Basic definition of PPM & PM, plus limitations and subjection of customization

[georgimavrodiev]

Hello all,

I may say that I am new to ServiceNow Project and Portfolio Management.
Today is the first day I am looking into this area of ServiceNow Platform.

I read a lot of materials on the matter (wiki, docs, Kelly Kaufmann's blogs) so far. I guess the amount of information entered my head was significant enough to confuse me.
So, from what I understood, in order to have PPM activated in my DEV ServiceNow instance, I need to activate the Project Portfolio Suite with Financials. To do so, I need to activate Timeline Visualization Plugin first. Well, I did it. As of now, I have Project Portfolio Suite and Project Portfolio Suite with Financials activated in my instance. Yet, I noticed that the Project Management plugin was activated by default (my instance is running on Istanbul Release).
Speaking of the Project Management, I would like to ask you for some elaboration on the following questions of mine, which I am struggling to answer at the moment:

- Why many of the threads in the Community speak for PPM Plugin, when such plugin actually does not exist in the Plugins list.
Instead, the PPS with Financials need to be activated, which actually leads to the activation of the whole Project Portfolio Suite?

- Is Project Portfolio Management equal to Project Management or in other words: aren't they both the same?
Or Project Portfolio Management contains Project Management along with other small tools, such as: Program Management, Portfolio Management and etc.?
- Is Project Portfolio Management subjective to any kind of customization (modifications via scripts or etc.)?
- What are its limitations? Is there any official documentation which "speaks" in that direction? (a lot of different things can be understand under 'limitations')

I will appreciate if any of you who has a lot of experience with ServiceNow Project Portfolio Management shares any thoughts from own experience here.
I really would like to clear the picture in my mind about the differences between PPM & PM, and the exact capabilities of this option, to say so.
I already started think of taking the official PPM course: Project Portfolio Management , yet, I will be really grateful if someone may help me out to have a better view in my mind.

Thank you in advance!

Best Regards,
Georgi

[sachin_namjoshi · Accepted solution]

Hi Georgi,

Following are my answers after my expeirnece with PPM implementations.

I hope you find them useful.

- Why many of the threads in the Community speak for PPM Plugin, when such plugin actually does not exist in the Plugins list.
Instead, the PPS with Financials need to be activated, which actually leads to the activation of the whole Project Portfolio Suite?

-->   There is plugins called as PPM plugin in list of plugin.Only following plugins related to PPS, project management are available in Instanbul.

- Is Project Portfolio Management equal to Project Management or in other words: aren't they both the same?
Or Project Portfolio Management contains Project Management along with other small tools, such as: Program Management, Portfolio Management and etc.?

--> Project Management is part   PPS ( project portfolio suite). PPS Suite consists of project management, demand management, resource management, SDLC and Test management.

- Is Project Portfolio Management subjective to any kind of customization (modifications via scripts or etc.)?

--> Yes, you can customize PPS Suite applications with configurations, scripting, integrations....I did lot of them with cost plan, expense line, cost plan breakdowns, budget items ......

Regards,

Sachin

[georgimavrodiev]

Hello Sachin,

Thank you very much for sharing the above information!

I am continuing to play with the PM. I hope soon I will be quite familiar with it

Enjoy the day ahead!

Regards, Georgi

[georgimavrodiev]

Sachin,

I have one follow up question.
Which path and feature of the PPS suite will you offer me to use in order to be able to track milestones (sprint 1, sprint 2, sprint 3, parts (stories) of milestones, hierarchy and dependencies of milestones, I may have in regards to a project of mine + where I can monitor the ongoing task progress?

I will appreciate if you give me an example with what you will be offering me. Thanks!

Regards, Georgi

[sachin_namjoshi]

Hi,

SDLC module in PPS Suite will allow you to define sprints, epics, features and stories.

Also, you can create and manage milestones from project workbench feature in PPS Suite.

http://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Project_Portfolio_Suite#gsc.tab=0

You can monitor your sprints progress on progress boards and scrum charts.

Agile Development

Regards,

Sachin