New to ServiceNow – Looking for Guidance on Setting Up Foundational Architecture in PDI

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yesterday
Hi Community,
I'm currently learning the ServiceNow ITSM platform and have access to my own Personal Developer Instance (PDI). To strengthen my understanding, I’d like to set up a complete foundational architecture in the PDI – including companies, locations, departments, users, groups, roles, and other core configuration elements – based on ServiceNow best practices.
The idea is to treat this as a self-driven project where I build a realistic ServiceNow environment from scratch. Once the foundational setup is complete, I plan to move forward with configuring and exploring key modules like:
Incident Management
Change Management
Problem Management
Service Catalog
Knowledge Management
I'm looking for any resources, such as:
Step-by-step guides or tutorials (blogs, videos, articles) for setting up foundational data
Best practices around organizing users, groups, and roles
Example structures (e.g., sample companies or org hierarchies) I can model after
Tips from your own experience setting up a training/demo environment
Anything else that might help a beginner avoid common pitfalls
If you've been through a similar learning journey or have any recommendations, I'd really appreciate your insights. I'm eager to learn and want to build a solid understanding of how to design and structure a ServiceNow instance properly from the ground up.
Thank you in advance for your help and support!
Best regards,
Wajahath Farooq
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27m ago
Hi there,
for both ITSM as well as guided tutorials, go to and scroll to select your:
- System Admin
- App Developer
- Platform Owner
- Implementer
- Technical Project Manager
- Business Process Analyst
- Support Specialist
- App Specialist
- Architect
- Developer
- Implementer
- Pre-sales Expert
- Sales Expert
- System Admin
Learning Plan ServiceNow Administrator:
- Learn admin skills to move into app development.
- Includes 13 short, self-paced modules
For the examples of best practice, go to Now Create.
Another resources are:
- Get Started with ServiceNow University
- Learn about ServiceNow and earn badges, points, certificates, and improve your rank.
- Most courses are free, only a few are paid.
- Start with the "Welcome to ServiceNow " training, it's fun and gives you your first certificate!
- The most important first certificate is Certified System Administrator (CSA), useful for almost any ServiceNow role.
- Trainings at the SN University provide temporary lab instances with pre-installed plugins and apps.
- Request your Personal Developer Instance (PDI) — your own ServiceNow sandbox to practice safely.
- You can try almost everything for free (except a few advanced features like AI).
- Explore guides, tutorials, blogs, and documentation to learn more.
Learning Plan ServiceNow Administrator:
- Learn admin skills to move into app development.
- Includes 13 short, self-paced modules.
Good luck 🍀
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