Assigning Tasks to task workers in ITBM PPM module

[Maureen Roberts]

This is a comment more than a question.  It would make a project manager's life much much easier if we could assign Project tasks to ServiceNow users that don't have an ITBM license but do have an ITIL license.   We don't need these task workers to see the entire project but be able to see and update tasks assigned to them in the "My Work" list.   This issue is forcing PMs to create a schedule outside of ServiceNow, have project team members update their progress on various tasks, and then go back into ServiceNow to update the tasks themselves.   It's double work.  I know they can update Stories in the Agile module that will update the project but Agile isn't appropriate for every project.  Is there a plan to change this restriction?

[Rajesh_Singh]

We had same scenario for one of banking customer and users are vendors where project managers don't want vendors to see project details, PM want they must have access only to projects tasks and they work on it and ability to update it without have license.

We promised below solution -

1. Take third party tool say JIRA
2. Integrate JIRA with servicenow in such a way that any any project task created on project will create task in JIRA and assigned to vendor or project user
3. Once project user update/close the task in JIRA that will automatically update/close project task in servicenow
4. This way project user will no need to have numerous licences, he will not have access to project details
5. License for JIRA is much cheaper , this way you will solve lot of problems you have outlines in above post.

Let me know if this helps 🙂

Do mark as correct answer, if it does.

Thanks

Rajesh Singh

[Jon Miller1]

I'll share my experience, Maureen, but won't guarantee it's "right". Interested to know what others think.

ServiceNow Project doesn't work the way you think it does (or what you might be used to from using MS-Project). It took me a couple of years to work this out! The person a project task is assigned to is NOT the person who does the work. It's the person who needs to update and manage the task, 99%+ of the time, that's the project manager. To get full value out of ServiceNow, the project task needs to be linked to one or more Stories, Enhancements, Service Requests, Change Requests, etc. THOSE are the tasks that ServiceNow expects work to be done against and do not require additional PPM licenses.

Our Project Managers still haven't embraced this concept yet and it has slowed down our adoption of the Project side of PPM (we're further ahead with Demand). It isn't helped by ServiceNow, while having implemented everything I describe above as standard, don't make it all visible out-of-the-box. I'm working through an Organizational Change Management offensive right now that includes enabling the required related lists so that, for example, the PM can see all of the Service Requests relating to their project.

This approach also means PMs have to change the way they structure their projects. If you're used to having one project task for every development activity, you may want to change that as it creates a lot of extra work for you. You would be better having a single project task (e.g. "Development") that has multiple Enhancement records as "children". Each of the Enhancements then have a state that takes them through the SDLC cycle (so you actually get better visibility) which the Project task does not. This shrinks the size of your project plans which is another benefit (ServiceNow's Planning Console doesn't work so well with a very large number of tasks).

If your company is just looking to use ServiceNow for project management and NOT full I.T. work management, it may not be the right platform for you. The real value of ServiceNow is in that full integration between strategic planning (Demand), through project planning/execution (Project) to low-level work management (Incidents, Service Requests, Enhancements, etc.) and governance (Demand/Change).

Like I say, mostly "in my opinion". But I'm seeing this validated by ServiceNow and implementation partners (though less so, sadly, in ServiceNow documentation).

Jon

[Brandon Davis]

Good insights. I think it boils down to what your specific organization values. For example. My organization cares that we can tell what the actual effort put into a project was and that is not something that gets easily captured following this method, although it reduces complexity for fulfillers.

[KG23]

We have the same issue and the philosophy shared above is exactly how ServiceNow PPM seems to be intended to be used. The PM manages the project tasks and its assumed the other ServiceNow modules are where the user tasking occurs i.e. related links for Change Order with relation back to your project tasks. This creates additional work not needed IMO. In our organization we have setup new tabs within the project tasks that allow for us to relate as a pointer any Requests/RITMS and Work Tasks as a workaround. It would be great if automation, service level agreements, and metrics carried through to original project task but sadly not at this time. As the workflow stands now, I would have to create my project task, create another work task to assign to ITIL user and relate them on my project task tab. I would have to monitor the work task for completion and transfer any notes if applicable to my project task and close complete them.