ServiceNow Handover - AMS

[Gaurav Bajaj]

Delivering a ServiceNow implementation is a huge milestone for the project team. But the real measure of success comes after go-live, when the operations (AMS) team takes over. If the handover is not streamlined, it can have negative impact on platform adoption, platform stability and success metrics.

A smooth transition ensures continuity, builds confidence for the business, and sets the foundation for long-term success. This blog is going to cover key things to consider ensuring that the transition from project team to support team is streamlined.

• Documentation Playbook

Documentation serves as the AMS team’s guidebook. Without it, they risk wasting time trying to understand processes. At a minimum, they need a clear system overview that explains which modules and processes were implemented and how they connect. They also need visibility into what was configured out-of-the-box and what was customized, including details of tables, workflows, and scripts.

Integration is another critical area. The AMS team should understand endpoints, data flows, error handling, and any MID servers in use. This is not just for production environment but as well as for sub production instances through the integration specification document. Security cannot be overlooked either—roles, groups, and assignment logic along with any additional security matrix developed, should all be captured. Additionally, known issues and workarounds also need to be documented by project team so that AMS doesn’t waste hours rediscovering the same problems. Majority of documents developed during project implementation – functional specifications, business requirement documents, HLD/LLDs. As a AMS lead, one should ensure that above mandatory documents are provided by project team as part of handover checklist.

• Knowledge Transfer

Even with excellent documentation, people learn best by doing. That’s why knowledge transfer should be interactive and practical, not just a one-time demo. The AMS team should gain hands-on experience in managing incidents, changes, and requests in ServiceNow. They should practice updating workflows, administering users and roles, and monitoring integrations.

It’s equally important to cover how to troubleshoot common issues such as errors in scripts, problems with scheduled jobs, or notifications that fail to trigger. The goal is to build confidence, so AMS doesn’t hesitate when faced with real-world problems. Plan to divide KT into multiple sessions, record them, and let AMS practice in a non-production environment. Reverse KT is another option to ensure that support team is equipped with required knowledge to operate ServiceNow Platform.

• Support Model

Once AMS takes over, stability depends on having clear rules for operations. They need to know who is responsible at each support level L1, L2, and L3—and when escalation is required. Support model is one of the most critical parts of ServiceNow operations, and often where confusion arises if it’s not clearly defined.  There needs to clear RACI defined for each of support level so that transition of ServiceNow cases happens smoothly without multiple turn around between support teams. You can follow a baseline standard approach, but this can vary from customer to customer.

• Level 1 (L1) is the front line. These are the service desk or helpdesk agents who receive user issues. They handle basic troubleshooting, like password resets, access requests, or answering “how-to” questions. If the issue is simple, it stops here.
• Level 2 (L2) comes into play when the problem is more technical. These are the AMS support analysts with deeper knowledge of ServiceNow. They can investigate workflows, fix catalog items, check business rules, or troubleshoot integrations.
• Level 3 (L3) is the last line of defense. This level usually includes senior developers, architects, or even the original implementation team. They step in for complex issues, custom development changes, or bugs that require coding expertise.
• Level 4 (L4) This could be ServiceNow vendor support. If needed, ServiceNow cases which require platform support should be redirected to ServiceNow support team itself.

AMS Leads should ensure that support model is fully defined and agreed between various parties involved.

Continued in next blog.