Change schedules view
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Summary of Change schedules view
The Change Schedules module in ServiceNow provides a comprehensive Gantt or timeline view of change requests, allowing you to visualize and manage changes based on criteria set in a Change Schedule Definition. This view helps you track change timing, duration, related tasks, blackout periods, and maintenance windows across different time frames such as days, weeks, or months. To access this feature, theChange Management - Change Scheduleplugin must be activated.
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Key Features
- Context Menu: Enables creating, editing, copying, viewing, and deleting change schedules. Ownership rules apply, with ITIL role users limited to creation, copying, or viewing schedules they do not own.
- Span Styles: Visual differentiation of change requests using span colors based on conditions like risk level (e.g., High risk = Red, Moderate = Orange, Low = Green). You can customize or add new span styles.
- Sharing: Change schedules can be shared with other users, groups, or roles, including an option to notify them by email. Unshared schedules are visible only to owners, owner groups, and administrators.
- Configuration: Control the visibility of components such as configuration items, duration, and related tasks on the schedule.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: A list of shortcuts is available to facilitate quick navigation and improve accessibility.
- Zoom and Navigation: Zoom controls allow adjusting the timeline resolution from hours to yearly views. Arrow keys enable moving forward or backward in time, and a "Today" button returns to the current date/time.
- Change Record Summary: Clicking a change span opens a summary with key fields you can configure on the Change Schedule Definition form. You can also open the full change request form for detailed information.
Practical Considerations
- To display blackout and maintenance windows on the calendar, ensure the Affected CI field is configured for the change.
- Change schedules load client-side in batches of 20, with a maximum of 1000 records by default; these limits are configurable by the system administrator.
Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
This module enhances your ability to plan, visualize, and coordinate changes effectively by consolidating relevant change data in an intuitive timeline format. You can quickly identify scheduling conflicts, manage risk through visual indicators, and share schedules with stakeholders to improve collaboration and transparency in change management processes.
The Change Schedules module provides a Gantt or timeline view of change requests based on criteria defined within a Change Schedule Definition.
The change schedule provides detailed insight to change requests that are included based on the change schedule definition. The change requests can include change timing, duration, related change tasks, blackout periods, and maintenance windows for any given date, week or month.
To view the Change Schedules page, you must activate Change Management - Change Schedule plugin (com.snc.change_management.soc).
Change requests are represented by a span. The duration of the span is defined by the start and
end date fields defined in the Change Schedule definition. The Change Schedules page allows
conditions to be defined using the condition builder. The condition builder determines which
change requests are displayed and sorted in a change schedule.
Note:
To show the blackout and
maintenance windows of the change in the calendar view, the Affected CI
field for the change must be configured.
| SI # | UI Component | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Context Menu | Option to do the following:
Note:
|
| 2 | Span styles | Defined span color based on conditions you specify. You can add new span styles by
clicking Add Span Styles. You can also edit an existing style rule,
apply filters to a style rule, or remove a style rule. Note: By default, span styles are based
on the Risk value of a change.
|
| 3 | Share | Schedules to be shared to other users by user name, group, or role. The share pane also provides a check box to share a change schedule with everybody. If change schedules are not shared with anyone, then only the owner, owner group, and administrator can see them. If a change schedule is shared with other users, an option is available to send an email notification to inform them of their access. |
| 4 | Configuration | Components of the change schedule including the configuration item, duration, or any related tasks can be hidden or exposed. |
| 5 | Keyboard shortcuts | List of available keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate quickly and to provide
accessibility to users. The list of navigation shortcuts appears when you click
|
| 6 | Zoom | Zoom levels to control change schedule zoom resolution. The range can vary from hours to a yearly view of change schedules. |
| 7 | Arrow keys | Option to navigate forward or back in time in the change schedule based on the current zoom level. Click Today to navigate back to the current day and time in a single click. |
| 8 | Change record | Summary of the change record when you click any span. Use Open
Record in the header of the summary to open the change request in the form view.
In the form, you can view the entire change request record. Note: You can specify the fields
that are displayed in this window. On the Change Schedule Definition form, under the
Record Summary tab, specify required fields on Left
column fields and Right column fields. |
Note:
Change schedules are loaded on the timeline page on the client side in batches of 20. You
can load a maximum of 1000 records. These numbers can be modified by system administrator. For
more information, refer the properties at Installed with Change Management - Change Schedule.