High-level planning configuration in Strategic Planning

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of High-level planning configuration in Strategic Planning

    This configuration guide explains how ServiceNow customers can enable high-level planning for additional planning item types beyond the default entities in Strategic Planning (version 2.1.0 and higher). By default, Strategic Programs, Programs, Initiatives, and the Product Enhancement entity with the Digital Product lens are enabled. To extend high-level planning capabilities to other entities, customers need to update lens entities and portfolio plan configurations.

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    Configuration for Additional Planning Items

    There are two scenarios based on whether the new planning item extends the Planning Item table or not:

    • For items that extend the Planning Item table: For example, a custom planning item added to the lens structure needs the Planning enabled field set to true in the lens structure related list. This enables high-level planning for that entity.
    • For items that do not extend the Planning Item table: For example, enabling high-level planning for the Strategic Priority entity requires several steps:
      • Create a global rank column in the Strategic Priority table.
      • Create a rank configuration for the new global rank column.
      • Create portfolio plan configuration for the Strategic Priority table.
      • Enable high-level planning for the Strategic Priority entity in the lens structure record.
      • Run diagnostics and fix scripts to populate the global rank for existing records.
      • Create a business rule to handle global rank assignment for future records.

    Important Considerations

    • Ensure the chosen table has key fields like start date, end date, owner (assigned to), and name or short description. This is necessary for a table to be used as a planning item.
    • Tables such as Organization or Product do not qualify, while Strategic Priority does meet these criteria and can be configured accordingly.

    Key Outcomes

    After completing the configuration tasks, planning managers can create high-level portfolio plans for the newly enabled entities. For example, they can prioritize and roadmap strategic priorities and view how work across the organization aligns with these priorities, thereby enhancing strategic planning visibility and control.

    If your planning managers need high-level planning enabled for items other than the default ones, you need to update the configuration for lens entities and portfolio plans.

    By default, Strategic Programs, Programs (pm_program), and Initiatives are the items that are enabled for high-level planning. Also by default, the Product Enhancement entity with the Digital Product lens is enabled for high-level planning. To enable other planning item types, complete the following configuration tasks.

    Note:
    High-level planning is enabled for Strategic Planning v2.1.0 and higher.

    For items that extend the Planning Item table

    For example, you added Custom planning item 1 [sn_align_core_custom_planning_item_1] to your lens structure and you want to use it for high-level portfolio plans. In the Lens structure related list for your lens, set the Planning enabled field to true for the Custom planning item 1 entity. For detailed information, see Enable high-level planning for a lens entity.

    For items that do not extend the Planning Item table

    Consider the example of enabling high-level planning for the Strategic Priority [sn_gf_strategy] planning item type.
    1. Create a global rank column in the Strategic Priority [sn_gf_strategy] table. See Create global rank column for high-level planning.
    2. Create rank configuration for the new global rank column. See Create rank configuration for high-level planning.
    3. Create portfolio plan configuration for the Strategic Priority [sn_gf_strategy] table. See Create portfolio plan configuration for high-level planning.
    4. Enable high-level planning for the Strategic Priority [sn_gf_strategy] entity in the lens structure record. See Enable high-level planning for a lens entity.
    5. Run diagnostics and fix script to populate global rank for all existing Strategic Priority records. See Populate global rank for high-level planning items.
    6. Create a business rule for the Strategic Priority [sn_gf_strategy] table to enable setting a global rank for any future records created. See Create a business rule for high-level planning.
    Tip:
    While choosing a table as your high-level planning entity, ensure that it has fields such as start date and end date, owner or assigned to, name or short description, so that this can be used as a planning item. For example, you cannot use the Organization or Product tables as your high-level planning entities. On the other hand, the Strategic Priority tables meets the requirements of a planning item and can be configured for high-level planning.

    Once all these tasks are complete, your planning manager can create a high-level portfolio plan for the desired entity - for this example, portfolio plans can be created to prioritize and roadmap the strategic priorities of the company, and to view how the work across the company is aligned to these strategic priorities.