Scenario Planning for PPM

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Scenario Planning for PPM

    The Scenario Planning for PPM application offers portfolio managers a centralized platform to create and monitor project execution roadmaps for fiscal years. It enables optimized budget and resource management by allowing users to create, compare, and confirm multiple planning scenarios involving demands and projects. Each scenario represents a distinct planning instance to support funding and resource allocation decisions.

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    Important: Starting with the Australia release, this application is being prepared for future deprecation. It will no longer be available for activation but will continue to be supported. ServiceNow recommends using the Strategic Planning Workspace (for SPM Pro users) or Portfolio Planning Workspace (for SPM Standard users) to access scenario planning capabilities.

    Key Features

    • Plan portfolio resource capacity for one or multiple fiscal years, with the ability to break down multi-year planning into smaller windows for continuous tracking.
    • Allocate budgets to demands and projects from Investment Funding or set target budgets for operating and capital expenses.
    • Create and manage multiple scenarios with different combinations of demands and projects to experiment with budget and resource allocation.
    • Apply filters to refine portfolio selections and view projects or demands not aligned with strategic goals.
    • Edit funding allocations per scenario and compare scenarios to evaluate outcomes and resource utilization.
    • Confirm or override planning scenarios to reflect changing organizational priorities.
    • Monitor budget details including actual and planned costs, resource utilization, over-allocated resources, and project progress.

    Practical Use for ServiceNow Customers

    ServiceNow customers can use this application to improve decision-making in portfolio management by:

    • Analyzing resource capacity and budget constraints across fiscal years.
    • Testing different project and demand combinations to optimize portfolio value and alignment with business objectives.
    • Tracking portfolio progress post-planning to ensure adherence to scope, schedule, cost, and resource plans.

    Installation and Configuration

    The application is available for installation from the ServiceNow Store. Customers can configure scenario types, scope of portfolios, and funding methods to tailor scenario planning to their organizational needs. Setting target budgets and defining fiscal periods initiates the planning process.

    Next Steps

    • Create planning scenarios to model different portfolio strategies.
    • Compare and confirm scenarios to finalize budget and resource allocations.
    • Track portfolio execution progress using integrated status and dashboard features.

    The Scenario Planning for PPM application provides a central location for portfolio managers to create and track the roadmap for project execution for a given fiscal year. Optimize your budget and resource usage by creating and comparing different scenarios for your project and demand roadmap or resources.

    Important:
    Starting with Australia release, Scenario Planning for PPM (com.snc.ppm_scenario_planning) is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer available for activation but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support knowledge base.

    Alternatively, Strategic Planning Workspace (for SPM pro users) or Portfolio Planning Workspace (for SPM standard users) provides the Scenario Planning capability. For details, see Scenario planning in Strategic Planning or Scenario planning in Portfolio Planning.

    A scenario is a collection of demands and projects that serves as a planning instance for the selected fiscal year to support funding decisions.

    Eligible demands and projects in the portfolio are collected into a default or existing scenario of the planning cycle. You use the default or existing scenario as a basis to create additional scenarios. A demand or project can belong to more than one scenario in the current planning cycle but it cannot belong to more than one portfolio. For more information, see Create planning scenarios.

    Features

    The Scenario Planning for PPM provides the following capabilities to portfolio managers:
    • Plan your portfolio based on resource capacity for a single year or multiple years.
    • Break down your multiple year portfolio planning in smaller planning windows for continuous tracking and planning adjustment.
    • Allocate budget to demands and projects in your portfolio from Investment Funding.
    • Create scenario-based plans for portfolios.
    • Apply filters to refine your list of selected demands and projects in your portfolio.
    • Experiment with different combinations of demands and projects in planning scenarios.
    • View details of demands and projects that are not aligned with your strategic goals.
    • Edit the way demands and projects are funded for each scenario.
    • Compare different scenarios to assess outcomes of various project and demand combinations.
    • Confirm a planning scenario that best aligns with your organizational objectives as your current portfolio plan.
    • Override a previously confirmed planning scenario based on changing priorities and environment.
    • View budget details such as actual and planned costs, projects, and demands not aligned to goals and strategies, and actual costs for the projects.
    • View resource utilization and allocation.
    • View demands and projects with over-allocated resources.