Demand - what is the difference between an enhancement, change or defect?

DS8 · ‎08-03-2020

Hi,

What is the difference between an enhancement, change or defect under Demand Management?

Thanks

Miguel Donayre · ‎08-04-2020

An enhancement is an improvement while a project is a planned endeavor, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages. A defect is when something is broken or didn't match a requirement that was used to create it( doesn't pass the acceptance criteria). Change by ITIL definition is -The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT Services.

When a Demand is created, it doesn't always mean it will end up as a Project. Depending on how your company categorizes what a "Project" is vs. an "Enhancement" or a "Change" or a "Defect."

ServiceNow provides the options to create any one of the objects and relate them to the Demand.

The Enhancement and Defect feature is part of the Agile 2.0 application( you will need to have that plugin turned on for this to work). In the Enhancement and Defect records is where you can also relate it to a preexisting Software or Application.

In ServiceNow, the ITSM Change application is needed for creating a change. A change could also come out of an enhancement or a defect. It is also related to the Demand once it is created from the Demand.

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Uncle Rob · ‎08-04-2020

A change is just an itil style change. You *plan* on making a change to a specific CI. Like "open a firewall" or "restore X from backup".

Enhancements / Defects are abstract task records to capture "its not big enough for a project, but we're going to work towards fixing/enhancing this thing". When used in concert with Agile, it provides a nice abstraction layer between teh people who do demands and the actual Product Owners / Scrum Masters.

Because an enhancement/defect can be "deploy this module in Epic" and can be comprised of tons of small work subcomponents, you need to decouple that work build out from the Demand Managers. Typically the enhancement lands with an agile team and they build stories off it to fit into sprints.

If you're not running Agile, enhancement/defect just cover the work involved in fixing/enhancing the thing without stories.

DS8 · ‎08-04-2020

Very helpful. Thank you Robert

JLeslie · ‎08-30-2023

Great info. We are just starting our ServiceNow journey, so if I may ask. Is it possible to classify an idea\demand as Service Request or Task, if it really doesn't meet project, enhancement, change or defect categories?

Uncle Rob · ‎08-31-2023

Ok... lets take the "Task" thing first. ALL of what we're talking about are "tasks".
Task is the base table that tells you a thing is "worky". All tasks have assignment, priorty, short/long descriptions, etc.
Demands are tasks.
So are Ideas.
So are Service Requests, Incidents, Changes, Projects, etc etc.

So "can we make this task this other task" is the wrong question. I suspect there's a question behind the question that needs answering. You can hit me on LinkedIn here. Done a few SPM implementations so happy to give you a free consult.