Key Improvements to Resource Management in ServiceNow’s Strategic Planning Management (SPM)
This article highlights some of the newest capabilities aimed at empowering both centralized and decentralized resource management strategies. These capabilities give customers control over how resource utilization is tracked and calculated, depending on their internal processes.
Note: The new Resource Management application, discussed in this article, was released as part of ServiceNow's Xanadu family in November 2024. For existing customers, please refer to the Quick Start Guide for Resource Management article for migration details.
Summary
New Capabilities: Two new features have been added to manage how resource assignments impact utilization:
- "Ready for Review"– Lets project managers signal when they have finished detailing staffing needs and would like the resource manager to finalize the booking.
- ‘Exclude Assignment States from Availability Calculation’ – This is a system property that allows admins to choose which assignment statuses (e.g., pending, unapproved) will or will not be counted toward resource utilization.
Flexibility: These features are optional. Customers can choose whether or not to use them and can implement one, both, or neither, based on their specific needs.
Self-Selection of Utilization Criteria: The ability to customize which assignment statuses (such as pending, unapproved) count toward utilization gives customers the ability to adapt the tool to their desired process—whether more decentralized or centralized.
The Full Story – ServiceNow's Resource Management Support for Both Decentralized and Centralized Processes
In resource management, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Customers have varying needs based on whether they aim for a decentralized or centralized process. Many customers want more control and centralization, but might still be using a decentralized process today, while others may wish to move from a loose, decentralized process to a more centralized, rigorous process over time. The problem with the classic system was that it forced a one-size-fits-all process, which didn't fit every customer's needs.
The latest enhancements to ServiceNow's Resource Management system (Introduced in November '24) are designed to allow customers to "choose their own adventure" in terms of resource assignment and utilization. Let's dive deeper:
- ‘Ready for Review’: This is a new optional feature that helps manage the flow from project manager to resource manager. It is part of a broader capability that boosts teamwork and communication, supporting both centralized and decentralized processes. It works like this:
- Pending Status: When an assignment is still being worked on, the resource is considered not booked (status is "pending" and “ready for review” is set to “no”)
- Soft Booked: When a project manager is done and marks the assignment as “Ready for Review”, the assignment status is still pending but now counts as soft booked.
- Hard Booked: When the resource manager approves the assignment, it is hard booked.
Note: The 'Ready for Review' feature is planned to be available out-of-the-box in the next releases, in the meanwhile, it can be achieved via configuration, the configuration steps are available here: Resource Assignment ready for Resource Manager review.
This feature provides a visual cue for resource managers that they need to finalize the assignment. However, different customers have different rules about what should count towards utilization.
Decentralized vs Centralized Approaches
- Decentralized Customers: For customers aiming for a "manage by exception" model, they may want to count assignments in the pending state toward utilization, so project managers can see the impact on availability before formal approval happens.
- Centralized Customers: Customers with a more controlled, centralized process may only want approved assignments to count toward utilization. This is typical for customers with more formal or mature resource management practices.
- Highly Decentralized Customers: Some customers, particularly those with high communication environments or non-fungible, high-visibility resources, may want disapproved assignments to still count toward utilization, as the resources might be revised or resubmitted later.
Good News: The system supports all these approaches!
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2. ‘Exclude Assignment States from Availability Calculation’: This feature is a system property, also introduced in November ‘24, that allows admins to customize settings in which assignment statuses (e.g., pending, unapproved) should be counted toward resource utilization. It is part of a broader capability that helps adapt resource management to your specific approach. This change affects:
- Heat Map Colors (in Project Workspace, PW, and Resource Management Workspace, RMW)
- Utilization Calculations (in PW and RMW)
- Total Effort Calculation (in RMW)
Having this system property enabled allows flexibility to adapt to the needs of both centralized and decentralized resource management processes.
Example for Highly Centralized Customers: For a highly centralized customers who only wants approved assignments to count toward utilization:
- Go to Project Administration > Settings > Properties-Resource.
- In the new field “Comma separated list of resource assignment states…”, type: Pending, Unapproved.
This means pending or unapproved assignments will not affect the utilization calculations. Only approved assignments will count.
In this case: A resource may show 9 hours of assignments in the modal, but because the assignment is pending or unapproved, the heat map will reflect lower utilization (light green) compared to what it would show if it were counted (e.g., dark green if all assignments were included).
Conclusion
The goal of these updates is to give customers more control over how they track and manage resource utilization, while supporting both centralized and decentralized processes. Customers can now customize their system to match how they manage resources, whether they follow a more rigorous, centralized process or a looser, decentralized approach.
Looking Ahead – Future Product Improvements
ServiceNow’s SPM Product team responsible for resource management is planning more enhancements for 2025, aiming to make the resource management process even simpler and more efficient. So, be sure to subscribe for the latest product information!
