Exploring Technology Reference Model - Legacy

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring Technology Reference Model - Legacy

    The Technology Reference Model (TRM) feature in Enterprise Architecture enables ServiceNow customers to define and enforce organizational standards for software and hardware products. It helps manage approved and unapproved technology usage across the enterprise to reduce risks such as security vulnerabilities, delivery challenges, and legal issues. Starting with the Xanadu release, the legacy TRM module has been moved to the Enterprise Architecture Workspace.

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    By establishing clear standards and approved software versions, organizations can monitor and control technology use, ensuring compliance and reducing technical debt and costs.

    Key Features

    • Approval and Restriction: Approve or restrict software products and specific versions for organizational use.
    • Product Lifecycle Management: Manage product lifecycle phases such as approved, unapproved, evaluation, or divest, including start and end dates.
    • Usage Monitoring: Identify business applications using unapproved software or versions.
    • Integration with TPM and SAM: Works with Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) and Software Asset Management (SAM) to search TRM libraries and select products.
    • Custom Product Definitions: Define custom software products if SAM integration is unavailable.

    Practical Benefits

    Implementing TRM standards helps improve your organization's security posture by minimizing risks from unapproved software, enhances supportability through controlled technology use, and reduces legal exposure. It also supports cost savings by managing technical debt effectively.

    Requirements and Considerations

    Installation of either the SAM Foundation or SAM Professional plugin is required for TPM and TRM functionality. Customers should review migration documentation before installing these plugins and contact ServiceNow Support if these are not present.

    Additional Capabilities

    The TRM module provides workflows for submitting, approving, or rejecting product and lifecycle requests, managing TRM categories and phases, and reviewing lifecycle statuses within the Technology Portfolio Management page.

    Use the Technology Reference Model (TRM) feature in Enterprise Architecture to define the standards for your software and hardware products and manage unapproved products in your organization.

    Important:

    Starting with the Xanadu release, the legacy Technology Reference Model module is moved to the Enterprise Architecture Workspace. To learn more, see Manage the Technology Reference Model in Enterprise Architecture Workspace.

    Overview and benefits of a TRM

    In your business enterprise, using an unapproved software can create a risk to the organization. The risks can include the following:

    • Security risks: The software might be exposed to security issues.
    • Delivery risks: There might not be sufficient knowledge on how to support the software.
    • Legal risks: A business application might use the software in illegal ways.

    You must define the standards for the software to be used. You must define the software versions that are permitted for use in your organization. Also, you must have a way to explore when a non-permitted software is being used within the organization and in which business applications.

    Use the TRM module in the Application Portfolio Management to do the following:
    • Approve or restrict the use of a software product within the organization.
    • Define how versions of the software can be used within the organization.
    • Request an introduction of a new software or the business applications, as new requirements arise.
    • Maintain TRM library for your organization.

    Using the TRM module, you can manage the standards of the technology and set the right guardrail for technology usage. Setting the standards can improve the technical debt, security posture and save costs for the organization.

    TRM Product Lifecycle

    Each product in the TRM library is associated with a set of life-cycle phases with a start and end date. The life-cycle phases could be approved, unapproved, approved with constraints, Divest, and evaluation.

    The TPM home page fetches all the business applications that are being used in your organization. It helps to review the status of the software that is being used. You can understand if any business application is using the software that is not part of the TRM or a software version that is not approved for production. For more information, see Review the TRM lifecycle status in the Technology Portfolio Management page - Legacy.

    TRM and other modules

    Warning:
    TPM and TRM require installation of either SAM Foundation or SAM Professional. Before installing the SAM Foundation plugin, carefully review the Software Asset Management Foundation plugin migration documentation. Contact ServiceNow Support if you do not have either SAM Foundation or SAM Professional installed on your instance.

    The TRM module uses a similar module to TPM to search in the TRM library. You can view the software that is part of the TRM library, and initiate a request to add the software or software version to the TRM library.

    You can also use the TRM with the Software Asset Management (SAM) plugin. This plugin helps you to fetch or select the products and versions for the TRM library. You can also define your own software products when the Software Asset Management integration module is not available for your instance.