Notifications for project updates in your collaboration tool

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 6 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Notifications for project updates in your collaboration tool

    This feature enables ServiceNow customers to receive automatic, consolidated project updates directly in their Slack channel or Microsoft Teams. It helps project managers and team members stay informed about project progress, delayed or overdue tasks, milestone closures, and critical changes to risk, issue, decision, action, and change request (RIDAC) items. This streamlines collaboration and supports timely decision-making regarding project planning, resource allocation, and finance management.

    Show full answer Show less

    Project managers can work with system administrators to configure notification settings to suit their preferences.

    Key Features

    • Daily Project Status Notification: Sent daily at 8:00 AM to the project’s collaboration channel, this notification provides a comprehensive overview including:
      • Project overview with direct URL, name, planned start/end dates, current state and status, completion percentage, and any exceptions (e.g., project delays or cost overruns).
      • Lists of tasks due today, overdue tasks (not started on time), delayed tasks (not completed by planned end date), and tasks due within the next seven days. Each list is limited to five tasks and sorted to highlight the most critical items.
      • Highlights high-priority risks, issues, action items, and milestone tasks.
    • Project Manager Change Notification: When the project manager is updated, the new manager is added to the collaboration channel, the old manager is removed if no tasks remain assigned to them, and a notification with the project URL is sent to the channel.
    • Project Status Updates: Notifications are sent when the project’s status or state changes, helping the team stay current on overall progress.
    • RIDAC Record Notifications: Alerts are sent for new or updated risks (with high or absolute probability), issues, decisions, actions, and change requests flagged as critical or high priority, including direct URLs to the records.
    • Milestone Closure Notifications: When key milestones or milestone tasks are closed (complete, incomplete, or skipped), notifications include details of the closure, the user responsible, and a direct URL to the milestone task.

    Practical Benefits

    • Ensures continuous visibility of project health and critical activities within collaboration platforms your team already uses.
    • Enables proactive management of delayed or overdue tasks and high-risk items.
    • Supports efficient communication and coordination among project managers and team members.
    • Facilitates quick access to project details and specific RIDAC records to address issues promptly.

    Receive updates related to your project on your Slack channel or Microsoft team. Analyze the delayed and overdue tasks, follow closure of milestones, and monitor changes to risk, issue, decision, action, and change request (RIDAC) items of your project.

    Using the automatic project status updates on the project collaboration channel or team, project managers can take informed decisions about project planning, resource management, finance allocation. The team members can understand updates made to the project and actively collaborate on any delayed or overdue tasks.
    Note:
    Project managers can reach out to their system administrators to configure the application settings for these notifications according to their preferences.

    Daily notification on project status

    A notification with the consolidated project status is sent to the project's channel daily at 8:00 AM which consists of the following information.
    Notification Information
    Project overview
    • A direct URL of the project. Clicking this URL opens the project in your ServiceNow instance.
    • Name of the project.
    • Planned start and end dates of the project.
    • State of the project, for example, Work in Progress.
    • Status of the project, for example, Green.
    • Percentage of project completion.
    • Any exceptions like estimation at completion is greater than total planned cost, planned end date is later than the approved end date, project not started on the start date, and project running late.
    Project tasks due today

    List of project tasks that have planned end date marked as today and are in the Work in Progress state. The list displays only five project tasks that are sorted alphabetically by their short description.
    Overdue Tasks (Tasks not started on planned start date)

    List of project tasks which have a planned start date before today but are not in either the Work in Progress or Closed states. The list displays only five project tasks that are sorted in an ascending order of the planned start dates so that you get high visibility into the tasks that are overdue for a longer period.
    Delayed Tasks (Tasks not completed on planned end date)

    List of project tasks which have a planned end date before today and are in the Work in Progress state. The list displays only five project tasks that are sorted in ascending order of the planned end dates so that you get high visibility into the tasks that have been delayed for a longer period.
    Project tasks due within seven days
    List of five of the following project tasks that have a planned end date within seven days from today. All these tasks are displayed in ascending order of their due dates so that you get high visibility into the tasks that are due soon.
    Note:
    Tasks that in Closed state are not displayed in the list.
    • High priority risks, issues, and action items
    • Milestone or key milestone tasks

    Notification regarding change of project manager

    When there is a change in the manager of your project, an update is made to the Project manager field of the project record.
    • A notification including the project URL is sent to your project channel on this update.
    • New project manager is added as a member of the channel.
    • If no project tasks are assigned to the old project manager, this user is removed as a member of the channel.

    Notification for other updates to the project

    Notification Information
    Project's status

    When an update is made to the Status or State fields of the project, a notification including the project URL is sent to your project channel.
    RIDAC records
    You receive notifications in your project channel when a new RIDAC record is added to or an existing RIDAC record is updated in the project for the following scenarios. With every notification, you receive a direct URL to the corresponding record.
    • Risk
      • New risk is created with the Probability field set to High or Absolute
      • The Probability field for an existing risk is updated to High or Absolute
    • Issue, Decision, Action, and Change request
      • New record is created with the priority field set to 1-Critical or 2-High
      • Priority of an existing record is updated to 1-Critical or 2-High
    Key milestone/ milestone

    Whenever a key milestone or milestone task is Closed Complete, Closed Incomplete, and Closed Skipped, you are notified about the closure and the user who closed it, with a direct URL to the milestone task.