Program Management

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Program Management

    The ServiceNow® Program Management application enables customers to group and manage related projects and demands as a single program. This coordinated approach allows oversight and management that is not possible when projects and demands are handled independently. The roleitprogrammanageris necessary to manage programs effectively.

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    Key Features

    • Program Creation: Create programs by adding related projects and demands, either as standalone entities or as part of a portfolio (note a program cannot belong to multiple portfolios).
    • Program-Specific Tasks: Define tasks outside project scopes but essential to program completion.
    • Milestones, Risks, and Issues: Define key milestones and monitor anticipated risks and issues at the program level, aggregating data from constituent projects and demands.
    • Progress Monitoring: Use graphical charts and timelines in the project workbench to track progress of programs, projects, and demands, including milestones.
    • Financial and Resource Tracking: Track costs, resources, and schedules with automatic roll-up of cost plans from projects and demands.
    • Dashboards and Reporting: Access the program and PMO dashboards for centralized graphical reporting on program status and financials.

    Program Creation and Approval Workflow

    Programs follow a distinct creation and approval process, reflecting their strategic and multi-year nature:

    • Programs typically originate as strategic initiatives rather than operational demands.
    • Recommended workflow includes:
      • Strategic planning phase with initiative creation.
      • Business case development with defined scope, budget ($1M+), and timeline (2–5 years).
      • Executive approval via steering committee or sponsor.
      • Program record creation referencing the approved initiative.
      • Breakdown of constituent projects under the program.
    • Alternatively, organizations requiring formal demand intake can create a demand categorized as a Program Request, route it through approval, then manually create and link the program.

    Usage Guidelines

    • Use programs for multi-project initiatives with budgets over $1M, spanning multiple years and organizational units.
    • Use projects for single deliverables.
    • A project or demand can only belong to one program, while projects and demands can also be part of a portfolio without being in a program.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By leveraging Program Management, customers can:

    • Coordinate complex, multi-project initiatives strategically aligned with business goals.
    • Gain visibility into aggregated program-level risks, issues, progress, costs, and resources.
    • Maintain executive oversight with structured approval workflows and comprehensive dashboards.
    • Improve planning and execution by managing interdependencies and milestones at the program level.

    A program helps you to logically group related projects or demands under a single entity. The ServiceNow® Program Management application helps you to manage related projects and demands in coordinated way which is not possible when projects and demands are managed independently.

    The it_program_manager role is essential to be able to manage programs. The Program Management application provides the following capabilities to the program manager:
    • Create a program by adding related projects and demands.
    • Create tasks specific to the program. These tasks are essential for completion of the program but are outside the scope of projects.
    • Define key milestones, anticipated risks, and issues for the program.
    • Monitor the progress and status and of all the projects and demand that are part of the program. Program manager can track the costs, resources, and schedules.
    When you create a program, consider:
    • A program can be part of a portfolio or can be a generic standalone program that is not part of any portfolio.
    • A program cannot be part of multiple portfolios.
    • A project or demand cannot be part of multiple programs.
    • You can have projects and demands that can directly be part of a portfolio and not part of a program.
    The following diagram illustrates how you can implement programs.
    Figure 1. Program implementation
    Program implementation

    Basics of Program Management

    When you create a program, you can add multiple projects or demands to it. If you have created cost plans for the projects and demands, certain values are rolled up from the cost breakdown of program. At the same time, the risk and issues of the projects and demands are also included with the program. The following diagram illustrates how information in the program is related to the projects and demands that are part of the program.
    Figure 2. Information population in program
    Information population in program
    Project workbench provides graphical charts to view and monitor the progress of the program and the projects and demands that are part of it. You can also view the progress of a program, projects, and demands against a timeline with the details of milestones and key milestones.

    The project manager dashboard provides a central location to a program manager to generate different graphical reports of programs and the program financials.

    Creating programs: approval and business case workflow

    Programs in ServiceNow® follow a different creation pattern than projects:

    Why programs don't typically come from demands
    • Demand workflow: demand → approval → convert to project
    • Program workflow: strategic initiative → executive approval → create program directly
    • Programs are strategic multi-project containers decided at executive/portfolio level, not operational demands. They represent multi-year transformations such as digital transformation and cloud migration, rather than single deliverables.
    Recommended program approval workflow
    1. Strategic planning phase: Create Initiative planning item in Strategic Planning for the strategic program
    2. Business case development: Attach business case document to Initiative; define scope, budget ($1M+), timeline (2-5 years)
    3. Executive approval: Present Initiative with business case to steering committee or executive sponsor for approval
    4. Program creation: After approval, create Program record in PPM with reference to approved Initiative
    5. Project breakdown: Create constituent projects under the program (these can come from demands)
    Alternative: Demand-based program creation (if needed)

    If your organization requires formal demand intake for programs:

    1. Create Demand with Category as Program Request.
    2. Attach program business case to Demand.
    3. Route through demand approval workflow.
    4. After approval, manually create Program (no automatic conversion like demand→project).
    5. Link Program to source Demand via reference field.

    Program vs Project decision criteria:

    • Use Program when: Multi-project initiative, $1M+ budget, 2+ year duration, cross-organizational scope
    • Use Project when: Single deliverable