The State on any ServiceNow record is often one of the most important fields. The purpose of this article is to help an organization build process around the Project State and understand best practice around configuring the field.
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OOTB Project State Values:
The OOTB values on the Project State field are below. ServiceNow does not define the meaning behind values; that must be done by an organization. Below are some definitions to consider:
- Pending: No prep work has begun
- Open: Prep work has begun but the project has not yet started
- Work in Progress: Work has begun
- Closed Complete: The project is closed and the work was completed
- Closed Incomplete: The project is closed but the work was not completed (see On Hold below)
- Closed Skipped: The project is closed but the work was not done
Changes to Project State:
- When you first create a Project the Project State will be Pending
- If your organization plans to use the State of Open you will need to manually make that change
- If you are creating Projects from Demands you may find yourself changing to a State of Work in Progress immediately upon creation of the project since the prep work was done in Demand
- The parent Project State will change based on the State of Project Tasks
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- If you change the State of any ONE Project Task, the parent Project State will change based on the the 'most active' Project Task State. Most active meaning Pending to Open to Work in Progress. For example, if the parent Project State is Pending, and you change at least one Project Task State to Open, the Parent Project State will change to Open. If the parent Project State is Pending, and you change one Project Task State to Work in Progress, the Parent Project State will change to Work in Progress.
- Once your parent Project has a State of Work in Progress you pretty much stay there until you change to one of the Closed States (e.g., Complete, Incomplete, Skipped)
- When the very last Project Task on a Project has a state of Closed, the parent Project State will automatically change to Closed Complete. Therefore, it is important to leave at least one task open until the project is fully complete. I add a lessons learned task at the end.
- If you change the parent Project State to one of the Closed States (e.g., Closed Skipped, Closed Incomplete) all Project Tasks will be closed as well.
- Changing the Project State from Work In Progress to Pending or Open (reversing), when at least one Project Task is Work in Progress, is not allowed. You will need to manually change the State of all Project Tasks to Pending or Open before reversing the parent Project State.
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- Note: There is no "On Hold" State in Project. I hear this request often and understand the need. If one of the Closed States is not applicable, but the project is on hold, the recommendation is to add an "On Hold" (checkbox) field to help with reporting instead of adding to State.
Project State vs. Phase:
The chevron on top of the Project is based on Phase, not State (as it is in Demand). Don't confuse Phase with State. Take advantage of these two fields to drill down on your reporting to get a clear picture of your Portfolio. Each organization will need to define the values of Phase but you may want to consider:
- Initiating: Defining scope and identifying preconditions that may be required to begin
- Planning: Defining the detailed plan to execute
- Executing: Executing against the committed plan and completing Project Tasks
- Delivering: Monitoring the completed effort after completing all Project Tasks
- Closing: Executing Project Tasks related to closing the effort
Best practices:
- Don't mess with configuring Project States. Adjust your process accordingly to avoid upgrade issues.
- If your project has Project Tasks, allow the actions of those tasks to change the Project State. If your project has no Project Tasks, you will need to manually change the Project State as your project progresses.
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