration.

var appInvestGr = new GlideAggregate(this.TABLES.APM_APP_INDICATOR_SCORE);

appInvestGr.addAggregate('COUNT');

appInvestGr.addEncodedQuery("cmdb_ci_business_app.sys_class_name=cmdb_ci_business_app^fiscal_period=" + this.fiscalPeriod + "^cmdb_ci_business_app.ref_cmdb_ci_business_app.planned_dispositionISNULL^normalized_value>5^apm_application_profile_indicator.apm_metric=" + this.xAndYIndicators[0] + "^ORapm_application_profile_indicator.apm_metric=" + this.xAndYIndicators[1]);

appInvestGr.groupBy('cmdb_ci_business_app');

appInvestGr.addHaving('COUNT', '>', '1');

appInvestGr.query();

if (this.fiscalPeriod && appInvestGr.getRowCount() > 0) {

var baInvestDesc = gs.getMessage("{0} {1}", [appInvestGr.getRowCount(), appInvestGr.getRowCount() == 1 ? "business application that might fit for investment based on their indicator scores" : "business applications that might fit for investment based on their indicator scores"]);

var title = gs.getMessage("Candidate business applications for investment");

var bAppList = [];

while (appInvestGr.next()) {

bAppList.push(appInvestGr.getValue("cmdb_ci_business_app"));

}

if (gs.nil(cardId))

return {

'title': {

'label': title,

'size': "sm",

'lines': 2

},

'count': appInvestGr.getRowCount(),

'description': {

'label': baInvestDesc,

'lines': 2

},

'countLabel': gs.getMessage("Business applications count"),

'buttonLabel': gs.getMessage("View list"),

'buttonTooltip': gs.getMessage("View list for {0}", [title.toLowerCase()]),

'border': this.cardDetails[3].border,

'highlightedHeader': this.cardDetails[3].header,

'navigation': {

"route": "application-rationalization",

"params": {

"appRatNav": {

"businessApps": bAppList,

"headerLabel": title,

"hideFilters": true,

"navFrom": "insights",

"bubbleChartId": this.apmBubbleChartId,

"cardId": "3"

}

}

},

'ariaLabel': {

"aria-label": gs.getMessage("View list for {0}", [title.toLowerCase()])

}

};

else return bAppList;

}

return false;

As for TPM issues, could send me some examples at mark.castoe@servicenow.com ?  I'll see if i can help.  the issue could be SAM normalization or perhaps its processing by TPM.  I assume you are using the new TPM and not the old.  Again, many thanks for your use of APM and your contributions here on the community.

mark

[fibssy]

Hi Mark,

Thank you. I'll give it a try. 

I have also send you an email with some examples regarding the TPM/TRM/Technical debt challenges that we are facing. We are indeed using the new TPM, so your assumption is correct.

Thank you in advance.

Fabian

@mcastoe 

[Doron Orbach]

Hi Fabian,

I would like to set some time to discuss your usage of the EA WS, and the challenges you face.

Would this be possible?

Thanks,

Doron

[fibssy]

Hi Doron,

That is a great idea. Eventhough I'm in Europe I can make myself available at any time if I know in advance. How can we arrange this? 

Fabian

[Doron Orbach]

please email me at doron.orbach at ServiceNow, and we will coordinate.

[fibssy]

Done.

@Doron Orbach 

[fibssy]

Update on below:
I have contacted ServiceNow support and they confirmed that the suggested solution should not have any negative impact. They referred to this docs page: Set the duration of a fiscal period property for TCO dashboards (servicenow.com) 

---------

---------

Hi @mcastoe ,

I found a possible simple solution while working on this. While looking into the script include I noticed that the Databrokers in the EA Workspace are using a Data Broker Server script called: Get Latest Fiscal Period. This Script uses  getLatestFiscalPeriod the InsightUtils script include

In the script, a  variable called unit is defined as:  com.glide.fiscal_calendar.fiscal_unit", "year".

The OOTB system property looks like this (No Year):

As a test have added Year as a choice AND value in a non-prod instance

This test solved two challenges for us:

1. We can now see the cards under the application insights table, because now its looking at the total Fiscal year (for which we have assessment scores) as a unit instead of the latest quarter for which we don't have scores (assessments are conducted once, only in the first quarter of the year).

2. The Fiscal Period Filter on the Application Rationalization page now shows the current Fiscal year instead of the latest quarter by default. This saves us manual actions to set and reapply this filter each time we open the page (filters are not remembered by default).

The question now is:
Are there any negative consequences for changing this system property the way I did? If, so is there another 'proper' way to achieve the same result by using this machanism?

I've recalculated the Indicator- and application scores and they seem to be fine (and we can still view them by month or quarter if we want to).

Thank you for your insights....

Fabian

[mcastoe]

@fibssy ,

yes, this should be a better solution that developing a custom Insight and my apologies as i was not aware that system property would affect the bubble chart filter as well.

thanks,

mark

[Mathew Hillyard]

Hi @mcastoe

I’ve just discovered this article based on another forum post. This is great advice but I would strongly ask for this be added to both the Application Indicators docs page and the SN University training. Any implementers taking training or reading the docs are getting out of date information. The assessment indicators are particularly baffling given they contain one dummy metric (question) each, and no current documentation either explains their purpose (they’re just placeholders) or advises how scores should be generated (not from the metric type but from the profile indicator).

One personal source of frustration is that the way the assessments are set up, you need to send one assessment for each metric (Business Value, CSAT, Functional Fit, Technical Risk). I appreciate that these may be sent to different stakeholders but equally they could all go to the same stakeholder, so some flexibility to configure a single assessment to cater for multiple metrics would be appreciated. This can be done by effectively shifting the metric categories down to metrics but then you cannot assess those categories individually (e.g. on the Bubble Chart).

BR
Mat

[mcastoe]

Hi @Mathew Hillyard ,

I hear you and we have been discussing with our product team on getting some improvements made in this area.  Long term, in other words SAFE HARBOR, there will be a shift to the Smart Assessments platform functionality. 

What i usually advise is following what you suggest, combine the current CSAT, Business Value etc into a single Assessment.  the key here is that an Assessment Metric Category aligns to a single APM/EA Indicator.  So, you can indeed send a single assessment with however many categoris there fore populating multiple Indicators in one go.  The difficulty is in getting the assessments setup, assigned and sent.  you have to do the following:
1) define the Metrics and update the Metric Category(s).
2) Add the Metric Categories to the Metrics bank
3) Create a "unified" Metric type(assessment) and add each of your categories to it
4) make sure you have set of APM/EA indicators assigned to each desired category
5) Generate the Assessable records at the Metric type level
6) Set the Assessable records at each Metric Category and be sure the assessment sare assigned (there are various ways to do this )
7) Send the assessments
😎 once all are completed or cancelled, run the EA/APM INdicator job to collect scores>

Yep, its quite a bit to do and we do want to make it easier as well as improve the documentation.  I'm planning a new article to get more into details on this.  I also plan to do a workshop later this year.

[Mathew Hillyard]

Hi @mcastoe 

Thanks for the response, it’s great to hear that smart assessments are on the roadmap.

The challenge when generating assessments as the metric type rather than the profile indicator level is that they’re not targeted - for example, you cannot set the assessments to be sent only to the IT Application Owner who owns the business application(s). It sends every assessment out to every “assessor”. It also asks you for stakeholders and/or metric category users with assessments on the metric type (on the profile indicator you’re prompted to remove both if they’re populated). As far as I am aware this is expected behaviour for (non-profile indicator) assessments. 

I’m planning on posting a blog on EA indicators and assessments this week. I’ll link to it here with more information once published.

BR
Mat

[MikeWilsonNYC]

@Mathew Hillyard I've previously configured one assessment metric type to cover multiple metrics, as Mark suggested, and yeah, it's painful. You have to send out the assessment in multiple instances, and for each instance, you need to:
1.  On the metric type form, on the conditions tab, change the filter to capture the applications that you want to send out the surveys for, e.g. IT app owner = Abel Tuter
2. Check “Enforce Condition”
3. Save the metric type
4. Click Generate Assessable Records
5. Go into each metric category and set the filter to be the same as the filter on the metric type (maybe this step is not needed but you at least ought to check them)
6. Generate assessments

[Mathew Hillyard]

@MikeWilsonNYC  

Thanks - I think from what you're saying you need as many Metric Types as you have stakeholders (e.g. unique ITAOs across Business Application), but linking to the same  four Metric Categories each time (using "New Category from Bank"), then use each Metric Category with the individual Profile Indicators so you have data in App Rationalization (the bubble chart)? It sounds a bit painful but at least it's a workaround that achieves one assessment per stakeholder and the bubble chart gets data.

BR

Mat

[MikeWilsonNYC]

@Mathew Hillyard The way we did it was to have one metric type record, and we updated the filter conditions on that metric type record to grab various sets of people to send the assessment out to... which I think is the same thing Mark was saying above when he mentioned having a "unified" Metric type.

Either way it's painful but works.

[Mathew Hillyard]

@MikeWilsonNYC  

Ah OK, generating multiple assessment metric types doesn't work as you must specify both the metric type and metric category in the profile indicator, so it looks like the only method is as you said - create one metric type, set the condition (e.g. IT Application Owner is Abel Tuter), set the same in each Metric Category, generate the assessments, then change the metric type and related metric category conditions and re-generate the assessments for each ITAO. As you said, painful...

I've created a blog post with my investigation combined with your suggestion on assessments: https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-blog/application-scoring-and-application-assessment-i...

Here's hoping smart assessments land soon!

BR

Mat