Use Demand Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Use Demand Management

    The Demand Management application in ServiceNow allows users with the demand manager role to create, view, modify, and manage demands throughout their life cycle. It supports both the classic UI and the enhanced Next Experience, which includes advanced features like Playbooks, Docs, and customizable governance processes. New customers should use the Next Experience, while existing customers can transition seamlessly as existing demands are automatically available.

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    Demand Management integrates with other ServiceNow applications to create artifacts such as Projects, Changes, Enhancements, Defects, and Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) entities (epics, features, capabilities), depending on demand categorization and activated plugins.

    Demand Management Life Cycle

    • Creating a demand: Users submit ideas that demand managers approve to create demands.
    • Viewing demands: Demand managers can monitor demands via the demand workbench or list views.
    • Enhancing and assessing demands: Demands undergo screening with stakeholder assessments and surveys to qualify or defer them.
    • Approving demands: Qualified demands can be approved and linked to relevant project or agile artifacts.

    The application tracks demands through defined states including Draft, Submitted, Screening, Qualified, Deferred, Approved, Completed, each with specific actions available (e.g., update, submit, approve, defer, delete). This state progression is visually indicated on the Demand form.

    Key Features

    • Demand visualization tools: Aid in assessing and prioritizing demands effectively.
    • Demand details and collaboration: Capture strategic and operational requirements, risks, issues, decisions, actions, and change requests (RIDAC records) collaboratively with stakeholders.
    • Demand modification capabilities: Demands can be reset to Draft state or deleted (only in Pending state), and visual elements like bubbles in charts can be moved and resized for better management.
    • Predictive Intelligence: Includes training a Similar Demands solution to find and identify related demands automatically during creation using Now Assist for Strategic Portfolio Management.
    • AI Integration: Manage AI system associations directly within demands and generate clear summaries using the demand summarization skill to enhance clarity and communication.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers can leverage Demand Management to centralize demand intake, streamline assessment workflows, and ensure strategic alignment by integrating demands with portfolio and agile planning artifacts. The Next Experience provides a modern, collaborative environment with enhanced governance and AI-driven capabilities, improving demand visibility and decision-making efficiency. Customers should prioritize migrating to the Next Experience to capitalize on these enhanced features and future-proof their demand management processes.

    Users with the demand manager role can create, view, and modify demands using the Demand Management application.

    Important:

    Demands are available in the Next Experience for Demand Management. For more information, see Next Experience for Demand Management.

    The workspace provides additional value beyond the legacy experience, including Playbook, Docs, and the ability to define different governance processes using playbooks.

    If you have Portfolio Planning Workspace or Strategic Planning Workspace, you can use the Next Experience for Demand Management to create and manage your demands.
    • New customers: Use Next Experience for Demand Management to create and manage your demands.
    • Existing customers: If you already have demands in the classic UI, you can continue using it. However, we recommend moving to the Next Experience for Demand Management, as your existing demands are automatically available there.
    You can also approve demands and create the following artifacts from the approved demands:
    • Project
    • Change
    • Enhancement
    • Defect
    • Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) entities (epic, feature, and capability)
    The type of artifact created from a demand depends on the selections in the Category and Type fields on the Demand form.
    Note:
    • Enhancements and defects can be created when the administrator has activated the SDLC-SCRUM plugin.
    • EAP entities can be created when the Strategic Planning plugin is activated.

    Demand Management Life Cycle

    The demand management life cycle can be simplified as follows:
    • Creating a demand: The user submits an idea and the demand manager approves the idea, automatically creating a demand from that idea.
    • Viewing a list of demands: The demand manager views demands on the demand workbench or from a list view.
    • Enhancing a demand: The demand manager can send the demand to screening, which sends assessments to stakeholders.
    • Assessing a demand:
      • The demand manager can screen the demand and send surveys to stakeholders to complete assessments.
      • The demand manager can set the state of the demand to qualify, defer, or incomplete.
      • Demands can be analyzed and approved using the demand workbench.
    • Creating an artifact: The demand manager creates a project, enhancement, change, defect, or EAP entities.
    The demand management application uses the following simplified demand states.
    Table 1. Demand States
    State Description
    Draft The demand manager accepts a submitted idea.
    After reviewing or editing the record, select one of these buttons:
    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Submit demand: The demand is moved to the submitted state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Submitted An accepted idea creates a demand record and the demand manager submits the demand.
    After reviewing or editing the record, select one of these buttons:
    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Screen: The demand is moved to the screening state.
    • Qualify The demand is moved to the qualified state.
    • Defer: The demand is moved to the deferred state.
    • Incomplete: The demand is moved to the incomplete state.
    • Reset to Draft: The demand is moved back to the draft state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Screening Stakeholder assessments are initiated for the demand.
    After reviewing or editing the record, select one of these buttons:
    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Qualify The demand is moved to the qualified state.
    • Defer: The demand is moved to the deferred state.
    • Reset to Draft: The demand is moved back to the draft state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Qualified The demand has been qualified and is ready for review.
    After reviewing the record, select one of these buttons:
    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Approve: The demand is moved to the approved state.
    • Defer: The demand is moved to the deferred state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Deferred The demand has been put on hold. The demand can be revisited in future and reviewed.

    After reviewing the record, select one of these buttons:

    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Approve: The demand is moved to the approved state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Approved The demand is approved
    After reviewing or editing the record, select one of these buttons:
    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Close: The demand is moved to the closed state.
    • Reset to Draft: The demand is moved back to the draft state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    Completed The demand is moved to the completed state.

    After reviewing the record, select one of these buttons:

    • Update: The demand record is updated, but the demand remains in the current state.
    • Reset to Draft: The demand is moved back to the draft state.
    • Delete: The demand record is deleted.
    These states appear in the process flow indicator at the top of the Demand form. The process flow indicator:
    • Highlights the current state of the demand.
    • Checks off the states that a demand has passed through.
    • Leaves empty the states that have been skipped.