Introducing Acceptance Criteria Generation for agile stories - Now Assist for SPM
Now available in ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management as part of Q4 2025 release. This Now Assist-powered capability transforms how product managers and agile teams approach story planning.
What Makes It Special:
- Context-Aware Intelligence: The AI doesn't just generate generic criteria. It reads your story description/context, template and crafts criteria that actually match your specific requirements.
- Customizable Templates: Match your company's standards with custom acceptance criteria templates that reflect your organization's specific format and requirements.
- Time Saving: Reduces acceptance criteria writing time by 80-90%.
- Quality Boost: Consistent, comprehensive criteria across all stories.
How It Works:
- Navigate to All > Agile Development or EAP
- Open your story record
- Choose your preferred method:
- Quick Generation: Click "Generate acceptance criteria" button from the story header
- In-Field Generation: Place your mouse cursor in the field > Select the Refine with Now Assist menu > Click "Generate acceptance criteria"
4. Review or edit the AI-generated criteria
5. Save and ship it
Pro Tip: This feature is turned on by default for customers on Zurich Patch 4 and above. If you have Now Assist with appropriate role, you're ready to go.
Make Your Own Custom Template (Admin Users):
Out of the box, the AI uses a proven template structure. But every organization has its own standards. You can customize it.
Setting Up Your Custom Template:
- Navigate to Now Assist Admin > Now Assist Skills > SPM
- Select the Generate acceptance criteria skill
- In the Choose Input section, you'll see the default template
- Replace it with your company-specific template format
- Add your custom instructions
- Save your changes
Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Drop any feedback, suggestions or questions in the comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Can I customize the acceptance criteria template to match my organization's standards?
Ans: Yes, you can use custom acceptance criteria templates that reflect your organization's specific format and requirements from Now Assist Admin section.
2. What role is required to generate acceptance criteria?
Ans: The role required is “scrum_story_editor” or higher.
3. We're using Agile Development, not EAP. Can we still use this feature?
Ans: Absolutely! This feature is available in Agile Development as well.
4. Which fields are considered when the AI generates acceptance criteria?
Ans: By default, the AI analyzes the “Short Description” and “Description” fields. If you wish to include additional fields or custom columns, you can do so by adding that column in “Fields” section of Now Assist Skill configuration within the admin area.
