Program workbench

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Program workbench

    The program workbench is a centralized ServiceNow interface for program managers to view and monitor details of a program, including its associated projects and demands. It focuses on tracking progress and key performance indicators (KPIs) related to cost, resources, schedule, and scope for a selected fiscal period. The workbench is built on the Service Portal platform, enabling customization to fit organizational workflows, but it is not supported on mobile devices.

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    Key Features

    • Fiscal Period Selection: Choose the fiscal year to monitor program progress via a dropdown in the interface.
    • Timeline View: Displays all demands and projects in the program on a Gantt chart, showing schedules and external dependencies. Users can customize colors, zoom level (including an auto-fit to view the entire timeline without scrolling), and toggle column visibility. Demands appear here only if they have defined start and due dates and are in qualified or approved states. Administrators can configure which columns are available for display.
    • Project KPI Tab: Presents the latest status on project health indicators such as overall health, schedule, cost, resources, and scope, sourced from the most recent status reports. Users can click project names to access detailed status reports and hover over KPI indicators to view associated comments.
    • Cost Tracking (Planned vs. Actual): Visualizes actual project costs against approved budgets, distinguishing between capital expenses (Capex), operating expenses (Opex), or both. Actual costs are derived from expense lines, which can be manually entered (e.g., hardware purchases) or automatically created through ServiceNow Procurement or approved timecards.
    • Resource Utilization (Allocated vs. Actual): Shows a comparison between allocated resource hours and actual hours spent on project tasks, with actuals based on processed timecards.

    Access and Usage

    Upon accessing the program workbench, users see a list of all available programs for monitoring. This tool supports program managers in tracking multiple projects and demands within a program, enabling proactive oversight of schedule, cost, resource allocation, and scope adherence.

    Additional Information

    The program workbench complements other ServiceNow features such as Program Dashboard and integrates with project and demand management processes. To begin using it effectively, users should create and manage programs encompassing their projects and demands.

    The program workbench is a central location for viewing details of a program and the projects and demands that are part of the program.

    The program manager role can use the program workbench to view and monitor the progress of the program and the projects and demands. Program workbench provides information for only tracking the program.

    You can track the progress of demands and projects, and monitor the status of cost, resource, schedule, and scope for the selected fiscal period for the program.

    Note:
    • Program workbench is based on Service Portal which means that you can configure, customize, and extend it as per your requirements and organizational workflow. For more information, see Service Portal documentation.
    • Program workbench does not support mobile device.

    The program workbench comprises of the following components:

    Fiscal period: A choice list on the top-right to select the fiscal year for which you monitor the program.

    Timeline View: Shows a list of all the selected demands and projects that are part of the program, and a Gantt chart of all projects and demands over time.

    You can:

    • configure the colors of the program items in Gantt chart with Dashboard Configuration settings.
    • select the zoom level in Gantt chart calender to Auto Fit. The Gantt view fits in one page to view entire timeline in one go without using the scrollbar.
    • review the external dependencies between projects in a program.
    • select the show/hide icon (Show or hide columns in Gantt) to show or hide columns.
    Note:
    • A demand is included in the timeline view only if the Expected Start and Due Date fields are populated and if the demand is in qualified or approved state.
    • Admin can customize which columns appear in the column filter list when the show/hide columns icon (Show or hide columns in Gantt) is clicked in the timeline view.
    Project KPI: The tab displays the most recent status of project KPIs such as overall health, schedule, cost, resources, and scope of all the projects in the program. This information is populated from the most recent status report created for the projects.

    You can:

    • click the name of a project in the tab to open the latest status report created for the project.
    • point to a status indicator for a project KPI to view the comments entered for the KPI for that project.
    Cost (Planned vs. Actual): The chart displays the actual costs from all projects in the program compared to the approved budget. The actual cost for projects is derived from the expense lines.
    Note:
    An expense line can be created manually for a project when a specific expense is incurred. For example, if hardware is procured for a project, an expense line can be created for the amount spent on procuring the hardware. If you receive an item using ServiceNow Procurement, an expense line is created automatically. For resource hours, the expense lines are created automatically when the time cards for the project are approved.
    The display settings for the chart can be modified by selecting any of the following from the choice list:
    • Capex: Displays the cost chart for capital expense only.
    • Opex: Displays the cost chart for operating expense only.
    • All: Displays the cost chart for both capital and operating expenses.

    Resource (Allocated vs. Actual): The chart displays the actual resource time spent on all project tasks versus the resource hours allocated to execute the projects and demands in the program. The actual time spent is taken from processed time cards for the projects.

    Figure 1. Program Workbench Example 1
    Timeline view tab in program workbench
    Figure 2. Program Workbench Example 2
    Project KPI tab in program workbench