Business Continuity Management release notes

The ServiceNow® Business Continuity Management application enables your organization to continue to deliver products and services at an acceptable level during disruptive events such as power outages, extreme weather, or equipment damage. Business Continuity Management was enhanced and updated in the Xanadu release.

Business Continuity Management highlights for the Xanadu release

• Review the types, relationships, and sources of relationships for an asset through updated plan records.
• Access the most current information on the dependencies that are related to the Business Impact Analysis (BIA), plans, or events.
• Manage and assess the recovery tasks that are listed within your plan. You can organize the tasks by their dependencies.

See Business Continuity Management for more information.

Important:

Business Continuity Management is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

Important information for upgrading to the Xanadu release

The relationship tables introduced in the plan records are generated by the Update BCP dependencies snapshot scheduled job. After upgrading to the Xanadu release, you can view these tables only after the scheduled job has run or by manually selecting the Update dependencies button.

New in the Xanadu release

Create a business impact analysis

Analyze the business impact of an asset's dependencies by using the latest updates from the most recent Business Impact Analysis (BIA) record. You can also determine the recovery time frame and data backup needs for the asset.

Create a business continuity plan

Access the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) record from the BIA column in the plan asset form. This column has been updated from a document ID type to a reference type so that you can update the BIA information and navigate to the plan record.

Identify the assets that are affected when a primary scope is operationally down by marking an asset as a primary scope and identifying its related assets. This way, you get a clear view of the relationships between assets.

Add asset and scope to the BCP

Identify the discrepancies between the primary and related assets by using the hierarchical view in the plan record. This way, you can address the gaps in the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), or Recovery Tier (RT) values.

Dependency Configuration records

Access up-to-date information on the dependencies that are related to the BIA, plans, or events. You can analyze how these dependencies affect your business.

Add recovery tasks

Calculate the time that it takes to recover each event asset by tagging the assets to the recovery tasks.

Create New Recovery task form

Preview the execution order of the recovery tasks by their dependencies during an exercise or an actual event. You can identify any cyclic dependencies in the recovery tasks that might trigger error notifications and stop further actions on that recovery task. You can also record the estimated time that is required for a recovery task directly on the recovery task form.

Create an exercise

Assess the time and effort for an activated plan and the recovery of the impacted assets. You can track the status of an open activated plan and monitor the progress during an actual event.

Format PDF templates for BIAs, BCPs, and events

Improve the content in PDFs of BIAs, plans, and events by implementing a new layout:

• Arrange the various event tasks in a table format.
• Include the details of the asset owner and the description from the Business Impact Analysis.
• Display a table that outlines the dependencies of the plan assets.
• Mark the date of the PDF creation on the front page.

UI changes

Set up Impact analysis dependency update configuration

The Source records to consider option has been incorporated in the Sources tab within the Dependency configuration modules.

Add asset and scope to the BCP

The Relationship source column has been included in the Asset dependencies.

The BIA column in the Scope tab has been updated from the previous document ID type to a reference type.

Create a business continuity plan

The following UI changes have been added to the plan records:

• The Add primary asset and Add related asset actions have been introduced to the plan records.
• The Parent plans tab has been added to the plan records.
• The Planned order column in the Recovery tasks tab displays the order of the tasks based on their dependencies.
• The Open state has been added to the activated plans.
• The Asset dependencies tab now displays the detailed information about the assets, replacing the Primary scope and Related asset toggles that were previously displayed in the Scope tab of the plan record.
• The Planned duration field in the recovery task displays the expected time frame for the recovery tasks.
• The Tag assets field has been added to the plans.
• The Type column in the plan records has been migrated to the Types column.
• The Completion deadline field has been migrated to the Planned duration field.
• The previously auto-populated BIA value in the Source column of the Related plans tab in the plan record is deprecated. Instead, the From plan asset value in the Source column is used.
• The Primary source column has been deprecated from the plan asset record. It has been moved to the Asset dependencies tab.

Changed in this release

Element definitions and variables

You can now add a Windows server asset in the Windows server element definition or a Linux server asset in the Linux server element definition. However, you can’t add the Windows server asset or the Linux server asset in the filter of the Hardware element definition.

Deprecations

• The BCM Classic Workspace isn’t compatible with the new features and enhancements that were introduced with the Xanadu release. Any issues and errors encountered with its continued use aren't supported. To avoid any disruptions, transition to the BCM Configurable Workspace.

  Note:

  Although the BCM Classic Workspace is still available through the URLs after its deprecation, it doesn't appear in the navigation menu.

Activation information

Install Business Continuity Management by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. 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 for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

Browser requirements

Business Continuity Management requires the following browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox and Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR)
• Microsoft Edge Chromium
• Safari 12.0 and later versions

Accessibility information

Accessibility improvements for the Business Continuity Workspace include the following updates.

Screen reader support has been improved for the following features:

• Business impact analysis assessment
• Business impact analysis dashboard
• Contributors side panel
• Assets tab in the plans and events (Element picker)