Guided plan to execute a program

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Guided plan to execute a program

    After creating a program in ServiceNow, you can use the guided plan feature to develop a detailed, step-by-step execution strategy. This guided plan is available once the PPM Standard (com.snc.financialplanningpmo) plugin is activated. It allows you to set goals, identify opportunities, create demands, and track projects within the program lifecycle through the Application Portfolio Management portal.

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    Key Features

    • Program Navigation Page: Central interface guiding you through fiscal period selection, goal setting, opportunity identification, demand creation, and project tracking.
    • Fiscal Period Selection: Define the fiscal period for planning goals, implementing demands, and achieving targets.
    • Step 1 - Set Goal Contribution Target: Establish measurable targets for the selected fiscal period to guide program efforts.
    • Step 2 - Identify Opportunities: Analyze application and indicator scores using the Group Analysis page to discover opportunities. Filter applications by indicators and categories to focus on key areas.
    • Demand Management: Create demands based on opportunities. Demands are requests submitted by users and approved by demand managers to initiate work.
    • Filter and Sort Applications: Use filtering and sorting options to quickly locate applications and categories relevant to your goals, improving decision-making efficiency.
    • Step 4 - Track Project Progress: Monitor the approval and execution status of projects derived from demands to ensure alignment with program goals.
    • Program Overview Section: Provides a snapshot of the program’s timeline, manager, goals, estimated goal contribution percentage, and number of impacted applications.
    • Demands Visualization: Stacked chart displays the number of demands, demands converted into projects, and projects created exclusively for the program, helping visualize progress and workload.
    • Recent Demands List: Shows newly created demands with options to edit via demand forms, including pagination controls for managing long lists.

    Key Outcomes

    • Structured approach to planning and executing programs aligned with fiscal goals.
    • Enhanced ability to identify and prioritize opportunities based on data-driven application assessments.
    • Clear visibility into demand creation and project execution status supporting effective program management.
    • Efficient management of applications and demands through filtering, sorting, and categorization functionalities.
    • Improved tracking and reporting capabilities with visual summaries and detailed demand lists.

    After you create a program, you can use the guided plan to formulate steps in executing the program that you have created.

    Note:

    You can use the guided plan to execute a program only when you activate PPM Standard (com.snc.financial_planning_pmo) plugin.

    You can select a specific program by clicking the view link of the programs in the Opportunities & Solutions section of the Application Portfolio Management portal to open the guided program navigation page. The Program Navigation page guides you in creating a step-by-step plan to set a goal target, identify opportunities and create demands, and track the project.

    Figure 1. Program navigation page
    The figure shows the step-by-step plan to implement the program.

    The Program Navigation page is divided into these sections:

    Fiscal Period
    Select Fiscal Period to start planning is the fiscal period for which you set your goal, implement the demands, and achieve the target.
    Program Steps
    The section takes you through a guided step-by-step workflow to complete the tasks and achieve the target goal.
    Step 1: Set Goal Contribution Target
    Use the link to set the goal contribution target for the fiscal period.
    Step 2: Identify Opportunities
    Identify opportunities to meet the target by analyzing the application scores and indicator scores.

    The Group Analysis page consolidates the application details by category and helps you narrow down target applications by filtering them with the application indicator scores and values.

    Click open an application category. Based on the indicator scores in the bubble chart, you can create a demand to achieve your goal. Demand is an imperative rightful request created by demand managers and demand users. The user submits a demand and the demand manager approves the demand.

    Figure 2. Group Analysis page
    The Group Analysis page shows the assessment period, filter applications, and application categories.
    Assessment Period
    Select Fiscal Period to start Analysis in the Group Analysis page is the fiscal period for which you have assessed the applications. Based on these assessments you can create goals and demands, and implement them for the planned fiscal period, which is Select Fiscal Period to start planning.
    Filter Applications
    Use the Filter Applications pane to filter the applications based on the application indicators and scores.

    To clear all the existing filters in the Filter Apps column in one click, instead of clearing each filter attribute field individually, click Clear all filters. You can then set your filter criteria to sort the applications for display.

    Application Categories
    The Application Categories section lists the applications by their category names and the number of applications that fall within each category.
    1. Click the header of a column.
    2. To sort the application categories in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order, click the arrow that appears.
    3. In the other application columns, click the arrow to list the values in either ascending or descending order.

      Sorting helps to find the information quickly in the list, display higher values first, and also group the applications that have similar values.

    Bulb icon (The bulb icon)
    Lists the number of demands created, view them individually, and edit them in the demand form.
    Step 4: Track Project
    Track the status of the projects as the demands are approved and the projects are executed.
    Program Overview section
    Gives a brief summary about the planned start and end dates of the program, the manager who drives the program, the goal that is linked to the program with the target percentage set to achieve by the marked fiscal year. In addition, it also displays the following details:
    • Estimated Goal Contribution: Estimated percentage of the goal that the proposed program targets to achieve.
    • Estimated % contribution: Percentage of the goal targeted to be achieved in the selected planned fiscal period.
    • Number of impacted Applications: Number of applications impacted by the program.
    Demands Column
    A stacked chart that represents the demands at the top layer and displays the number of demands created for the program. The middle layer displays and represents the number of demands that have been converted into projects. The bottom layer displays the number of projects created exclusively for the program, and not the demands that are converted into projects.

    You can print the chart in any format using the Chart context menu at the top-right corner of the Demands Column.

    Recent Demands
    Displays the number and the name of the demands that are created for the program. To edit a demand, click the demand hypertext to open the demand in the Demand form.

    If you have a long list of demands, then displaying all of them on the Recent Demands section may have a space limitation. Use the pagination preferences to display a short list and then click the arrows either to progress down or up the list of demands.