Agile work management in CWM

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 4, 2026
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Agile work management in CWM

    Collaborative Work Management (CWM) enables agile teams to manage their Scrum delivery cycle within a unified workspace. Teams can build and refine backlogs, plan sprints, execute work as stories and scrum tasks, and collaborate efficiently. CWM supports familiar Scrum workflows while offering a flexible work item model, AI assistance, and enhanced collaboration features.

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    Key Features

    • Workspace Setup: Create Spaces and Boards to organize work. Use default work items (Stories, Scrum tasks, CWM Tasks) or define custom types like Bugs to fit your team’s terminology.
    • Backlog Management: Maintain a single backlog for grooming, prioritization, and scheduling work into sprints using the Sprint Planning view.
    • Sprint Planning: Define sprint duration, dates, and story point capacity. Drag work items from backlog to sprints with capacity indicators to prevent over-commitment.
    • Work Execution and Tracking: Use Kanban boards to track sprint progress by moving story cards across states. Apply quick filters for focused views during sprints.
    • Scrum Tasks: Break stories into manageable scrum tasks manually or via AI assistance (Now Assist) for better effort estimation and workload distribution. Scrum task indicators enhance visibility on Kanban cards.
    • Task Dependencies: Link work items with prerequisite, dependent, or related relationships across boards and spaces to visualize cross-team dependencies without blocking progress.
    • Retrospectives: Create retrospective boards post-sprint to capture successes and improvement areas for continuous team development.
    • Connected Work: Integrate records from any ServiceNow application (e.g., incidents, defects, enhancement requests) into CWM boards to manage all work centrally without separate triage steps.

    Comparison with Agile Development 2.0

    • Work Item Hierarchy: Unlike Agile Development 2.0’s fixed hierarchy (Products, Epics, Stories, Scrum Tasks), CWM allows custom work item types and uses Spaces and Goals to organize and link work.
    • Unified Backlog: CWM’s Connected work feature replaces triage boards by directly bringing source records into the backlog for sprint planning and status updates.
    • Program-Level Planning: CWM focuses on team-level execution. For multi-team coordination and PI planning, use Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) with integration to CWM for execution tracking.
    • Data Handling: Sprint and story details are managed within CWM and not synchronized back to classic UI forms, so teams should use CWM exclusively when managing sprint work.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers can leverage CWM to manage their agile workflows comprehensively within a single platform. This unification simplifies backlog management, sprint planning, and daily execution, while AI assistance and customizable work items increase flexibility and productivity. Integration with other ServiceNow applications via Connected work enables holistic tracking of all agile-related work, improving transparency and collaboration across teams. Additionally, CWM’s ability to link with EAP supports scalable agile practices for both team and program levels.

    Run your agile workflow in Collaborative Work Management (CWM), from building and refining a backlog to planning sprints, executing work as stories and scrum tasks, and collaborating with your team.

    CWM is a unified workspace where agile teams can manage their delivery cycle. Teams transitioning to CWM can continue to run the Scrum workflow they’re familiar with, which includes managing a backlog, planning and executing sprints, and tracking daily progress. These teams also benefit from CWM's flexible work item model, AI assistance, and broader collaboration features.

    Agile workflow in CWM

    The following end-to-end workflow shows how agile teams use CWM to plan and execute work.

    Agile methodology execution workflow in Collaborative Work Management. More details on the workflow follows.

    Set up your workspace

    Create a Space and a Board for your team. The Space is where all your work lives. CWM provides Stories, Scrum tasks, and CWM Tasks as default work item types. You can also define custom work item types to reflect your team's terminology, for example, Bugs. For more information, see Create a Board in CWM and Create and manage custom work item types in CWM.

    Build and maintain your backlog

    Add work items to your Board through the Sprint Planning view. All unscheduled work appears in the Backlog pane, giving your team a single place to groom, prioritize, and reorder items before pulling them into a sprint. For more information, see Add work items to Sprint planning Backlog in CWM.

    Plan sprints

    Create sprints by setting a duration, start and end dates, and story point capacity. Drag items from the Backlog into a sprint, or add them directly. Capacity indicators in each sprint section help teams avoid over-committing. For more information, see Create a sprint in CWM and Plan work items into sprints in CWM.

    Execute and track work

    Start the sprint and use the Kanban board to track work in progress. Team members move story cards across state lanes to update status. Use quick filters to focus the board on a specific sprint, state, or other columns to stay on top of what matters during the current sprint. For more information, see Start or complete a sprint in CWM.

    Break stories into scrum tasks

    For more granular daily execution, break user stories into scrum tasks. Scrum tasks are subtasks linked to a story, which help teams estimate effort, distribute work, and track daily progress. Create them manually from the story's Scrum tasks tab, or use Now Assist to generate them automatically based on the story context. When a story has scrum tasks, an indicator appears on the Kanban card so teams can quickly see stories that have been decomposed. For more information, see Scrum tasks for stories in CWM.

    Track dependencies

    Link work items to show how they relate to each other using three relationship types: prerequisite, dependent, and related to. These are informational relationships and don’t block task progress. You can link work items across boards and spaces, enabling visibility into cross-team dependencies without needing to be on the same board. For more information, see Task dependencies and relationships in CWM.

    Hold retrospectives

    At the end of each sprint, create a retrospective board to capture what went well and what to improve for the next sprint. For more information, see Create a retrospective board for a sprint in CWM.

    Bringing in work from other ServiceNow applications

    Agile teams often work on more than just stories. Incidents must be resolved, defects must be fixed, and enhancement requests must be delivered. The Connected work feature in CWM lets you bring records from any ServiceNow application into your Board by defining filter conditions. Once connected, you can plan those records into sprints and manage them alongside your stories from a single backlog.

    Teams who previously used the Unified Backlog and triage boards in Agile Development 2.0 to manage defects, incidents, and other work records. These teams can use Connected work to achieve a similar centralized view in CWM. For more information, see Connected work in CWM.

    Comparing CWM to Agile Development 2.0

    CWM covers the core Scrum workflow, but approaches some functional areas differently. The following describes how key Agile Development 2.0 concepts map to CWM.

    Functional area In Agile Development 2.0 In CWM
    Work item hierarchy Fixed hierarchy of Products, Epics, Stories, and Scrum Tasks.

    Create custom work item types to build a hierarchy that fits your team. There are no built-in Products, Releases, or Themes.

    You can use Spaces to separate product areas and Goals to connect work to business objectives.
    Unified backlog and triage Triage boards filtered records from other apps and automatically created stories for triaged items. The Connected work feature brings source records directly into the board backlog. So, no separate triage step required. Teams can plan them into sprints and update their status directly from the CWM Board. See Connected work in CWM.
    Multi-team and program planning Scrum Programs enabled coordination across multiple teams. CWM is optimized for team-level execution. For program-level planning such as PI planning, use EAP. EAP teams can connect to CWM so teams execute sprint work in CWM while program-level visibility remains in EAP. See Connecting EAP with Collaborative Work Management.
    Sprint data and classic UI Sprint data is stored on the story record and is visible when you open the story in classic UI.

    Sprint, story points, and acceptance criteria in the CWM story panel are managed within CWM and are not written back to the classic story form. If you open a story using Detailed Form View, the Sprint field on the classic form appears empty. This is expected behavior.
    Note:
    Do not use CWM and Agile Development 2.0 simultaneously for the same stories. If your team manages sprint work in CWM, use CWM as the primary workspace for those stories.