High-level planning configuration in Strategic Planning

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

    This guide explains how to enable and configure high-level planning for additional planning item types beyond the default ones in ServiceNow Strategic Planning (v2.1.0 and higher). By default, high-level planning is enabled for Strategic Programs, Programs (pmprogram), Initiatives, and the Product Enhancement entity within the Digital Product lens.

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    High-level planning allows planning managers to create portfolio plans that help prioritize and roadmap key strategic items across the organization.

    Configuration for Planning Items Extending the Planning Item Table

    If your custom planning items extend the Planning Item table (for example, a custom entity like Custom planning item 1), you need to enable high-level planning by setting the Planning enabled field to true for that entity in the lens structure related list. This setting allows the item to be included in high-level portfolio plans.

    Configuration for Planning Items Not Extending the Planning Item Table

    For planning item types that do not extend the Planning Item table (such as Strategic Priority [sngfstrategy]), a more detailed configuration is required:

    • Create a global rank column in the item’s table to support prioritization.
    • Create a rank configuration to define how ranking behaves for this column.
    • Create a portfolio plan configuration for the item’s table.
    • Enable high-level planning for the entity in the lens structure record.
    • Run diagnostics and fix scripts to populate the global rank for existing records.
    • Create a business rule to automatically set global rank values for new records.

    These steps ensure that the new entity integrates seamlessly with high-level portfolio planning capabilities.

    Important Considerations

    • The entity you choose for high-level planning should include essential fields like start date, end date, owner or assigned to, and a descriptive name or short description. This ensures the item can be effectively used for planning.
    • Entities like Organization or Product are not suitable for high-level planning since they lack necessary fields, whereas Strategic Priority meets the requirements.

    Key Outcomes

    Once configured, planning managers can create high-level portfolio plans for the newly enabled entities. This enables prioritization and roadmap visualization for strategic items such as strategic priorities, helping align work across the company with these key objectives.

    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.