Technology lifecycle risk score in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated May 20, 2026
  • 5 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Technology lifecycle risk score in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

    The Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) lifecycle risk score quantifies how close a technology is to its end-of-support or end-of-life milestones. This score helps ServiceNow customers identify lifecycle risks within their technology portfolio by rolling up individual technology scores through application services to business applications. The risk score highlights potential exposure and supports informed decision-making in managing technology lifecycles.

    Show full answer Show less

    Note that TLM was formerly called Technology Portfolio Management (TPM), and naming conventions in tables and jobs may still use TPM. TLM features appear only when the Enterprise Architecture Workspace (version 9.2.1+) and the Technology Lifecycle Management plugin (version 1.11.0+) are installed.

    Key Features

    • Risk Score Calculation: The risk score ranges from 0 to 100, where 100 indicates technologies with expired lifecycle milestones or missing data, and 0 indicates technologies more than 18 months from the next milestone.
    • Two-Factor Formula:
      • Multiplier: Depends on the next milestone type, weighted as End of Support (2), End of Extended Support (3), or End of Life (4).
      • Base Score: Reflects days remaining until the next milestone, scaled from 0 (over 540 days) to 20 (within 30 days).
    • Scheduled Jobs:
      • Populate TLM Discovered Technologies and Lifecycles: Collects lifecycle data by linking technologies to business applications, application services, and server CIs.
      • Populate Technology Lifecycle Risks: Calculates risk scores monthly or on demand.
    • Data Structure: Key tables include:
      • snapmtpmdiscoveredtechnology: Links discovered technologies with lifecycle records and related CIs.
      • snapmtpmtechnologylifecycle: Stores lifecycle milestone dates (end of support, extended support, end of life).
      • snapmtpmtechnologyrisk: Stores calculated risk scores by technology, application service, and business application levels.
    • Score Aggregation: Individual technology risk scores aggregate upward by summation at the application service and business application levels, facilitating portfolio-wide risk assessment.

    Practical Application in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

    • Integration with Application Indicators: The Lifecycle Risk indicator can be added to scoring profiles to influence overall application risk scoring.
    • Visualization and Ranking: Risk scores can be visualized in Application Rationalization bubble charts or listed to help prioritize application rationalization efforts.
    • Application 360 Dashboard: Displays lifecycle risk scores alongside other indicators for individual applications, provided relevant scheduled jobs have run for the fiscal period.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging the Technology Lifecycle Risk Score, ServiceNow customers can:

    • Effectively monitor and quantify technology lifecycle risks across their portfolio.
    • Identify technologies approaching critical lifecycle milestones to prioritize remediation or replacement.
    • Use aggregated risk scores to inform application rationalization, technology investment decisions, and risk mitigation strategies.
    • Leverage automated data collection and scheduled updates to maintain accurate lifecycle risk visibility.

    The Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) lifecycle risk score is a numeric value that quantifies how close a technology is to its end-of-support or end-of-life milestone. Risk scores roll up from individual technologies through application services to business applications, and serve as an indicator in scoring profiles to surface lifecycle exposure across the portfolio.

    Technology lifecycle risk scores

    Important:

    Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) was previously known as Technology Portfolio Management (TPM). TPM and TLM refer to the same feature. Table names and scheduled job names continue to use TPM and haven't been renamed.

    Whether your instance displays TPM or TLM also depends on your application versions. TLM labels appear only when both the Enterprise Architecture Workspace application (version 9.2.1 or later) and the Technology Lifecycle Management plugin, sn_apm_tpm (version 1.11.0 or later), are installed. If either application is on an earlier version, the interface continues to show TPM.

    Technologies without lifecycle data, or that have passed all lifecycle milestones, receive the maximum risk score of 100. Technologies more than 18 months from their next milestone receive a risk score of 0. Between those extremes, the score scales by proximity to the next milestone and by which milestone type is approaching. End of life is weighted more heavily than end of support.

    Two scheduled jobs must complete before lifecycle risk scores are available in Enterprise Architecture Workspace: one to discover technologies and link them to lifecycle records, and one to calculate the risk scores from those records.

    Key tables for technology lifecycle risk scores

    Table Label Description
    sn_apm_tpm_discovered_technology TLM Discovered Technologies Links each discovered technology to a business application, application service, server CI, and lifecycle record. Populated by the data collection scheduled job.
    sn_apm_tpm_technology_lifecycle TLM Technology Lifecycle Holds the lifecycle milestone dates for each software product or hardware model: end-of-support date, end-of-extended-support date, and end-of-life date.
    sn_apm_tpm_technology_risk TLM Technology Risk Stores the calculated risk score per technology, per application service, and per business application. Distinguished by the Table name [table_name] field.

    Lifecycle milestone fields

    The risk calculation uses the following date fields from the TLM Technology Lifecycle [sn_apm_tpm_technology_lifecycle] table.
    Field Meaning
    End of Support [eos_date] The date after which the vendor no longer provides standard support for the technology.
    End of Extended Support [eoes_date] The date after which extended or paid support ends. Weighted more heavily than end of support in the risk formula.
    End of Life [eol_date] The date after which the technology is fully retired. Carries the highest weight in the risk formula.
    Earliest Lifecycle date [earliest_lifecycle_date] The soonest upcoming milestone date across the three fields before. This is the value the risk formula uses to determine proximity.

    Data collection

    The Populate TLM Discovered Technologies and Lifecycles scheduled job traverses CMDB and Service Mapping relationships to create records in the TLM Discovered Technologies [sn_apm_tpm_discovered_technology] table. Each record links a discovered technology to:

    • A business application (cmdb_ci_business_app)
    • An application service (cmdb_ci_service)
    • A server or host CI (cmdb_ci)
    • A technology lifecycle record (sn_apm_tpm_technology_lifecycle)

    Without this job, no lifecycle dates are available for risk calculation. For instructions on running the job, see Run a scheduled job to generate TLM lifecycle data.

    Risk score calculation

    The Populate Technology Lifecycle Risks scheduled job calculates a risk score for each discovered technology using a two-factor formula.

    riskScore = baseScore × multiplier

    Factor 1 — Multiplier (which milestone is next?)

    The multiplier reflects the severity of the approaching milestone.
    Next milestone Multiplier
    End of Support (EOS) 2
    End of Extended Support (EOES) 3
    End of Life (EOL) 4
    All milestones already passed, or no lifecycle data available Score is set to 100 immediately — the formula is not applied.

    Factor 2 — Base score (how far away is the next milestone?)

    The base score reflects how much time remains before the next milestone.

    Days until next milestone Base score
    0–30 days 20
    31–90 days 10
    91–180 days 6
    181–360 days 4
    361–540 days 2
    More than 540 days (18+ months) 0

    The maximum possible score from the formula is 80 (base score 20 × multiplier 4, when a technology is within 30 days of its end-of-life date). The absolute maximum of 100 applies only when all lifecycle dates have passed or no lifecycle data exists.

    Scores are stored per fiscal period in the TLM Technology Risk [sn_apm_tpm_technology_risk] table.

    Note:
    Populate Technology Lifecycle Risks scheduled job runs monthly by default. You can also run it on demand. For instructions, see Run a scheduled job to update TRM technical debt data in EA Workspace.

    Technology lifecycle risk score example

    This example shows how the risk score is calculated for a single technology.

    Input Value Explanation
    Days until next milestone 60 days The Earliest lifecycle date [earliest_lifecycle_date] is 60 days from today.
    Next milestone type End of Life (EOL) The approaching date is the End of life date [eol_date].
    Base score 10 60 days falls in the 31–90 day range.
    Multiplier 4 EOL carries the highest multiplier.
    Risk score 40 10 × 4 = 40. Stored in the TLM Technology Risk table [sn_apm_tpm_technology_risk.risk_score].

    Risk score aggregation

    After individual technology risk scores are calculated, the scores aggregate up the hierarchy by summation. All three levels are stored in the TLM Technology Risk [sn_apm_tpm_technology_risk] table, distinguished by the table name [table_name] field.

    Level Table name [table_name] value How the score is computed
    Technology TLM Discovered Technologies [sn_apm_tpm_discovered_technology] table Individual risk score from the two-factor formula mentioned earlier.
    Application Service Application Service [cmdb_ci_service] table Sum of all technology risk scores associated with that application service.
    Business Application Business Application [cmdb_ci_business_app] table Sum of all technology risk scores across all application services linked to the business application.

    The business application–level risk score is the value that the Lifecycle Risk indicator uses when contributing to an application's overall score in a scoring profile.

    Where lifecycle risk scores appear in Enterprise Architecture Workspace

    Location How it is used
    Application Indicators (Setup page) The Lifecycle Risk indicator appears in the Application Indicators list. You can add it to a scoring profile to include the risk score in application score calculation. You can also regenerate scores on demand from this page.
    Application Rationalization — Bubble Chart The Lifecycle Risk indicator score can be selected as an axis or bubble size value to visualize risk distribution across the portfolio.
    Application Rationalization — List view The Lifecycle Risk score is available as a sortable column, enabling you to rank applications from highest to lowest lifecycle exposure.
    Application 360 Dashboard The lifecycle risk score for the selected application appears alongside other indicator scores.
    Note:
    The Application 360 dashboard requires the Load Application Indicators and compute Application Scores scheduled job to have run for the current fiscal period. If the job has not run, lifecycle risk scores don't appear.