Exploring RIDAC in Strategic Planning Workspace

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 29, 2026
  • 6 minutes to read
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    Summary of Exploring RIDAC in Strategic Planning Workspace

    RIDAC (Risk, Issue, Decision, Action, Change) in Strategic Planning Workspace offers ServiceNow customers a comprehensive portfolio-wide view of all risks, issues, decisions, actions, and change requests across projects, programs, and portfolios. This unified perspective eliminates the need to navigate multiple work items by consolidating RIDAC records related to planning items, goals, and Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) iterations in one place. It supports holistic management of uncertainties, dependencies, and governance across the organization’s strategic and operational activities.

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    Key Features

    • Unified RIDAC View: Provides portfolio managers, program managers, project managers, PMO leaders, strategy leaders, and executive sponsors with consolidated visibility into RIDAC records across the portfolio hierarchy.
    • Role-Based Usage:
      • Portfolio managers monitor cross-project risks and strategic alignment.
      • Program managers and PMO leaders manage program-level risks and governance.
      • Project managers track project-specific RISDAC elements and link them to strategic priorities.
      • Strategy leaders assess portfolio-wide risks and decisions impacting multiple initiatives.
    • Supported Planning Items: RIDAC records can be created and managed for a broad range of planning items including demands, projects, epics, capabilities, features, custom planning items, initiatives, strategic programs, goals, and EAP iterations. Each RIDAC record can be linked to these items to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies effectively.
    • Automatic Rollup: Risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes automatically roll up through the portfolio hierarchy, enabling higher-level visibility and tracking.
    • Integration with Execution Systems: Supports bidirectional linking between planning items and execution tasks, ensuring consistent RIDAC data for both planning stakeholders and execution teams without duplication.
    • Expanded Capabilities in Strategic Planning Workspace: Compared to Portfolio Planning, Strategic Planning Workspace supports additional planning item types, goals, EAP iterations, AI-generated RIDAC capabilities, and enhanced governance controls.
    • Export Functionality: Enables exporting filtered RIDAC lists in multiple formats (Excel, PDF, CSV, JSON) to facilitate sharing with stakeholders.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Holistic Risk and Issue Management: Gain a centralized, portfolio-wide view to proactively identify and mitigate risks and issues.
    • Strategic Alignment: Link operational RIDAC records to strategic goals and planning items, ensuring decisions and actions support organizational objectives.
    • Improved Governance and Decision Documentation: Track and enforce governance workflows and maintain comprehensive records of decisions and changes across portfolios.
    • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Enable transparency between project teams, program management, and executive sponsors by sharing consistent RIDAC data.
    • Efficiency in Managing Complex Portfolios: Automate rollups and maintain synchronized RIDAC information across planning and execution environments, reducing manual effort and risk of miscommunication.

    Next Steps

    • Run the scheduled job to populate planning item fields on legacy RIDAC records for accurate reporting.
    • Leverage the centralized RIDAC views in Strategic Planning Workspace to analyze risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes by planning scope.
    • Create and associate RIDAC items directly with relevant planning items, goals, or EAP iterations to manage uncertainties and dependencies effectively.
    • Use the export feature to share RIDAC data with stakeholders for improved communication and decision-making.

    RIDAC (Risk, Issue, Decision, Action, Change) in Strategic Planning Workspace provides a holistic, portfolio-wide view of all risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes across your entire organization—from individual projects to programs and portfolios.

    RIDAC overview

    RIDAC (Risk, Issue, Decision, Action, and Change request) in Strategic Planning Workspace provides a unified view of all RIDAC records across your portfolio hierarchy. Strategic Planning Workspace delivers a holistic perspective that helps teams identify and manage risks, resolve issues, document decisions, track actions, and monitor changes across all planning items, goals, and EAP (Enterprise Agile Planning) iterations—without navigating between multiple work items.

    RIDAC users

    User Description
    Portfolio manager Portfolio managers use the holistic RIDAC view in Strategic Planning Workspace to understand all risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes across their entire portfolio. They monitor rolled-up RIDAC records from projects and programs to identify cross-project risks, validate portfolio-level decisions, and ensure alignment between operational activities and strategic objectives.
    Program manager / PMO leader Program managers create and manage RIDAC records on their programs and view RIDAC that rolls up from child projects. They assess how project-level risks, issues, and changes impact program delivery and strategic goals. PMO leaders use RIDAC to enforce governance, track decision documentation, and maintain issue resolution workflows across the organization.
    Project manager / Team lead Project managers create and manage RIDAC records on their projects. They track risks and issues affecting project delivery, document decisions that shape project direction, maintain action item lists, and register change requests. They can optionally associate RIDAC records with planning items, goals, or EAP iterations to link operational work to strategic priorities.
    Strategy leader / Executive sponsor Strategy leaders and executive sponsors use the unified RIDAC view to assess portfolio-wide risks to strategic objectives, review decisions that impact multiple initiatives, and monitor action status across the organization.

    Supported RIDAC tables

    Table 1. Supported RIDAC tables
    Table Description
    Planning item Demand Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your demand to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Project Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your project to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Epic Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your epic to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Capability Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your capability to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Feature Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your feature to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Custom planning item Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your custom planning item to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Enterprise agile planning item Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your enterprise agile planning item to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Initiative Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your initiative to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Strategic program Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your strategic program to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Goal Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your goal to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    EAP iteration Can create and track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Changes directly within your EAP iteration to manage planning uncertainties and dependencies.
    Note:
    A RIDAC record can be linked to any of these items: a planning item, a goal, or an EAP iteration.

    RIDAC benefits

    Table 2. RIDAC benefits
    Benefit Feature Users
    Unified portfolio visibility of risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes across all projects and programs Holistic RIDAC view in Strategic Planning Workspace Portfolio managers, PMO leaders, strategy leaders
    Automatic rollup of RIDAC through portfolio hierarchy—see project risks at program and portfolio levels RIDAC rollup mechanics Program managers, portfolio managers
    Connect operational RIDAC to strategic objectives by linking to planning items, goals, or EAP iterations RIDAC entity associations (planning items, goals, EAP iterations) Project managers, program managers, strategy leaders
    Track RIDAC across both alignment and execution project systems with automatic cross-system reference population Execution and alignment integration for RIDAC Project managers with dual project management systems

    RIDAC integration with planning and execution Items

    When integration is enabled, RIDAC items maintain a bidirectional link between planning items (demands and projects) and execution items (tasks). This means:
    • Create a RIDAC on a planning item - Execution details from any linked execution task automatically populate on the RIDAC record.
    • Create a RIDAC on an execution item - Planning item details automatically populate on the RIDAC record.
    Because the link is bidirectional, a RIDAC item created from either context—planning or execution—contains both planning and execution information, giving stakeholders a complete view of risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes across the planning and delivery lifecycle.

    Example: If you add a RIDAC item to a project, you can view the same RIDAC item details in the project workspace. This ensures that planning stakeholders and execution teams see the same risk, issue, decision, action, or change data without duplicating work.

    Comparing RIDAC feature between Strategic Planning and Portfolio Planning

    Strategic Planning Workspace extends RIDAC capabilities beyond what is available in Portfolio Planning. The following comparison shows the key differences in supported entities and features.

    • Portfolio Planning: Create and manage RIDAC items for projects and demands to track risks, issues, decisions, actions, and changes across your portfolio. For more information, see Using RIDAC in Strategic Planning Workspace.
    • Strategic Planning: Create and manage RIDAC items for all planning item types (projects, demands, epics, capabilities, features, and custom planning items), goals, and EAP iterations. You also gain access to AI-generated RIDAC capabilities and expanded governance controls.
    Table 3. Comparison of RIDAC feature between Portfolio Planning and Strategic Planning
    Supported table for RIDAC creation Portfolio Planning Strategic Planning
    Planning items: Supported planning items Yes

    Project, Demand

    Yes

    Project, Demand, Epic, Capability, Feature, Custom planning item, Enterprise agile planning item, Initiative, Strategic program

    Goal No Yes
    EAP Iteration No Yes