Schedule Planning

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated September 11, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Schedule Planning

    Schedule Planning in ServiceNow enables project managers to efficiently assign and manage employee workspace allocations aligned with project timelines. It facilitates visibility and control over employee assignments, space allocations, and scheduling plans to support a smooth transition back to the office environment.

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    Project managers can:

    • View employees assigned to their projects
    • View spaces allocated to projects
    • Create schedule plans for defined periods linking employees to spaces
    • Execute schedule plans to assign spaces to users’ Workplace Profiles

    Access and Setup

    To use Schedule Planning, customers must install the Workplace Central and Workplace Space Management plugins, available from the ServiceNow Store. Additionally, the property snwsdcore.ALLOCATIONTYPE must be configured to enable Schedule Planning features.

    Project owners access Schedule Planning via All > Workplace Central > Schedule Planner in the workspace. They can create and edit schedule plans but only for projects assigned according to the configured allocation type, which can be based on department primary contact, cost center manager, or workplace entity management fields.

    Schedule Plan Lifecycle

    Schedule plans progress through defined states reflecting their stage:

    • Draft: Created but not yet detailed or started
    • In Progress: Details filled and assignments underway
    • Published: Assignments completed and active
    • Complete: Plan end date reached; assignments inactive
    • Cancelled: Plan cancelled; assignments inactive

    A daily system job automatically completes plans that have passed their end date, ensuring data accuracy and assignment management.

    Key Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Streamlines management of workspace assignments tied to projects
    • Provides clear visibility into employee and space allocations
    • Supports flexible and controlled scheduling of office space usage
    • Automates lifecycle management of workspace schedules for compliance and operational efficiency

    Manage space assignments to help employees head back to the office.

    Schedule Planning overview

    Schedule Planning provides a streamlined experience for project managers to assign and manage employee assignments based on project time frames.

    As a project manager, you can do the following:

    • View a list of employees assigned to your project
    • View a list of spaces allocated for your project
    • Create a schedule plan for a specific period to map spaces to the employees
    • Execute a schedule plan to assign spaces to the Workplace Profile of the users

    Accessing Schedule Planning

    You must install the following plugins to use the Schedule Planner module:

    • Workplace Central
    • Workplace Space Management

    You can install the plugins from the ServiceNow Store. You can also visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information of all the released apps, see the ServiceNow Store release notes.

    Important:
    You must set a value for the sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE property to enable schedule planning.
    To access the Schedule Planner, navigate to All > Workplace Central, then select the Schedule Planner module in the workspace.
    Schedule Planner dashboard with information about schedule plans, departments, users, and allocations.

    As a project owner, you can view the created schedule plans, projects assigned to you, and the spaces and users assigned to the projects. You can create a schedule plan or edit existing schedule plans. For more information, see Working with Schedule Planning.

    Note:
    A project owner can create schedule plans for the projects that are assigned to them. Projects can be assigned to a user from the following fields:
    • Primary contact field of the department
    • Manager field of the cost center
    • Managed by group or Managed by field of the workplace entity

    Only one of the fields is considered for the project list based on the sn_wsd_core.ALLOCATION_TYPE property.

    Schedule Plan states

    A schedule plan can be in one of the following states:

    • Draft: Project owner has created a new schedule plan but has not filled the details or started the workplace assignments.
    • In Progress: Project owner has filled the schedule plan details and the workplace locations are being assigned to the users.
    • Published: Schedule plan is created and the workplace locations are assigned to all the users.
    • Complete: Schedule plan has reached the specified end date and the workplace location assignments are made inactive.
    • Cancelled: Project owner has cancelled the schedule plan and the workplace location assignments are made inactive.
    Note:
    The Complete the lapsed schedule plan job runs every day to check which schedule plans have reached the end date and move them to the Complete state.