Assessment administrator tasks

Release version: Xanadu

Updated January 30, 2025

5 minutes to read

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Summary of Assessment administrator tasks

Assessment administrators in ServiceNow manage the setup and execution of assessments to evaluate various records such as vendors, projects, or employees. Before creating assessments, administrators must be assigned theassessmentadminrole and plan the assessment objectives, including which records to assess, relevant themes, and measurable traits. Administrators also determine who will answer assessment questionnaires and how data will be obtained for comparisons.

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Key Concepts and Terminology

Metric Type: Defines the set of records to evaluate (e.g., vendors, employees).
Assessable Record: Links a specific record (e.g., a vendor company) to a metric type for evaluation.
Metric Category: Represents themes (e.g., vendor performance) grouping related metrics.
Metric: Individual traits or values to evaluate, either subjective (via questionnaires) or objective (via scripts).
Category User: Person knowledgeable about a category (e.g., vendor manager).
Stakeholder: Category user with knowledge of a specific record (e.g., supervisor of a sales rep).
Assessment Instance: A single questionnaire assigned to a user, generated on schedule or on demand.
Scorecard: Visual summary comparing assessable records’ performance.
Decision Matrix and Bubble Chart: Graphical tools to compare multiple records across categories.

Assessment Roles

Assessment Administrator (assessmentadmin): Sets up assessments, defines criteria, and assigns assessments. May require additional roles (e.g., vendormanager) for access to source records.
ITIL User: Has read access to assessable records and can perform technician operations.
Administrator: Full access including scheduling assessments.

Assessment Methods

Assessment Method (Non-scripted metrics): Used for subjective data collected via questionnaires. Supports multiple data types like choice, date, number, Likert scale, and yes/no.
Script Method (Scripted metrics): Uses JavaScript to query database records for objective data. Requires defining variables for input record, actual values, and scaled numerical results within specified ranges. Useful for reliable system data such as number of active devices.

Configuring and Managing Assessments

Create assessments by selecting records, defining metric categories and metrics, publishing, and assigning to users.
Assessments can be generated on demand or scheduled via system jobs.
Assessment groups organize related assessment instances and results.
Reuse metric categories and metrics from the question bank to streamline creation.
Copy assessments to reduce effort when similar assessments are required.
Define metric templates for reusable rating scales on non-scripted metrics.
Set trigger conditions to control when and to whom assessments are sent.
Enable manager notifications for overdue assessments.

Viewing and Analyzing Results

Metric results store both actual and scaled values to reflect performance.
Scorecards provide printable, easy-to-interpret results comparing current and past ratings or other records.
Decision matrices and bubble charts help visualize relative standings of records across categories.

Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

ServiceNow customers should assign the correct roles to users managing assessments and ensure they have access to relevant data tables. Leveraging both scripted and non-scripted metrics allows flexible evaluation using subjective questionnaires and objective system data. Using reusable metric categories, templates, and assessment copies can significantly reduce setup time. Visualization tools like scorecards and decision matrices support informed decision-making by clearly displaying assessment outcomes. Regularly review trigger conditions and notifications to maintain timely assessment completion.

Before you create assessments, assign the assessment_admin role to the appropriate users in your organization and determine your objectives for the assessment.

Decide which sets of records in the system to assess, which themes you are interested in, and which traits to measure. Consider your organization's options for obtaining the data to compare. If you intend to use assessment questionnaires, consider which people can answer the questions.

Assessment terminology

Assessment admins use several terms when working with assessments.


Term	Description
Metric type	A metric type defines a set of records to evaluate, such as vendors, projects, or employees.
Assessable record	An assessable record links a record to evaluate, such as the company record for Amazon or the user record for a sales representative, to a metric type, such as vendors or employees. You define sets of assessable records when you create metric types.
Metric category	A metric category represents a theme for evaluating assessable records. Categories contain one or more individual metrics, which define specific traits or values that comprise the theme. Examples of categories include overall vendor performance or quality of delivery services. You can also set filter conditions that control which assessable records to evaluate for the metrics in a category.
Metric	A metric is a trait or value used to evaluate assessable records. A metric can measure subjective values in an assessment questionnaire, or gather objective values in a database query run by a script. Examples of metrics include perceived courtesy of sales representatives or number of incidents per vendor.
Category user	A category user is a person who knows about a specific category. One person can be a category user for multiple categories. Examples of category users include a vendor manager who oversees all purchasing operations or a supervisor of a sales team.
Stakeholder	A stakeholder is a category user who knows about a specific assessable record. Examples of stakeholders include a vendor manager who coordinates purchases from Amazon or a supervisor of a sales team who manages a specific employee.
Assessment instance	An assessment instance represents one assessment questionnaire assigned to one user. The system generates a new assessment instance for each assigned user when: The assessment generation scheduled job runs. An assessment administrator creates an on-demand assessment.
Scorecard	A scorecard provides a visual illustration of an assessable record's performance, based on assessment results. Use scorecards to view a variety of data summaries for one assessable record and to compare the ratings with other assessable records.
Decision matrix	A decision matrix is a graph with two axes that plots the assessment results for multiple assessable records. Use decision matrixes to determine the relative standing of assessable records in selected categories.
Bubble chart	A bubble chart is a graph with three axes that plots the assessment results for multiple assessable records. Use bubble charts to determine the relative standing of assessable records in selected categories, with an emphasis on one category.

Assessment roles

The Assessments application requires certain roles to perform assessment tasks. No role is required to take assessment questionnaires that are assigned to you.


Role Title	Role Name	Description
Assessment administrator	assessment_admin	Assessment administrators set up assessments. They know which records to evaluate, the criteria on which to evaluate the records, and who to assign assessments to. Note: By default, users with the assessment_admin role have limited system rights and might not have access to all source records to assess. When planning assessments, grant additional roles to assessment administrators as needed. For example, to create and manage vendor assessments, the assessment administrator must also have the vendor_manager role, which grants access to the Company table and other relevant tables.
ITIL user	Base system roles	ITIL users perform basic technician operations in the system. In the Assessments application, they have read access to the Assessable Record table.
Administrator	Base system roles	Administrators have access to all aspects of the assessment process. Only administrators can set up assessment schedules.

Assessment methods

The available methods are Assessment, for non-scripted metrics, and Script, for scripted metrics. Each method serves a different function and can be used with certain data types.

Use the Method field to specify how to use the metric.

Assessment method

Metrics with the Method set to Assessment are called non-scripted metrics. Use each non-scripted metric to define a question for assessment questionnaires. Non-scripted metrics are useful if you want to obtain subjective data like personal opinions.

You can use the Assessment method with these Data type values:

Attachment
Checkbox
Choice
Date
Date/Time
Likert Scale
Number
Percentage
String
Template
Yes/No

Script method

Metrics with the Method set to Script are called scripted metrics. Use each scripted metric to define a custom script for database queries. Scripted metrics are useful if your system contains reliable data for the traits you want to evaluate.

You can use the Script method with these Data type values:

Duration
Number
Percentage

Use the Script field to write JavaScript code. By default, the field contains information about available variables and an example, which you can use as the basis of your script or replace entirely: metric form script field

You must use the following variables in your script:

primary: Input variable used to access the sys_id of the record being assessed.
string_result: Output variable that contains the display string value for this metric
actual_result: Output variable that contains the actual value for this metric. The system uses this variable to populate the Actual value field on the Metric Result form. For each actual_result, you must specify a corresponding scaled_result value.
scaled_result: Output variable that contains a numerical scaled value to represent an actual value. The system uses this variable to populate the Scaled value field on the Metric Result form. Ensure the scaled values you specify are between or equal to the Min and Max values for the metric. The Scale definition field determines how the system uses the scaled value. A scale definition of Low means smaller numbers are better, such as for a metric that measures the number of incidents for a vendor. High means larger numbers are better, such as for a metric that measures user satisfaction on a scale of one to five.

Script example

The metric Number of active devices uses the script pictured below. The primary variable is used to find CIs that are associated to the vendor record being assessed. The script retrieves the actual_result, the number of CIs associated to the vendor, then calculates the correct scaled_result. The script uses a series of scaled values, from the Min to the Max value, to represent actual values. Because the Scale definition is set to High, the greatest scaled values are best, meaning a vendor associated to the most CIs scores highest. The system stores the actual and scaled values in a metric result record for the vendor.