Application Interface Governance (AIG) app

[Bruno De Graeve]

Why would we need Application Interface Governance ? Everyone understands that a network of trains is impossible to manage without good governance …
… but everyone thinks managing application interfaces in and with ServiceNow is easy.

Problem Statement

Currently, the ServiceNow Platform and Apps (e.g. APM, CMDB, ITBM) do not provide:

• a specific set of “Interface/Integration” data objects,
• a process,
• a lifecycle management,
• integration models/patterns

similar as to manage Business Applications,

There’s no ootb solution to govern Application Interfaces at an Enterprise Architecture level. You can only create a CI Relationship between 2 Business Applications but that doesn't allow you to describe why you integrate.

Risk - what happens if we do nothing ?

• Not using the Platform of Platforms, CMDB, ITOM and ITSM processes
• Scattered integration data
• Security and Data Compliance risks increase due to
• lack of visibility, transparency, using outdated technologies or security patterns
• Customer Perception impact: they expect us to think Enterprise-minded
• No Auditing, Reporting capabilities at hand
• No holistic view of the world around ServiceNow
• Give competitors like LeanIX more reasons to exist

Proposed solution (as part of APM)

Provide an Application Interface Governance (AIG) [scoped application] solution that:

• Fills the gaps of ServiceNow APM, CMDB and CSDM
• Integrates tightly with existing ServiceNow functions
• ITSM (I/P/C/Req)
• ITOM (Event, Service Mapping)
• ITBM (Demands/Features/Stories/Defects)
• Provides single point to govern any aspect of an Application Interface
• Business Requirements
• Functional Design
• Security and Compliance
• Stakeholders, (key) Contacts
• Link to Flows, Scheduled Jobs, Data Imports/Exports
• Monitor your Interfaces using ITOM
• Document which Data (Information) Objects are used by your Interface, how the Transformation should take place and if you want or require: document the Field Mappings on the NOW platform.

Have a look at attached deck to have an idea how the solution could look like and how it already has been build as a custom scoped app.

Your feedback is more than welcome ! Do you miss such an app on our platform as well ?

Vote for this idea (the Idea also contains a detailed deck with many screenshots)

[Stig Brandt]

Nice Idea, but would recommend, ServiceNow is looking at Business Applications from a Business Process perspective, that links applications, all interfaces, all batchjob, data transfers etc. to deliver a end2end business process - and deliver Business KPI's.

Maybe contact Atos - Bridge team for inspiration @Rob Mollee 

https://atos.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/convert-it-and-process-efficiency-into-business-value-with-atos-bridge.pdf

https://atos.net/en/solutions/business-kpi-management

br

Stig

[Jon Miller1]

This looks very promising, Bruno, and is exactly along the lines of what I'd been hoping to see. I would extend from just API (A2A) interfaces to all external party (B2B) interfaces as well. What you describe would cover that from a "design CI" perspective and my thought had been to extend that to "operational CIs" that are effectively "discovered" by integrating with third-party EDI/B2B services and platforms. This was something I had done in a past life but was very niche. Extending that model to an enterprise platform such as ServiceNow with the integration of a CMDB, implementation (project/SDLC/Agile), roadmaps, event management, ITSM, etc. will be incredibly powerful.

- Jon

[Jon Miller1]

@Bruno De Graeve, did you make any further progress with this? It's something we're very keen to pursue and could be something that "tips the balance" in favor of us investing in APM.

-Jon

[Doron Orbach]

Hi Jon,

We are planning to introduce a model for APIs and Integrations as part of APM, based on Bruno suggestions. I would be happy to meet and discuss further details.

Thanks,

Doron

[toku]

Hi Doron,

we also do have a number of requirements re. AIG. Also happy to meet and discuss especially before we are doing some customizations to support our current use cases.

Many thanks, Thomas

[Vijayky19]

Hi Bruno,

Can we get this plugin to PDI to test out the capabilities. we tried with couple of Tokyo PDIs but couldn't locate either in the plugin section or the ServiceNow store.

If it cannot be tested in PDI, what other non-prod instances can it be installed on? (for e.g.: Partner's demo instance, a company's non-prod instance)

Thanks in advance!

[Bruno De Graeve]

News - ServiceNow intends to release "Digital Integration Management" as a Store app on top of Application Portfolio Management (APM). The release is planned for Q1 (February) 2023 (safe harbour, this can be subject to change) and will be support the Tokyo and Utah releases (and above)

Use case:

Enterprise Architects, Business Application Owners, and Solution Architects need visibility to integrations between business applications

•The increasing commoditization of applications and promotion of microservices architectures has resulted large increase in the number of applications and proliferation in how they integrate that’s difficult to understand and manage at scale.

•With little to no governance to connect applications, and lack of documentation to track how and why these Applications interact, production issues are hard to troubleshoot and the pace of change grinds to a halt while potential impacts are chased down.

•IT organizations need a better approach to understand integrations required given data sovereignty rules, and new legislation being passed requiring organizations to track and manage information flow across their organizations and externally.

•Declaration and governance over the use of Interfaces can be of great benefit for SecOps teams who are concerned about API attacks for both API’s that are internal or externally facing.

It will introduce the following objects: Digital Interface and Digital Integration

•Digital Interface:

–Digital Interface are usually provided by a Business Application, but can also stand on their own (for examples in cases of serverless architecture).

–Provides a way for other Business Applications to interact with the Application that provides the interface

–Contains Meta data about the interface including: Name, Version, owners, protocol and more.

–Contains a list of all the integrations that are using this interface

•Digital Integration:

–Represent the integrations between 2 business Applications.

–In a typical scenario there would be a consuming business application, a provider business application, and an interface that is provided by the provider business Application.

–Contains meta data on the integration including: name, version, type, data flow direction, Middleware used, owners and more.

User Experience:

–An easy form enables creation of a digital integration from a single page, including introduction of a new digital interface if it doesn’t exists.

–Once a digital integration is created, a new CMDB link is also created between the two business applications with the type of (interfaces/Interface by). This link enables seeing the integration as part of the node map for any business application

–A new catalog entry is provided to request an approval for a new digital integration. Once approves, the integration would be created.

Data Model:

a) Business Application --(related list)--> Digital Interface(s) --(referenced by a )--> Digital Integration <--(reference to)-- Business Application.

b) Business Application --(CI relationship: Interfaces::Interfaced by)--> Business Application.

In this first stage, the focus is on the Design aspect of Interfaces (high level description of any sort of API) and the Digital Integrations describing why to Business Applications exchange data with each other.

[Bruno De Graeve]

The Digital Integration Management plugin is released on Store.

[Bruno De Graeve]

Note: this custom AIG solution has been partially replaced by APM's Digital Integration Management