Pending vs. Open Project State

[LM]

Out of the box options for Project state are:  

Pending, Open, Work in Progress (and three options for closed).  I've ben searching the internet and cannot find the ServiceNow definitions for Pending, Open, and Work in Progress.  Can anyone provide these definitions?  Each of them is tied to "something" (another action or status), so they clearly have definitions.  Work in progress seems pretty self-explanatory, but what is the difference between a project status of "open" vs. "Pending"?   

Let's not keep this secret any longer! 

[Maik Skoddow]

Please have a look on that good article related your question: https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_article&sys_id=72aca625dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961...

[Rae Ann Prasnic]

Great question. Some of the mystery lies within your organization and some within ServiceNow.

The Mystery of the Project State field:

• OOTB Project States are: Pending, Open, Work in Progress, Closed Complete, Closed Incomplete, Closed Skipped
• Pro-Tip: Don't mess with Project States. Try to adjust your process accordingly to avoid upgrade issues.
• The Project State is impacted by changes made to Project Task states. Also, Project Task states are impacted by the states of their child states so you need to look at the relationships as well. 
• When you first create a Project the Project state will be Pending. What Pending means is determined by your organization; it could be "no prep work has begun". ServiceNow does not define a Project State of Open either; it could be "prep work has begun but the project has not officially begun". I find some clients skip both and go directly to Work in Progress, especially if they are converting Demands to Projects. But you define the definition of both Pending and Open States of a Project. 
• Now...if you change the state of any ONE Project Task, the parent Project State will change as well - based on the the 'most active' state (Pending > Open > Work in Progress). For example, if the parent Project State is Pending, and you change at least one Project Task State to Open, the Parent Project State will change to Open. If the parent Project State is Pending, and you change one Project Task State to Work in Progress, the Parent Project State will change to Work in Progress. 
• Now, once your parent Project has a state of Work in Progress you pretty much are there until you change the State to one of the Closed States (e.g., Complete, Incomplete, Skipped). 
• Updating Project State from Work In Progress to Pending or Open, when Project Tasks are Work in Progress, is not allowed. You would need to manually change the State of all Project Tasks to Pending or Open. 
• Note: There is no "On Hold" state. I get you may want this. I usually add an "On Hold" checkbox to all Project forms to help with reporting so I don't mess with the States (see bullet two above). But there is no "On Hold" functionality. 
• When the very last Project Task on a Project is closed, the Project State will change to Closed Complete. Therefore it is very important to leave at least one task open until the project is really complete. I usually add a lessons learned task at the end of every project to help remind me to not close the project until that task is completed. 
• If you change the Project State to one of the Closed States all Project Tasks will be closed as well. 
• I generally say it is best practice to make changes to the Project State via Project Task States and let the magic occur in the background. But if you have no Project Tasks you will need to make changes within the Project State field. 

I'm sure I missed a few things but hopefully this helps. If others want to add comments I can update accordingly. 

Please mark reply as helpful or correct if applicable (I'm working on a badge!). Thanks, Rae Ann