Automation of goals not working anymore

Aaron93
Tera Contributor

‎07-07-2025 12:41 PM

Hey;

 

  We have automated several goals using Performance Analytics (PA) over the last 10 months and everything was good.   All the goal automations have stopped working within the last few months (upgrades) and we just noticed.

 

  The Performance Indicators feeding the goal Target Sources are operating fine since they are still also updating daily PA reports correctly - so the issue appears to be in the goal process not the PA process.

 

  Performance Analytics Indicators are connected to Target Sources.  Target Sources are connected to the Targets.  Targets to the goals.   As I stated above they were all working great and would updated the goal progress automatically each night but now they don't update unless I manually change the target next review date to yesterday, save it,  and then use the 'update actual value' link.  Basically I am manually updating the automated update this way daily which sorta defeats the purpose of automating the goal.

 

I deleted the rebuilt all the whole goal chain again and automated it again to see if that changed it and it did not.

 

We ran the special job also:  Migrate target breakdowns

 

Anyone else seeing this or know what I might need to look at to fix.

 

  Thanks

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Namita Mishra
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

‎07-11-2025 07:02 AM - edited ‎07-11-2025 07:02 AM

Hello @Aaron93 ,

Hope you are doing well...

 

Can you please raise a support case for this issue, in case the issue still persist....

In case it is resolved, can you please share the knowledge with community so others can use your suggestion, in case they face the same issue....

 

Have a Great Friday !!

 

Thank You !!

Namita Mishra

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JessicaLanR
Kilo Guru

‎07-11-2025 07:22 AM

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Based on your description, the Performance Analytics Indicators are updating correctly, but the linkage between Targets and Goals seems to have broken — most likely due to a platform upgrade affecting scheduled jobs or automation triggers tied to goal evaluations.

Here are a few suggestions to help identify and resolve the issue:

1. Check Scheduled Jobs for Goal Evaluation

ServiceNow uses scheduled jobs to update goals. Search for the following jobs under System Definition > Scheduled Jobs:

  • Goal - Evaluate Goals

  • Goal - Update Actual Values

Make sure:

  • They are active.

  • They are still running on the expected cadence (e.g., daily).

  • There are no errors in the history log of these jobs.

If these jobs are disabled, or their schedule got changed after the upgrade, that would explain the halt in automatic updates.

2. Review Target Next Review Date Logic

The fact that manual updates work after backdating the Next Review Date suggests this field may not be automatically updating. Some configurations require this to be dynamically calculated or updated via script.

Check if there was any:

  • Scripted logic that previously handled the Next Review Date update

  • Business rule or scheduled script that got disabled during upgrade

Also verify whether the Review Frequency field on the Target is still valid (Daily, Weekly, etc.), since this drives when the system checks for a new value.

3. Check Application Logs

Go to System Logs > All and filter for any entries with:

  • Goal

  • PA

  • Target

You may catch exceptions or skipped evaluations that hint at what changed after the upgrade.

4. Check Plugin Updates / Known Issues

If this started after an upgrade, check whether the PA Goal Management plugin was updated or has new dependencies. Also look into the ServiceNow Known Error Portal for any issues related to goal automation or the pa_goal table after your upgrade version.

5. Enable Logging for Goal Evaluation (if needed)

To dig deeper, temporarily enable debug logging for the goal evaluation process using the pa.goal.log.level system property. Set it to debug and re-run the job manually. Then inspect logs under System Logs > Application Logs.

Final Notes

It sounds like your architecture is set up correctly, so this likely comes down to something breaking silently during upgrade — especially if rebuilding the goal chain didn’t fix it.

If you identify that the scheduled job is failing silently or missing, you could temporarily automate the review date with a script include or flow logic, but I recommend logging a HI Support ticket if this proves to be a regression.

Let me know what you find — and if this helps, mark it as resolved to assist others in the community.

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