Best way to model project lifecycle in ServiceNow SPM

[jordimsant]

Hello everyone,

I’m currently working on an SPM implementation and I’m trying to understand the best way to represent my client’s real project lifecycle in ServiceNow.

At a high level, their projects follow this process:

1. Project requirements are gathered

2. The project is reviewed and approved

3. The project is planned

4. Project execution starts

5. During execution, two things can happen:

   • Everything goes as expected and tasks are completed until project closure

   • The project deviates significantly from the initial requirements, in which case requirements are redefined and the process effectively starts over again

So in practice, the lifecycle is not strictly linear and may loop back to an earlier phase (requirements) if major changes occur.

My questions are:

• How would you model this kind of logic in ServiceNow SPM?

• Would you recommend handling this with project states, stages, governance workflows, change requests, or even creating a new project/program when requirements change significantly?

• Are there any best practices or common patterns for representing this kind of iterative or “restartable” project lifecycle?

Any guidance, examples, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!