Normalization of application scores - Legacy

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 4 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 Normalization of application scores - Legacy

    This process explains how application scores are normalized using indicators and their weights to assess and compare applications. Normalized scores help ServiceNow customers make strategic decisions about retaining, replacing, maintaining, or investing in applications based on performance metrics.

    Show full answer Show less

    How Normalization Works

    • Indicators, either preconfigured or custom, gather data at defined frequencies and store values in the Application Indicator Score table.
    • The normalization formula rescales application weights to a 1–10 range using target maximum and minimum values set per indicator.
    • If target max/min values are not set, the system dynamically calculates them from the application weight range.
    • When target values are set, the “Consider Absolute Values” option controls whether these values are strictly applied or adjusted intelligently based on actual application weights.
    • Normalization applies only when indicator frequency matches the fiscal period; otherwise, dynamic normalization uses actual weights for current scoring.
    • Direction settings (Maximize or Minimize) invert scoring logic: for Minimize, higher raw values yield lower scores, and vice versa.
    • Normalized scores are rounded to two decimal places for precision.

    Calculating Application Scores

    • Each indicator’s normalized value is multiplied by its weight from the application score profile to derive the indicator score.
    • Application scores are the sum of all indicator scores within the profile, providing an overall assessment.
    • For indicators sourced from other indicators, application weight sums normalized scores of dependent indicators similarly normalized.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables consistent, comparable scoring of applications across multiple metrics and time periods.
    • Supports strategic decision-making by highlighting applications with optimal performance or areas needing improvement.
    • Allows flexibility in handling different indicator frequencies and data characteristics to maintain scoring accuracy.
    • Customizable direction and target values provide control over how scores reflect business priorities.

    The indicators and their respective weights are used to calculate application score profiles for each configuration item. Use the score profile to calculate application scores and assess the applications. Apply these scores to compare applications and make strategic decisions about which ones to keep, replace, maintain, or invest more in.

    The preconfigured indicators or the indicators that you created retrieve their related data based on the frequency set at the indicator definition stage. This data is captured in the Application weight column of the Application Indicator Score [apm_app_indicator_score] table. The Target maximum and Target minimum that are set while creating an application indicator are for calculating the applications normalized value.

    Note:
    The Target maximum and Target minimum are not available when the data source is Assessments.

    The normalized value of the application score, which is measured on a scale of 1–10, is derived from the following formula:

    (Application Weight - Target minimum)/(Target maximum - Target minimum) * 9+1
    Note:
    • If the Target maximum and Target minimum are not set, then the maximum value within the range of applications is taken as the target maximum value. Similarly, the minimum value within the range of applications is taken as the target minimum value.
    • If the  Target maximum  and  Target minimum  are set and the Consider Absolute Values check box is selected, the entered values are considered.
    • If the Target maximum  and  Target minimum  are set and the Consider Absolute Values check box is cleared, the values are considered based on the following intelligent logic.
      Target maximum = Minimum value of (Target maximum value defined in the Indicator [apm_metric] table, Maximum value of Application Weights for the fiscal period)
      For example, consider a scenario where:
      • The application weights are 10, 20, 30,.…., and 1000.
      • Value entered in the Target maximum field is 100.

      With these assumptions, the Target maximum value considered is 100, as the defined Target maximum value (100) is lesser than the maximum application weight (1000).

      Target minimum = Maximum value of (Target minimum value defined in the Indicator [apm_metric] table, Minimum value of Application Weights for the fiscal period)
      For example, consider a scenario where:
      • The application weights are 10, 20, 30,.…., and 1000.
      • Value entered in the Target minimum field is 100.

      With these assumptions, the Target minimum value considered is 10, as the defined Target minimum value (100) is greater than the minimum application weight (10).

    • The Target maximum and Target minimum values are applied during normalization only when the indicator frequency matches the fiscal period being scored. If the frequencies don't match, the system uses dynamic normalization and derives the minimum and maximum boundaries from the actual application weights in the current scoring run.

      This behavior is intentional for indicators where raw values vary by fiscal period — for example, Performance Analytics indicators and Query Condition indicators that aggregate counts over time. For these indicators, applying a monthly target maximum to a quarterly or yearly aggregated value produces incorrect scores.

      For Query Condition indicators that read a static field value from the business application record — such as active user count — the raw value is the same regardless of the fiscal period. For such indicators, using the same absolute target values across all frequencies produces consistent and meaningful scores. However, because the system applies the same frequency-matching rule to all indicator types, absolute target values aren't used when the frequencies don't match.

    The Application Weight that is lesser than or equal to the target minimum is given the lower score, which is 1.

    The Application Weight that is greater than or equal to the target maximum is given the maximum score, which is 10.

    When you set the application indicators, you can also configure the Direction as Maximize or Minimize. The application with the maximum value gets the minimum score when the direction is Minimize. The application with the minimum value gets the maximum score when the direction is Maximize.

    If the Direction in the indicator is Minimize:

    (10 - above calculated Normalized value) + 1

    Application profile weightage is then applied on the Normalized value to derive the Indicator Score:

    Normalized Value * Weightage as in application score profile %

    After the indicator score is calculated for each of the indicators, the application score is calculated by summing up all the indicator scores used in the profile.

    If the source of the indicator is Indicators in the Data source field, then the application weight is calculated as the sum of the normalized scores of all its dependent indicators.

    Note:
    • The normalized score of the parent indicators is then calculated in a similar manner as it is calculated for all the other indicators.
    • The normalized value, indicator score, application weight, target maximum, target minimum, and total weight are all rounded to two decimal places only.

    In the figure, since the Cost and Incident indicators are set to minimize, the applications with lower costs and lower number of incidents have higher scores.