Business Continuity Management release notes

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Business Continuity Management Washington DC Release Notes

    The ServiceNow® Business Continuity Management (BCM) application helps organizations maintain service delivery during disruptions. The Washington DC release enhances BCM with new features and updates aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in managing business continuity efforts.

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    Key Features

    • Field Configuration: Admins can configure new fields in the dependency assessment, marking them as required or optional through UI policies.
    • Automated Recovery Tasks: Streamline disaster recovery processes by automating recovery tasks linked to business continuity plans.
    • Dependency Auto-Updates: Automatically update dependencies in Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and business continuity plans based on CMDB data, with email notifications for updates.
    • Task Management Enhancements: Edit multiple recovery task fields simultaneously and reopen tasks if mistakenly closed, ensuring accurate recovery tracking.
    • Improved UI and PDF Templates: Enhanced UI for dependency assessments and improved PDF generation for BCM documents, including support for large images and tables.

    Key Outcomes

    Implementing the Washington DC release of BCM allows organizations to:

    • Ensure efficient recovery processes during disruptive events.
    • Maintain accurate and real-time updates of dependencies and tasks, enhancing overall business continuity planning.
    • Utilize automated features to minimize manual efforts and streamline recovery workflows.

    For activation, the BCM application must be requested from the ServiceNow Store, where detailed installation and configuration information is available.

    The ServiceNow® Business Continuity Management (BCM) application enables your organization to continue to deliver products and services at an acceptable level during disruptive events such as power outages, extreme weather, or equipment damage. Business Continuity Management was enhanced and updated in the Washington DC release.

    Business Continuity Management highlights for the Washington DC release

    • Configure new fields in the dependency assessment and mark them as required or optional by configuring the UI policy with the admin role.
    • Automate the recovery tasks for faster disaster recovery (DR).
    • Schedule an auto-update of the dependencies in the business impact analysis (BIA) based on the source data and relationships in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Get email notifications with the details of the BIA dependency updates from the application.
    • Schedule an auto-update of the related assets in the plans based on the source data and relationships in the CMDB and BIA. Get email notifications with the details of the planning dependency updates from the application.
    • Add the dependencies of the impacted assets manually in the events and exercises from the CMDB, BIA, and plans.

    See Business Continuity Management for more information.

    Important:
    Business Continuity Management is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    Important information for upgrading to the Washington DC release

    After upgrading to the Washington DC release, you must note the following important information for the existing business impact analyses, business continuity plans, and events:
    • For business impact analyses, the Source column in the dependency assessment is renamed to Primary source and the BCM source is renamed to Manual for manually added dependencies following an upgrade. When you select the Update dependencies button, the system adds the CMDB dependencies.
    • For business continuity plans, the Source column is renamed to Primary source following an upgrade. When you select the Update dependencies button, the system adds the CMDB and BIA dependencies. To maintain compatibility with the previous releases, the BCM administrator can configure the sources and keep only the BIA upstream dependency and BIA downstream dependencies as the sources in the updated configuration.
    • For events and exercises, when you select the Update dependencies button, the system adds the CMDB, BIA, and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) dependencies after an upgrade. To maintain compatibility with the previous releases, the BCM administrator can configure the sources and keep only the BIA upstream dependency and BIA downstream dependencies as the sources in the updated configuration.

    New in the Washington DC release

    Configuring the Dictionary, UI policy, element variables, and UI view

    Configure new fields in the dependency assessment with the admin role and mark them as required or optional using the UI policy. In addition to UI policy configuration, you can also customize the UI view and UX view rules for the BIA dependency and BIA dependency groups. It offers you the flexibility to modify the display and functionality of the dependency assessment based on your specific requirements.

    In previous releases, the Required Recovery Timeframe validation was required for all impact categories. However, starting with version 6.1.x of the BCM application, it's now required only for the Applications impact category. This change is controlled by the UI policy.

    Automate the recovery task in the plan
    Automate the recovery tasks to streamline the recovery process in both business continuity plans and exercises. By classifying a task as automated and attaching an automated flow to it, the recovery process can be streamlined.
    When a business continuity plan is activated as part of an exercise or an actual event, the associated automated flow gets triggered. However, if an error or failure occurs during the execution of the automated flow, the user with edit access to the event record can manually retrigger the task as a backup. Therefore, the recovery process can proceed seamlessly, even if the automated flow encounters any issues.
    Add a task to the crisis event

    Manage multiple recovery tasks by editing various fields, including State, Actual start, Actual end, Assigned to, and Assigned group at the same time in the recovery tasks list. It helps the event task users update multiple tasks simultaneously, saving time and effort. If a task was closed by mistake, the event task users with edit access to the event record can reopen it for editing and make necessary corrections, maintaining accuracy and completeness in the recovery process.

    Additionally, the Closed failed task state has been implemented on the Event task form. When a task is transitioned to the Closed failed state, the entire exercise is paused until the user with edit access to the event record unblocks the task and changes its state to Closed complete. The event task users can then resolve any issues or failures before continuing with the exercise.

    Schedule an auto-update of the dependencies
    Update the CMDB assets and dependencies in the business impact analysis. BCM administrators can configure the Impact analysis dependency update configuration module to start an auto-update or to trigger a manual review process. Administrators can enable the scheduled job to monitor the dependencies continuously and send email notifications.
    Schedule an auto-update of the related assets
    Update the CMDB assets and dependencies in the business continuity plan. BCM administrators can configure the Planning dependency update configuration module to start an auto-update or to trigger a manual review process. Dependencies are fetched from different sources such as a BIA upstream dependency, BIA downstream dependencies, and the CMDB. Administrators can enable the scheduled job to monitor the dependencies continuously and send the email notifications.
    Adding the dependencies of the impacted assets
    Update the CMDB assets and dependencies in an event. BCM administrators can configure the Event dependency source configuration module to start an auto-update or to trigger a manual review process. Dependencies are fetched from different sources such as a BIA upstream dependency, BIA downstream dependencies, CMDB, Plan primary assets, and Plan related assets.

    UI changes

    Configure the Impact analysis dependency update configuration record
    Configure the Impact analysis dependency update configuration module for importing the impact analysis dependency updates.
    Configure the Planning dependency update configuration record
    Configure the Planning dependency update configuration module for importing the planning dependency updates.
    Configure the Event dependency source configuration record
    Configure the sources to fetch the event dependencies in the Event dependency source configuration module.
    Format the PDF templates for BIAs, BCPs, and Events
    Use the enhanced Business Continuity Plan Template (Default) to generate PDFs of the business continuity plans. The template offers UI enhancements such as support for large images, large tables, improved spacing, and proper alignments.

    Activation information

    Install Business Continuity Management by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.