Using ITBM for projects that are not IT projects.

Michael131 · ‎08-08-2019

Here is a message from Greg that I am posting for him.

Good morning,

For those that I may not have met on the phone, my name is Greg Sahnd with Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) in California. My role at SMUD is a leader in the IT PMO and IT Portfolio Management. We have begun our ServiceNow journey at SMUD wherein we will be leveraging SN ITBM and the PPM module to begin centralizing SMUD’s projects and initiatives into PPM for a single source Portfolio Management solution. We’re looking to have Idea and Demand online and ready to use by February 2020 for our 2021+ budget planning cycle and processes, for all of SMUD’s work. We are using an Agile-like approach, with workshops and sprints driving a Minimal Viable Product Approach.

In thanks to the collaboration of Michael Morgan for getting this group together, I’m reaching out to this group today to see if anyone here is either using or planning on using ITBM PPM for planning and managing projects that are *not* in IT. For example, Facilities, Grid Operations, or any work for that matter that is Construction by scope or purpose. If you are using it today or have plans to do so in the future, can you please let me know? We’re working hard on user adoption, and want our business units to have a “feel good” approach as we progress. There has been some concern that ITBM is more focused on IT only work, and we’re working to show teams the flexibility of the platform to embrace all work.

Michael131 · ‎08-08-2019

Here is Jim's reply.

Hi Greg,

Portland General Electric is planning to do that as well. We have yet to go live. We are just gathering requirements right now.

As we learn the tool, we don’t see anything that is a showstopper for non-IT projects to use ITBM. Like every project, it gets down to the details.

Some of the topics that are coming up this week in our requirements sessions include things like how can the tool support:

One big project with several disparate yet dependent phases (line design and build, substation design and build, etc.) where each type of work has it’s own timeline and funding gates, yet all phases are needed to go-live.
How to track budget, forecasts, commitments, and actuals at the WO level, where a project may have up to 50 WOs.
What should be standardized enterprise-wide to enable roll up reporting (i.e., can IT and construction projects share a basic high-level project WBS and milestones? How do you accommodate a mix of waterfall and agile project?)

We’d be happy to talk more and share notes about approach and lessons learned.

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cburkins · ‎08-13-2019

ITBM seems to be broken down into four modules: PPM (Project and Portfolio Mgt), APM (Application Portfolio Management), Agile (Development and Test), and ITFM (IT Financial Management).

To my eye, those last two elements may have components that may lend themselves specifically toward IT Project Management. Perhaps the 2nd one as well. But the core suite seems to be PPM (Project and Portfolio Management), and that suite seems to be reasonably well applied to non-IT projects.

bradolaughlin · ‎12-25-2019

Greg,

ServiceNow is a flexible and powerful system. I am currently looking into providing this same service to utilities districts throughout the California Central valley for projects that are anything but IT focused. I just recently implemented PPM at a major Tech company, they are already starting to see value two weeks after go live.

This tool has a lot of potential to make your customers and cohorts lives way easier. I was born and raised in Northern California and would love to speak to you if you have any concerns or questions about SNow. Feel free to drop me a message!

-Brad