Roles to maintain ServiceNow

[johnnyw]

We are in the process of implementing ServiceNow and I was wondering what types of roles you have in your organization to maintain the applications.   For example, I will play the admin role who will do all of the maintenance.   There is a business analyst who can assist with the admin duties, and also perform testing and general BA type of work.

We do have a service catalog and am wondering if you have non-technical people administering and creating catalog items?   From my limited experience in working on creating catalog items and the related workflows, it is not an easy task and should be handled by someone with technical knowledge as well as scripting knowledge.

Are there any other roles I'm missing?

Regards,

Johnny

[johnnyw]

Thanks for your insight.

We are starting out with this application and currently have an Admin and a BA for ServiceNow.   Just from my perspective, having a catalog admin will require almost the same level of training an admin would need because of all of the scripting required to do some of the functionality that most people would likely ask for.   Is that the case at your organization?

So are your catalog admins really developers with scripting experience or non-technical?   I envision a non-technical catalog admin being able to create the basic catalog item, variables and workflow..   But will require someone like an admin to add the scripting to make it function like they want.

Looking for more insight.

Thanks,

Johnny

[bernyalvarado]

Hi Johnny, great questions. The answer to these questions again is of the nature of "it depends".

Still, in general, yes, there could be admins that do not know scripting. I know some good admins that do not know scripting but they do have learned with time to understand what a script is doing. Now, these admins can do a better job and can grow faster when they have someone with scripting expertise that can support them on the problems that they can't solve and coach them through time.

Our organization (Volteo) is a ServiceNow partner and many times we provide this type of support on which we first help to develop the customizations and later we guide the admins on the customer companies so that they can learn how to maintain/enhance their ServiceNow instance.

Thanks,

Berny

[bernyalvarado]

Hi Johnny Wong, do you believe we can close this thread by marking one of the responses as correct?

Thanks,

Berny

[JamesEcoStratus · Accepted solution]

Johnny,

I'm not sure on the maturity of your organization when it comes to managing a Service Desk, ITSM/ITIL or operational processes needed as supporting cast members, or where you are in your ServiceNow Implementation or Scope.

However, generally speaking as a rule - The organization must ensure the correct number of staff are available at any given time to match the demand placed upon the desk by the business.

Now there are a number items that should be considered here and Im not going to drill down that list here and encourage you read more about ITIL & Service Operation Functions.

From a process perspective If I was in your shoes - (You might done this but I don't know) I'd start by examining my or organizationals strategic planning process or model (Analysis of current state, define future state, determine objectives/strategies, etc) then look at processes in place today that will support strategy or identify gaps that need to be refined or filled by either new or tweaked processes. Then i'd look to see what support mechanisms (people, technology etc) are needed and/or in place today, you get the point.

I'd also set up a list or wheel with tasks/items needed for project success - one side business items and the other project based. Example of this might be Project - Technology, Infrastructure, Deployment etc and Business could be Data readiness, Leadership, Organizational etc. & each would have a business or product owner assigned for accountability.

I'd also have an internal design committee or user group for added support and increased ownership from users and BU's. This committee could meet at cadence desired but would recommend at least twice a month to start. I'd task this group with driving user adoption and feedback on design factors to consider which would ultimate need to be approved by CAB or other internal steering committee on what changes aligned with business objectives and satisfied business risk thresholds.

Without knowing more about your organization etc - I don't have a good answer to your question around "How Many" and "Types" of resources or staff members you'll need However, I would caution you around notion of separate admin and catalog admin or other roles (half work done by catalog admin and rest by admin) that will ultimately require an admin to satisfy requirements. Its simply not a very effective model for success, at least not that I've seen to date. It may be the case that your organization would benefit from a manage service offering to aide in development or "admin" tasks until you or your organization is comfortable with serviceNow and able to take on more responsibility. I'd also recommend that those given admin role attend a formal admin training class and take the certification exam.

Hope this helps and feel to ask if more is needed.

JamesN