Demand tasks
Summarize
Summary of Demand tasks
Demand tasks are units of work created within a demand to break down planning activities before converting the demand into a project, change, enhancement, or defect. They are designed to help delegate and manage activities that assess the feasibility of a demand.
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Key Features
- Demand tasks vs Project tasks: Demand tasks do not include planned, actual, or original dates but have a due date that targets task completion without impacting demand workflow. Project tasks affect project timelines and support date constraints and execution types (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid), which demand tasks do not.
- No nested demand tasks: Demand tasks cannot be created within other demand tasks.
- Resource assignment: Resources can be assigned via Assigned to, Additional Assignee list, and Assignment Group fields. However, resource assignments for demand tasks do not transfer to work entities created from the demand and are not used for resource allocation or time tracking in those work entities.
- Time tracking and costs: Resources assigned to demand tasks can submit time cards. The actual effort and cost are calculated from time cards and resource rates (from rate models, labor rates, or system properties) and rolled up to the parent demand’s actual cost and effort.
- Adding work items: Depending on the selected demand task category and user role, users can add cost plans, resource assignments, benefit plans, and risks to a demand through the demand task form.
Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers
Demand tasks enable structured planning and delegation of work within demands before conversion to projects or changes. While they support resource assignment and time tracking, these assignments do not affect resource allocation in downstream work entities. Customers can use demand tasks to accurately capture cost, effort, benefits, and risks during demand assessment, improving demand feasibility evaluation and planning accuracy.
A demand task is a unit of work created within a demand. Use demand tasks to break down planning activities before converting the demand into a project, change, enhancement, or defect.
You can create a demand task from the Demand Tasks related list to delegate activities that are helpful for assessing demand feasibility. Demand tasks differ from project tasks in the following aspects:
- Planned dates, actual dates, and original dates are part of project tasks not demand tasks.
- The due date indicates the date on which the task is targeted for completion and doesn't affect the demand workflow. Project tasks, however, affect the project completion dates if the planned dates and actual dates are changed.
- Don't support the creation of nested demand tasks.
- Don't support task constraints such as the settings Start ASAP and Start on a specific date.
- Don't support an execution type such as Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid.
Resource assignment
Assign resources for a demand task using the Assigned to, Additional Assignee list, and Assignment Group fields. Don't create and use resource assignments to allocate resources or groups to a demand task or submit the time spent on the demand. If you associate a resource assignment with a demand task, the associated resource plan isn't transferred to the work entity created from that demand.
Resource assignments aren't associated with the demand by default. Don't use resource assignments created for the future work entity to submit time spent on a demand.
When you submit a time card for a demand, the time and cost incurred aren't transferred to the work entity created from the demand. The time and cost remain within the demand as the demand cost and effort.
Resources assigned to a demand task can submit the time spent on it using a time card. For more information, see Submit a time card for a demand task.
Actual cost and effort for a demand task
The actual effort of the work performed on the demand task is derived from the time card. The actual cost is derived from the hourly resource rate defined in the rate model, default labor rate, or default system property. The actual cost and effort for a demand task are then rolled up to derive the actual cost and effort for the associated demand. For more information, see Actual cost and effort calculation for a demand and demand task.
Add work items to a Demand
Based on the selected demand task category and role assigned to you, you can use the demand task form to: