---
sourceDocument: Australia Strategic Portfolio Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-business-management

 Release :

    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia Strategic Portfolio Management

ft:clusterId :

    - itbm

bundleId :

    - itbm

workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Lenses in Strategic Planning

# Lenses in Strategic Planning {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated September 10, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read
Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
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## Summary of Lenses in Strategic Planning

Lenses in Strategic Planning provide customizable planning perspectives tailored to different managerial roles within an organization.
They enable planning managers to create personalized portfolio plans that prioritize and align work with high-level initiatives and organizational goals.
By selecting a specific lens, users adopt a planning viewpoint that corresponds with their responsibilities, such as organizational, product, or strategic investment perspectives.
Show full answer Show less  

## Lens Structure and Usage

Each lens consists of a hierarchical structure made up of entities representing various organizational planning levels. Portfolio plans can be created at any entity level, with planning item types (such as epics, projects, or custom work types) associated with the lowest entity to define the scope of planned work.

For example, the Organization lens includes Company, Business Unit, and Department entities, allowing a department head to plan and prioritize work at the department level effectively. Customers can start with one of the ten pre-defined lenses or build a custom lens structure of up to six levels to match their specific planning needs.

## Pre-defined Lenses and Their Roles

* **Organization:** Enables department heads and business unit heads to plan and visualize work aligned across company, business unit, and department levels.
* **Product \& Digital Product:** Product leaders and managers can plan, fund, prioritize, and roadmap product-related work, including digital product enhancements integrated with the ServiceNow Digital Product Release Workspace.
* **Strategic Investments:** Designed for strategy leaders and EPMO to plan and manage strategic priorities, initiatives, and programs irrespective of who executes the work.
* **Goals:** Supports portfolio managers and business unit heads in creating and tracking goals, aligning work to achieve them.
* **Value Stream:** Allows value stream and ART managers to plan and prioritize work within value streams.
* **Project Portfolio and Project Program:** Enables portfolio and program managers to plan, fund, and prioritize projects and programs.
* **Business Capability:** For enterprise architects to plan work based on business capabilities or applications; requires the ServiceNow Enterprise Architecture Workspace.
* **Planning Item:** Allows direct planning and prioritization of work items without configuring structures such as portfolios or products.

## Customization and Next Steps

Administrators can modify existing lens structures or create new ones to suit specific planning requirements. Planning managers can leverage these lenses to build portfolio plans that align their work with the organization's business strategy effectively.

For implementation, customers should explore lens configuration options and portfolio plan creation within Strategic Planning to optimize work prioritization and alignment.  
Lenses represent planning perspectives, which would be different for planning managers at different levels in an organization. Lenses enable you to create personalized portfolio plans through which you prioritize and align
work with high-level initiatives and goals.

## Lenses overview {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__section_cvz_dnf_fvb}

Lenses in Strategic Planning indicate a perspective in which you can plan and fund work. By selecting a lens, you choose a planning perspective to prioritize and align your work in. For example, if you're a department
leader, you can choose the Organization lens. If you're a product manager, you can choose the Product lens.

## Lens structure {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__section_yx1_g5l_fvb}

Each lens in Strategic Planning consists of a structure that is made up of entities. Lens entities represent different levels of planning for your company. You can build portfolio plans at one of these levels.  
The planning item types associated with the bottom entity of a lens represent the type of work that can be planned using these portfolio plans.Figure 1. Sample lens structure

For example, the Organization lens has a Company, Business Unit, and Department as its entities. As the head of the Support department, you can create a portfolio plan at the department level. Then, you can prioritize the work
that is assigned to the department and plan a roadmap for the prioritized work. This work can be in the form of epics, projects, demands, or any other custom type.

Get started with one of the pre-defined lenses, or build a custom lens structure, with up to six levels, to suit your planning needs.

## Pre-defined lenses and their structure {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__section_lxv_lwh_fvb}

Strategic Planning provides ten pre-defined lenses to get you started with building your portfolio plans - Project Portfolio, Project Program, Organization, Strategic Investments, Product, Digital Product,
Value Stream, Goals, Project Program, and Business Capability. Planning managers can use these lenses based on their role at the company.  
Figure 2. Structure of pre-defined lenses {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__table_xfv_x5h_fvb__entry__4}

| Lens | Planning levels (Lens entities) | Planning manager | Description |
|-|-|-|-|
| Organization | * Company * Business unit * Department {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_n2b_2vh_fvb} | * Department head * Business unit head {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_i2l_vvh_fvb} | Plan and track the delivery of work in my organization and visualize how the work is aligned to various levels. |
| Product | * Company * Product models {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_plw_fvh_fvb} | * Product leader * Product manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_vlk_4wh_fvb} | Plan, fund, and prioritize work from a product lens. |
| Digital Product | * Application Model * Product Feature * Product Enhancement {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_g3d_4ly_sdc} | * Product leader * Product manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_qjj_fmy_sdc} | Plan, prioritize, and roadmap work for digital products. If the ServiceNow® Digital Product Release Workspace is installed, the planning items associated with the product enhancement appear in the Planning items tab of the Release scope page in Digital Product Release Workspace. For details, see [Scope of a release](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=dpr-work-release-scope&version=australia&pubname=australia-it-service-management&ft:locale=en-US). |
| Strategic Investments | * Company * Strategic priority * Initiative * Strategic program {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_hkj_gvh_fvb} | * Strategy leader * EPMO {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_hmp_nwh_fvb} | Plan, manage, and provide oversight for strategic initiatives or programs regardless of who is doing the work. |
| Goals | Goal | * Portfolio manager * Business unit head {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_qpb_2jd_2wb} | * Create, share, and collaborate on a portfolio plan for defined goals. * Set targets for the goals to track their progress. * Align, prioritize, and roadmap the work you must do to achieve them. {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_pd5_whm_fwb} |
| Value stream | * Product model * Value Stream {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_ad3_prv_dwb} | * Value stream manager * ART manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_jx5_ngm_fwb} | Plan, fund, and prioritize work for a value stream. |
| Project Portfolio | Portfolio | * Product manager * Portfolio manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_ck1_1sv_dwb} | Plan, fund, and prioritize work in your project portfolios. |
| Business Capability | * Business capability * Business application {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_jdc_bvg_11c} | Enterprise architect | Plan, prioritize, and roadmap the work based on your business capabilities or business applications. This lens can be used only if the [ServiceNow® Enterprise Architecture Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ea-workspace&version=australia&pubname=australia-application-portfolio-management&ft:locale=en-US) is installed. |
| Project Program | * Portfolio * Program {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_ezl_ycw_dbc} | * Portfolio manager * Program manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_iny_ncw_dbc} | Plan, prioritize, and roadmap the work in your programs. |
| Planning item | Planning items | * Portfolio manager * Program manager {#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_iny_ncw_dbe} | Plan, prioritize, and roadmap the work directly with planning items, without configuring organization structure, programs, portfolios, or products. |
[ ]

{#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__table_xfv_x5h_fvb}  
* If you're an admin, you can modify the structure for these pre-defined lenses or configure a new lens altogether based on your planning manager's requirements. For more information, see [Lens configuration in Strategic Planning](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ILCkRUZ_W9Yzmr6uz7bNhw "Learn how to configure settings for planning items and add additional configuration for a lens in Strategic Planning so that you can set up lenses for your planning manager.").
* If you're a planning manager, learn about portfolio plans to start aligning your work with the business strategy. See [Portfolio plans in Strategic Planning](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/1NTL_PyaD0k50M1OpVxo4g "Personalized portfolio plans help you align work with your company's objectives and roadmap the right work for the right time. Drive shared strategy using planning insights from portfolio plans and improve enterprise planning.").
{#lens-alignment-planner-workspace__ul_fpq_2wy_2xb}