Properties installed with Project Management
Summarize
Summary of Properties installed with Project Management
ServiceNow's Project Management module includes various configurable system properties designed to tailor project behavior and administration. These properties require theppsadminrole for access and are managed viaProject Administration > Settings > Preferences - Project. They control key aspects such as business rule triggering, project movement, cost rollups, date management, resource planning, and reporting templates.
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Key Features
- Business Rule Triggers: Enable or disable firing business rules when saving from the Planning Console, impacting task and relation inserts/deletes.
- Project Movement: Allow moving projects in Work In Progress (WIP) state, with only open and pending tasks moving and date rollup recalculations.
- ROI Calculation: Automatically calculate Return on Investment based on estimated cost and net value, visible in the Advanced Project form view.
- Date Management:
- Recalculate planned dates based on actual dates for manual projects.
- Roll up project start dates from earliest task start dates.
- Allow altering planned dates for tasks even if WIP or closed.
- Synchronize planned and original dates on creation or update.
- Cascade start date changes from projects/demands to resource, cost, and benefit plans.
- Cost Rollup: Enable automatic updating of parent task costs when child task costs are updated.
- Milestone Automation: Automatically close milestone tasks once they enter a work state.
- Resource Plan Retention: Preserve resource plan status (confirmed/allocated) when moving projects and reallocate resources based on availability.
- Demand to Project Conversion: Automatically create projects upon confirming demands in the portfolio workbench.
- Attribute Copying: Customize which additional project task attributes are copied during project duplication beyond default fields.
- Default Expense Type: Set the default expense type (e.g., Opex) for new projects created in the Project Workspace.
- Task Constraints: Retain "Start on" constraints on tasks even after establishing task dependencies.
- Duration and Date Span Limits: Control maximum allowed project/task durations and date spans to avoid platform memory issues.
- Status Report Configuration: Specify default templates for status report generation and optionally restrict editing by setting reports as read-only.
Practical Considerations
- Changing properties like firing business rules or project movement requires reloading the Planning Console to take effect.
- Increasing maximum duration or date span values above default thresholds may lead to platform memory errors and should be done cautiously.
- Automatic rollups and cascades simplify project management but can be disabled if manual control is preferred.
- Preserving resource plan states during project moves helps maintain resource allocations and planning accuracy.
- Administrators can tailor project copying behavior and reporting templates to fit organizational processes and reporting standards.
These configurable properties offer ServiceNow customers flexibility and control over project management processes, enabling tailored workflows, resource management, financial tracking, and reporting aligned with enterprise needs.
There are several Project properties that you can configure.
You need the pps_admin role to access the Project properties.
Navigate to to configure the following properties.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable firing of Business Rules on save from Planning Console. This property will be applicable only during insert and delete of tasks and relations. com.snc.project.fire_brs_from_planning_console |
If set to true, the project planning console triggers business rules. Note:
Reload the console if you make changes to this property. Default value: false |
| Enable move project for WIP projects com.snc.project.move_project.wip |
If set to true, this property enables you to move the projects which are in WIP state. Note:
When a project is moved, only tasks in open and pending state are moved and the project takes the rolled up dates from all the project tasks. Default value: false |
| Calculate ROI percentage based on a project's estimated cost and its net value com.snc.project.calculate_roi |
If set to true, this property calculates the return on investment using the (net value/estimated cost) x 100 formula. This field is only available from the Advanced view of the Project form. Default value: true |
| Enable alter of planned date with Actual for Manual Project com.snc.project.change_planned_date_from_actual_for_manual |
If set to true, the property recalculates the planned end date of a manual project from actual start date and planned duration. Default value: false |
| Enable project cost rollup (estimated and actual) – updating the cost of a project task will update the cost of its parent com.snc.project.rollup.cost |
If set to true, this property updates the cost of a parent project task if the cost of the child task is updated. Default value: false |
| Roll up project start date from tasks com.snc.project.rollup_project_start_date |
If set to true, the project planned start date rolls up from the planned start date of the earliest task. Disable this property if you want the project planned start date to remain the same despite the start date
of the earliest task. Default value: true |
| Automatically close project milestone tasks when they change to work state com.snc.project.auto_close_milestones |
If set to true, this property closes milestones automatically so you do not have to close them manually. Default value: false |
| Enable altering of planned date(s) for task in WIP/Closed com.snc.project.enable_alter_of_planned_dates |
If set to true, this property enables you to change the planned start date for tasks even if they are in the Work in progress state or any of the closed states. Default value: false |
| Change Resource Plan, Cost Plan and Benefit Plan Start Date with Demand or Project Start Date change. Benefit Plan Start Date will change only if the offset type for the plan is not
None com.snc.project.date_change_cascade |
If set to true, this property changes the start dates for a resource plan, cost plan, and benefit plan when there is a change in the project or demand start dates. Note:
The start date of benefit plans with the
offset type None does not change with the project or demand date change. Default value: true |
| Retain users & resource plan state as confirmed / allocated when project moves com.snc.project.date_change_cascade_persist_resource_plan_state |
If set to true, this property retains the confirmed or allocated state of a resource plan, booked resources, and planned daily contour when a property is moved. On moving the project, the resource plan is
reallocated or reconfirmed based on the availability of the resources in the future time period to which the project is moved. Note:
This property is enabled only when the Change Resource Plan, Cost Plan
and Benefit Plan Start Date with Demand or Project Start Date Change property has been set to true. Default value: true |
| Create project(s) on confirming demands from portfolio workbench com.snc.project.portfolio_workbench.confirm_to_create_project |
If set to true, this property converts all selected demands in a portfolio to projects. Default value: false |
| List of attributes (comma-separated) that will be copied from the originating project task com.snc.project.copy.additional_attributes |
By default, the Copy Project and Copy partial project options only copy the short description, planned dates, and duration fields from source project to the target
project. If additional columns must be copied, they should be declared in this property. Default value: blank |
| Default the expense type for a new project. sn_plng_att_core.default.expense_type |
When a new project is created in the Project Workspace, expense type of the project is marked as Opex. |
The following project properties are available in system property [sys_properties] table. Only pps_admin can edit these properties.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Retain start on constraint on tasks after adding relations com.snc.project.allow_start_on_relations |
The property keeps the Start on selection of a task even after you put the task in a relation to another task, for example, FS relation. Default value: true |
| Max duration (in days) allowed for a project/project task com.snc.project.task.max_task_duration |
The property governs the max duration of a project task or the overall project. Note:
If your project includes milestones, the duration is calculated taking holidays and weekends into account. Default value: 2600 Warning: Increasing the value of the property to more than 2600 will have an impact on memory usage of the platform. A very high value causes out of memory error, for example, if you try to create a
project or a project task with 15000 days duration. |
| Max date span into future or past from the current date for the project/project task com.snc.project.task.check_date_span_years |
The property governs the max date in future when entering the planned dates of a project or a project task. Default value: 10 Warning: Increasing the value of the property to more than 10 will have an impact on memory usage of the platform. A very high value causes out of memory error. |
| Synchronize the planned and original dates when creating or updating a project or task com.snc.project.sync_original_dates_with_planned_dates |
If set to true, this property synchronizes the planned and original dates. Default value: true |
| Use a predefined template when generating a status report sn_pw.project_status_report_default_templateId |
The property specifies the default template used for generating project status reports. You can replace the existing default template with your desired template and set it as default by updating the sys id in value field of project status report default template property. |
| Generate the status report as read-only sn_pw.doc_status_report_read_only |
The property restrict edits in the status report. The property sets the status report to read-only. Default value: true |