Manage the Technology Reference Model in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Manage the Technology Reference Model in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

    The Technology Reference Model (TRM) feature in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace enables ServiceNow customers to define and enforce standards for software and hardware products used within their organization. Managing the TRM helps mitigate risks related to security, delivery, and legal compliance caused by unapproved software usage.

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    By establishing approved software standards and versions, organizations can monitor and control the use of non-permitted software across business applications, thereby improving security posture, reducing technical debt, and lowering costs.

    Key Features

    • TRM Product Management: View, create, request, approve, or reject TRM products and product lifecycle phases, grouped by product categories.
    • Lifecycle Management: Each TRM product has lifecycle phases (e.g., approved, unapproved, approved with constraints) with start and end dates, enabling clear governance of technology usage over time.
    • Technical Debt Tracking: Identify and manage technical debt caused by unapproved software usage, with detailed tracking of impacted products, business applications, and reasons for the debt.
    • Ownership Assignment: Assign owners to TRM categories to maintain accountability and consistent compliance standards.
    • Wildcard Lifecycle Updates: Use wildcard lifecycle phases to efficiently update multiple TRM software product lifecycles without specifying exact minor versions.
    • Integration with Software Asset Management (SAM): Leverage the SAM plugin to import or select products and versions for the TRM library, or define custom software products if SAM is not available.
    • Visibility and Analysis: The TRM home page aggregates business applications using various software, facilitating review of compliance status for software usage and version approvals.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Establish formal standards and guardrails for technology usage to reduce security, legal, and support risks.
    • Gain visibility into unapproved software usage and associated technical debt across business applications.
    • Improve governance by assigning clear responsibility for technology standards within TRM categories.
    • Streamline lifecycle management of software products to maintain up-to-date compliance status.
    • Integrate with SAM for accurate software asset tracking or customize product definitions when needed.

    You can use the Technology Reference Model (TRM) feature in Enterprise Architecture Workspace to define the standards for your software and hardware products and manage unapproved products in your organization.

    Overview and benefits of a TRM

    In your business enterprise, using an unapproved software can create a risk to the organization. The risks can include the following:
    • Security risks: The software might be exposed to security issues.
    • Delivery risks: There might not be sufficient knowledge on how to support the software.
    • Legal risks: A business application might use the software in illegal ways.

    You must define the standards for the software that is to be used and the software versions that are permitted for use in your organization. Also, you need a way to explore when a non-permitted software is being used within the organization and in which business applications.

    You can use the TRM module in the Enterprise Architecture Workspace to perform the following:
    • View a list of all available TRM products. You can also view the list of TRM products grouped by product category.
    • Request a TRM product
    • Request a TRM product lifecycle
    • Create a TRM product
    • Create a TRM product lifecycle
    • Approve or reject TRM product and product lifecycle requests.

    Using the TRM module, you can manage the standards of the technology and set the right guardrail for technology usage. Setting the standards can improve the technical debt, security posture and save costs for the organization.

    You can also assign an owner to a TRM category, to ensure clear accountability and improved governance standards. The owner is responsible for maintaining consistent technology compliance standards for that TRM category.

    TRM Product Lifecycle

    Each product in the TRM library is associated with a set of life-cycle phases with a start and end date. The life-cycle phases could be approved, unapproved, approved with constraints, Divest, and evaluation.

    The TPM home page fetches all the business applications that are being used in your organization. It helps to review the status of the software that is being used. You can understand if any business application is using the software that is not part of the TRM or a software version that is not approved for production. For more information, see TRM lifecycle timelines on Gantt chart.

    The TRM module uses a similar module to TPM to search in the TRM library. You can view the software that is part of the TRM library, and initiate a request to add the software or software version to the TRM library.

    You can also use the TRM with the Software Asset Management (SAM) plugin. This plugin helps you to fetch or select the products and versions for the TRM library. You can also define your own software products when the Software Asset Management integration module isn’t available for your instance.