Roles for Digital Portfolio Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 18, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Roles for Digital Portfolio Management

    Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) in ServiceNow provides two primary roles—DPM admin and DPM manager—that control access and capabilities within the DPM Workspace. These roles are installed automatically when you activate the DPM application from the ServiceNow Store, enabling efficient management of personal portfolios and related portfolio data.

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    Role Descriptions and Capabilities

    • DPM admin [sndpm.dpmadmin]: Responsible for configuring the DPM Workspace and managing all personal portfolios created by users. This role can create, retrieve, update, and delete any personal portfolio. Additionally, the admin can assign the DPM manager role to user groups, controlling who can view or edit personal portfolios. The admin role also includes access to all DPM system properties and admin pages, KPI group management, and inherits enterprise portfolio admin capabilities if the enterprise portfolio plugin is installed.
    • DPM manager [sndpm.dpmmanager]: Intended for end users managing their own personal portfolios. Managers can create, retrieve, update, and delete portfolios they own and view portfolios where they are assigned as viewers. They can create demands and Continual Improvement Management items, update roadmaps, and view KPIs within the DPM Workspace. However, they do not have permissions to edit services, offerings, business applications, or service instances, nor can they create or edit services in Service Builder unless granted additional roles.

    Role Assignments

    To enable group-based editing of personal portfolios, DPM admins assign the DPM manager role to user groups. This is done by accessing the personal portfolio record, editing user groups for editing or viewing, and updating the assignments accordingly. Only groups with the DPM manager role can edit the respective personal portfolios.

    Important Notes

    • DPM admins cannot CRUD service portfolios unless they hold appropriate roles from Service Portfolio Management.
    • DPM managers cannot map KPI groups in the ServiceNow AI Platform; this capability is reserved for users with serviceeditor, serviceadmin, or serviceauthor roles.
    • The DPM admin and manager roles inherit additional enterprise portfolio roles if the enterprise portfolio plugin is installed.

    Tables Installed with DPM

    DPM installs several tables to support portfolio management functions, including:

    • dpmpersonalportfolio: Stores each created personal portfolio record.
    • dpmpersonalportfolioitem: Contains all types included within personal portfolios.
    • dpmavailableitemtype and dpmnavigationhistory: Manage types and navigation history within portfolios.
    • dpmunifiedbacklog: Stores backlog information related to personal portfolios.
    • Tables related to KPIs and KPI group nodes support integration with Service Portfolio Management.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    Understanding and properly assigning DPM roles ensures secure and effective portfolio management, allowing admins to maintain oversight while empowering managers with the necessary access to handle their own portfolios. The role structure supports controlled collaboration and aligns with broader ServiceNow governance through integration with Service Portfolio Management and enterprise portfolio features.

    Several types of components are installed with Digital Portfolio Management (DPM) when you activate the application from the ServiceNow® ServiceNow Store. DPM has two roles - admin and user.

    Roles installed with DPM

    There are two roles for DPM.
    • The DPM admin [sn_dpm.dpm_admin] role configures the DPM Workspace for users. The DPM admin role can create, retrieve, update, and delete (CRUD) all personal portfolios created by anyone. The DPM admin role can also assign the DPM manager role to groups so a personal portfolio owner can select groups to view or edit personal portfolios.
    • The DPM manager [sn_dpm.dpm_manager] role is the end user of the DPM Workspace. The DPM manager role can only CRUD personal portfolios that they create.

    See the following table for information about each role.

    Table 1. DPM roles
    Role title [name] Description Contains roles
    DPM admin [sn_dpm.dpm_admin]
    • View all DPM system properties and admin pages.
    • Update all DPM system properties.
      Note:
      The DPM Admin role can't CRUD service portfolios unless they have the appropriate service portfolio admin or manager roles from Service Portfolio Management.
    • Use Key performance indicator (KPI) functions:
      • View KPI group tables for KPI groups and KPI group mappings.
      • Create KPI groups.
      • Update and delete all KPI groups.
      • Map KPI groups.
    • sn_dpm.dpm_manager
    • sn_ep.enterprise_portfolio_admin (can CRUD enterprise portfolios that are created using the enterprise portfolio tables).
      Important:
      The DPM admin only gets this role if you install the enterprise portfolio plugin. After you install the plugin:
      • The DPM admin role inherits the enterprise portfolio admin role.
      • The DPM manager role inherits the enterprise portfolio viewer role.
    DPM Manager [sn_dpm.dpm_manager]
    • Retrieve and update personal portfolios that they’re editors of.
    • Retrieve personal portfolios that they’re viewers of.
    • Read all available data in the DPM Workspace.
    • Create demands.
    • Create Continual Improvement Management (CIM) items.
    • Update roadmaps.
    • View KPIs in the DPM Workspace.
      Note:
      The DPM manager can't view or map KPI groups in the ServiceNow AI Platform but users with the service_editor, service_admin, or service_author roles can map KPI groups to their services.
    • Functions that the DPM manager can't do:
      • Edit services, offerings, business applications, or service instances.
      • Edit and update relationships to services, offerings, business applications, or service instances.
      • Create or edit a service in Service Builder.
        Note:
        Service Builder buttons are hidden for the DPM manager role unless the user has the correct role that provides edit access to a particular solution.
    • sn_devops.viewer
    • cmdb_read
    • sn_team_perf.team_performance_user
    • service_viewer
    • sn_ep.enterprise_portfolio_viewer

    Assign the DPM manager role to groups

    To edit a personal portfolio, a group must have the DPM manager role.

    To assign the DPM manager role to a group, the admin does the following:
    1. Enter dpm_personal_portfolio.list in the Filter navigator.
    2. Open the personal portfolio record that you want to assign the DPM manager role.
    3. Select Edit user groups, and then search for the user groups to add to the DPM manager role.
    4. Repeat the previous step for View user groups if you want to add the DPM manager role to the groups that view personal portfolios.
    5. Select Update.

    Tables installed with DPM

    Table 2. Tables installed with Digital Portfolio Management
    Table Description
    dpm_available_item_type Stores records for each type in a personal portfolio.
    dpm_navigation_history Stores records for navigating each type in a personal portfolio.
    dpm_personal_portfolio Stores records for each created personal portfolio.
    dpm_personal_portfolio_item Stores records for all types that are in a personal portfolio.
    dpm_unified_backlog Stores records for backlog information in a personal portfolio.
    sn_dpm_kpi_group_m2m_spm_nodes Stores records for key performance indicator (KPI) group nodes from Service Portfolio Management.
    sn_team_perf_kpi_group Stores records for KPIs, a PA indicator, and data visualization properties.