Sharing something we’ve been discussing while working with ServiceNow SPM and Smartsheet, and I’m interested to hear how others approach it.
Many teams use Smartsheet as their day to day project workspace. That’s where tasks are created, updated, reordered and managed. Over time those sheets can grow into hundreds of rows. The question is whether all of that detail really belongs in ServiceNow SPM.
Why syncing every task creates problems
A detailed project plan often contains much more than the portfolio team needs to see. It includes working tasks, internal reviews, checklists and small delivery steps that help the project team but add very little value at the portfolio level.
When every row is pushed into SPM, project records become crowded. Important milestones and deliverables are mixed in with low level execution tasks, making it harder for portfolio managers to focus on the work that actually matters.
Selecting only the tasks that belong in SPM
What has worked better for us is letting the team decide which tasks should be visible in ServiceNow. The complete project plan stays in Smartsheet exactly as it is. Selecting a task simply marks it for synchronization into SPM.
For example, a build phase might contain twelve tasks. The delivery team works with all twelve in Smartsheet, but the PMO only needs visibility into four key deliverables. Those four are selected while the remaining tasks stay in the sheet, still fully visible to the project team. That gives each team the view they actually need without maintaining two separate project plans.
Keeping the hierarchy intact
The next challenge is making sure the project structure still makes sense once only part of the plan is synchronized. Two simple rules make this work well.
Selecting specific tasks
If a single task lower down the hierarchy is selected, it is synchronized together with all of its parent tasks. The parents are included automatically, even if they were not selected themselves, so the structure stays clear. Other tasks at the same level stay in Smartsheet unless they are selected too. Here is that on a live project:
Smartsheet: specific tasks under Initiating and Planning are ticked in the Sync column. Their parent rows, and the sibling task Project Sponsor Reviews Project Charter, are left unticked.
ServiceNow: only the ticked tasks appear. Initiating and Planning came across on their own to hold the structure, and the unticked sibling stayed out.
Selecting a whole phase
If a parent task is selected, every task beneath it is synchronized automatically. That is useful when an entire phase belongs in ServiceNow, with no need to tick each task by hand.
Smartsheet: only the Executing phase row is ticked, not its individual tasks.
ServiceNow: ticking the phase brought all ten tasks under Executing across with it.
Why the parent tasks matter
If an individual task appeared in ServiceNow without its parent tasks, there would be no context showing which phase or workstream it belonged to. Including the parent tasks keeps the project structure readable while still limiting the synchronized data to only the work that matters in SPM.
Curious how others are handling this
Do you synchronize the entire Smartsheet plan into ServiceNow, or only selected tasks?
If you only synchronize certain tasks, what drives that decision? Milestones, deliverables, task type or something else?
Have you found that bringing too much project detail into SPM makes portfolio management harder?
