K24 – Now Learning - ServiceNow Platform Implementation (SNPI)

[seanpmcclean]

Welcome to ServiceNow Platform Implementation at Knowledge24 Now Learning Pre Conference Training!

We will be using this forum to:

• Connect – You are welcome to introduce yourself using the COMMENT button and share your role within your organization and what you hope to get from this learning experience.
• Ask and answer questions - Please post comments or questions here using the COMMENT button. Classroom staff will respond to the best of their ability.
• Share resources – Let us share resources and links that will be valuable for future reference.

NOTE: Now Learning staff will stop monitoring this article on May 24.

[seanpmcclean]

Here's the link to our collaborative Document with links to your instances as well. . . 

Instance Information:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13HWuXTBqowNFai_nK3j8-Fhu9A1hTxiSFVpQNHDpUGU/edit?usp=sharing

[Burrell_G]

Burrell - Platform Owner

Looking forward to a great session on platform implementation! 

[seanpmcclean]

So. . . . Resources?

What are YOUR go to resources for:

 - ServiceNow

 - Implementing and / or managing SaS projects

[Burrell_G]

Discord Community: https://discord.gg/hvvHmqvX

[jMarshal]

Started using Now Create recently, but this Community is my main resource tbh

[John Dicus]

I use my Fed Sales Rep and Technical Support. I also use my ServiceNow Partner and the Community of Practice inside the department of Energy.

[Jason Grant]

Phase 1: Initiate. Get the RIGHT people in the room

What are your best practices for making sure you have the right people in the room? How do you make sure there aren't too many cooks in the kitchen?

McClean's laws of workshops:

1. Get the right people in. Having a hard time knowing who the real process owners are? Threaten to pull the plug. The person that screams the loudest is your process owner. Tell the people in the workshop what the workshop is
2. Ask the resources who their 2nd's are. Who is the person doing the work for the person that's in the workshop. 
3. Assign a scribe. Maybe a great opportunity for an intern! They document notes, action items, and owners. 

[John Dicus]

Bring business stake holders, process owners and decision makers in the meeting to help in the "Initiate." I like the unplug it and see who screams the loudest.

[John Dicus]

Also, bring in your security folks so they know what your planning to implement. The security folks will want to know what data you plan on putting in your system.

[grmeyer]

KASP: Kansas Applied Sheriff’s Department

[seanpmcclean]

Communities of Practice (CoP)

Though the ServiceNow Community is kind of at the Center of our Resources, we talked in this class about customer-driven, or Internal to the Customer (or Partner) communities - sometimes referred to as Communities of Practice.

There's a TON of great literature about this, and we'll absolutely be talking about it in an upcoming Session: 3 ways to develop a thriving ServiceNow practice (Tuesday).

Here are a couple of quick resources to dive deeper into this:

https://www.communityofpractice.ca/background/what-is-a-community-of-practice/

Another Great Author on this topic: Etienne Wenger

We had some great conversation on this with @jay71 , @jMarshal  and @Burrell_G , who I'm hoping will add their insights below . . . 

[seanpmcclean]

Sprint Learnings

Discussion with on sprints and stand-ups yielded some great insights:

• Stories may be even further sub-defined with "features" (thanks @JD )
• Standups . . . oof standups GO LONG. . . this is bc there is often no structure, or bc structure breaks down - (thanks @rukayat !)
  • it boils down to governance (more on this from @Jason below. . . )
  • if you are having trouble getting governance agreed upon:  PUBLISH!! (publish those standards, and before publishing, communicate that silence equals assent for those governance standards)

A great resource on story splitting:

https://www.humanizingwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HW-Story-Splitting-Flowchart.pdf 

[John Dicus]

Don't forget to add scrum master to your users that need that role.

[John Dicus]

Sean and Jason please document your code for the class next year because we won't remember what you did. LOL

[Burrell_G]

SN Community  in Discord (chat client)

https://discord.gg/K6bDYctx 

[jMarshal]

@Somalia Warner - No, it doesn't. This course is not a part of a certification path, but rather supplementary for certifications in specific platform implementation courses, which do have exams. This thread is being used by the students attending the course in person at Knowledge 24, for the benefit of community members who are/were unable to attend!

[Jason Grant]

@lisa slavin It looks only James can post to this community forum. He said he has "rising star" status and maybe. that's why he's able. No other students have been able to post. Is it possibly due to the hierarchy structure of this community forum? 

[seanpmcclean]

Some cool explainers:

[Jason Grant]

LDAP Integration Doc:

LDAP Integrations - On-Demand Login 

[John Dicus]

My take away is Security_Admin..... elevated Privilege.

[Justin Lee1]

One take away, must have the proper people Identified in the initiation phase. 🙂

[SK Chand Basha]

Time to rock and roll, let's kick it into high gear!

Certification Link :- 

https://servicenow.swoogo.com/knowledge24certification/5464966

[grmeyer]

A huge take away from Day 1- a strong understanding of best practices for implementation will allow teams to better direct their development partners to projects and specific changes that will best serve their customer. 

[John Dicus]

Not sure why my takeaway didn't show up yesterday. "Elevated Privileges" This was a great reminder for some of us that don't work in the system on a daily basis.

[jMarshal]

I'm SCRUM leader for team Eventually!

My biggest take-away from day 1 session is the strong need for underpinning governance documentation. Not just related to your instance, but also the implementation project itself - you should have rules for your rules, written down and agreed upon. This will ensure a smooth transition throughout the project lifecycle. Also, the concept of using a Hybrid approach to an implementation project is ideal as it will allow for the acceleration of an agile project with the rigor of a waterfall project. 

[dhirsch]

One takeaway from yesterday - you can browse/navigate AD information in the LDAP server record.

[John Dicus]

Update set insight and Demo was genius.  

[John Dicus]

Watermelon metric was funny but true!

[Jason Grant]

McClean's Watermelon Metric! Green on the top but if you dig in, it's red underneath. Usually seen with XLA - Experience level. The service and uptime is green. But that's not the whole story. 

[dhirsch]

1 takeaway from day 2, when searching a table name like sys_user for which many tables contain that base text, adding a bracket to the end of it (sys_user]) will filter out the junk.

[jMarshal]

My one favourite take away from day 2 of the class is the need to negotiate and agree with a client or customer, what a completed implementation project looks like...and revisiting that agreement upon closure of the project with an official approval (handshake) is very important to successfully demonstrating the value of your implementation!

[Rukayat I]

@Jason Grant Did you ever post the document example for governance?

[seanpmcclean]

One of MY takeaways:  The description of "boil the ocean" (one of you talking about implementing everything at once, to find errors and issues - BEFORE releasing it to your general user groups) was nothing short of brilliant.  I've got it in my notes and have already referenced it as a unique take on implementing I'd not thought of before.  Thank you!

[Jason Grant]

@Rukayat I I sent out an email last week with some Governance materials. Send me an email if you didn't receive it and I'd be happy to get it over to you! 

[Justin Lee1]

@Jason Grant Hey Jason, could you send me the Governance material as well. That would be super helpful to me as well!