TRM lifecycle timelines on Gantt chart

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of TRM lifecycle timelines on Gantt chart

    The Technology Reference Model (TRM) lifecycle timelines are visualized on a Gantt chart, displaying application services such as hardware models and software products in a hierarchical format. This visualization includes lifecycle phases represented as bars, showing start and end dates for each phase. Lifecycle data also supports wildcard versions (ending with ‘’).

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    The TRM Gantt chart provides detailed phase information for each application service, including TRM phase status, which reflects whether a phase is production approved, unapproved, or not assessed.

    Key Features

    • Hierarchical Display: Application services are shown based on data from the TPM Discovered Technology table.
    • TRM Phase Status: The status column reflects lifecycle phase approval and dates, indicating if a phase is production approved or unapproved. If no lifecycle data exists, the status shows as "Not assessed".
    • Technical Debt Tracking: TRM technical debts are automatically created when products or versions are not aligned with TRM phases or standards. These debts help identify unapproved or undefined software products and versions.
    • Lifecycle End-Date Logic: End dates are auto-calculated based on the start of subsequent phases or extended by a system-defined range for the last phase, ensuring accurate timeline representation without requiring manual end-date entry.
    • Application Service Timeline Criteria: Lifecycle bars appear only when TRM product/version details match those defined in the TPM Technology Lifecycle table, ensuring data consistency for both software products and hardware models.
    • Color Coding: TRM lifecycle bars are color-coded by phase status, and users can customize these colors to fit their preferences.

    Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

    • Use the Gantt chart to monitor and manage lifecycle phases of application services and understand their current TRM phase status at a glance.
    • Leverage TRM technical debt information to identify and remediate software or hardware components that are out of compliance with TRM standards, improving governance and risk management.
    • Ensure that TRM product lifecycles are properly maintained with accurate version and edition details to enable timeline visualization and avoid errors related to overlapping dates.
    • Utilize scheduled jobs to keep TRM technical debt data current within the Enterprise Architecture Workspace, supporting ongoing lifecycle management.
    • Customize phase colors for clearer visualization tailored to your organization’s preferences, enhancing reporting and communication of lifecycle statuses.

    For Technology Reference Model (TRM), the application services (hardware models and software products) are displayed in a hierarchical structure, similar to the TPM view. The corresponding lifecycle timelines of the application services are displayed as bars on the Gantt chart. It also displays the data for lifecycles with wild card versions. The TRM wildcard version ends with a ‘*’.

    Figure 1. TRM Gantt chart view
    TRM view of the Gantt chart.

    In TRM view, the lifecycles aren’t aggregated to application services or business applications.

    It displays the following TRM related information:
    • TRM Phase
    • Start date
    • End date

    You can point to an individual bar in the Gantt chart to view the phase information.

    The Application services column is populated from the TPM Discovered Technology table (sn_apm_tpm_discovered_technology).

    TRM phase status

    The TRM view also displays the status of the TRM phases of the software products or hardware models. The TRM phase column is populated from the TRM Product Lifecycle table (sn_apm_trm_standards_product_lifecycle).

    If no TRM product lifecycle data is available for an application service, then the TRM phase for that service is displayed as Not assessed.

    Also, if a TRM product phase doesn’t have the Production approved check box (Enterprise Architecture Workspace > Setup > TRM Phases) selected, then the TRM phase column displays the status of the application service having that TRM phase as Unapproved. For details on how to approve a TRM phase, see Add or edit a TRM phase - Legacy.

    Only when the TRM phase is marked as production approved and the phase start date has already passed, the TRM phase for the application service is displayed in the TRM phase column. For example, the TRM phase Divest is marked as production approved and has a start date of 01-12-2023. The current date is 10-12-2023. In such a scenario, all application services associated with the TRM phase have their phase status as Divest in the TRM phase column.

    If you have TRM products that aren't aligned with TRM phases and standards, then a TRM technical debt is created in the TRM Technical Debt (sn_apm_trm_standards_technical_debt) table. TRM technical debts are created at two levels. The following table contains information on TRM technical debts and their associated levels.

    TRM product TRM phase TRM level Reason Explanation
    Not applicable Not applicable Product The software isn’t defined in TRM. TRM product isn’t available.
    TRM Product Name TRM Product Phase Product The software isn’t approved for production. TRM product isn’t production approved.
    TRM Product Name Not applicable Product lifecycle The software version isn’t defined in the TRM product lifecycle. No TRM lifecycle is available for the TRM product.
    TRM Product Name Not applicable Product lifecycle The software version isn’t defined in the TRM product lifecycle. TRM lifecycle with full version information isn’t available.
    TRM Product Name Not applicable Product lifecycle The software version isn’t defined in the TRM product lifecycle. TRM lifecycle with version information isn’t available.
    TRM Product Name Not applicable Product lifecycle The software version isn’t defined in the TRM product lifecycle. TRM lifecycle with version information isn’t available.
    TRM Product Name Lifecycle phase Product lifecycle The software version isn’t approved for production. TRM lifecycle with full version information isn’t production approved.
    TRM Product Name Not applicable Product lifecycle The software version isn’t approved for production. TRM lifecycle with full version isn’t available for current date.
    TRM Product Name Lifecycle phase Product lifecycle The software version isn’t approved for production. TRM lifecycle with version and edition information isn’t production approved.
    For details on TRM technical debts, see Manage Technology Reference Model (TRM) technical debt - Legacy.

    You can schedule the Populate TRM technical debts in the EA Workspace job to update the TRM technical debt data in the EA Workspace. For more information, see Run a scheduled job to update TRM technical debt data in EA Workspace.

    Lifecycle end-date calculation logic

    Entering an end date isn’t required while creating a TRM product lifecycle.

    For each TRM lifecycle phase, the end date of one phase is the start date of the next phase. For example, application service A has two TRM phases that are Divest and Approved with Constraints. The start date for the Divest phase is 01-12-2023 and the start date for the Approved with Constraints phase is 30-12-2023. No phase end date has been mentioned for the Divest phase. In such a scenario, the end date of the Divest phase is considered as 30-12-2023. An error message is displayed if the product lifecycle dates overlap.

    For the last phase, the end date is calculated by adding the time value as defined in the system property sn_apm.endRangeofTPMLifecycle with the current date. For example, today is 01-12-2023 and the end date value as defined in the system property sn_apm.endRangeofTPMLifecycle is three years from the current date. Then, the end date of the phase will be 01-12-2026.

    Application service timelines

    The TRM product lifecycle timeline bars are displayed on the Gantt chart. However, for the lifecycle timeline bars to be displayed, some criteria must be fulfilled.
    • Software products: For software products, the TRM product Name and Product full version values for that particular software product as defined in the TPM Technology Lifecycle table (sn_apm_tpm_technology_lifecycle) should match the TRM Product and Version values that are entered while creating the TRM lifecycle for that product.

      Or the TRM product Name, Version, and Edition values for that particular software product as defined in the TPM Technology Lifecycle table (sn_apm_tpm_technology_lifecycle) should match the TRM Product,Version, and Edition values that are entered while creating the TRM lifecycle for that product.

    • Hardware models: For hardware models, the TRM product hardware model value for that application service should match the hardware model value that is entered while creating the TRM lifecycle for that application service.

    For details on how to create a TRM product, see Add a TRM product in Enterprise Architecture Workspace.

    For details on how to create a TRM product lifecycle request, see Add a TRM product lifecycle.

    For details on how to approve or reject a TRM product or lifecycle request, see Approve or reject a TRM product or product lifecycle request - Legacy.

    Color coding

    The colors of the TRM lifecycle timeline bars are based on their TRM phase status. To see the colors associated with each TRM phase status, select the Legend button (Legend button.).

    You can also change the TRM phase colors according to your requirement. For details on how to modify existing TRM phase colors, see Add or edit a TRM phase - Legacy.