The migration updates all assessments to use SAE questionnaire templates and associated automation rules. Existing in-flight assessments continue until completion, but new assessments must use SAE templates. Migration requires reviewing and publishing each migrated questionnaire template and associated assessment templates to ensure compatibility and functionality.

Smart Assessment Engine Limitations

• All new assessments must use SAE questionnaire templates; classic templates cannot be used to create new assessments.
• Third-party risk assessors cannot create issues directly from the View responses page; automatic issue generation rules must be used instead.
• Comments on individual questions are disabled; comments are allowed only at the questionnaire level.
• The signature feature is not supported.
• Automatic attachment of questionnaires to external assessments based on inherent risk questionnaire responses or risk tiers is currently unsupported.
• Unsupported question types include percentage, ranking, image scale, and custom metric. Customers must convert or recreate these questions before or after migration. For percentage and image scale types, Number and Radio button types are suggested alternatives.
• Sections containing only unsupported questions become empty and must be edited or removed before publishing, as templates with empty sections cannot be published.
• TPRM scoring migration proceeds only if no errors occur during template migration.
• Event-driven management rules replace the previous Repeating assessments scheduling method.

Plugin Dependencies and Installed Components

Enabling SAE automatically installs several applications and plugins essential for its operation, including:

• Vendor Risk Management Workspace (snvrmws) for accessing SAE questionnaires and features.
• Smart Assessment Engine application package with core, designer, connected, migration tools, dependencies, post-assessment actions, response automation, and scoring plugins.

Migration Process

• Templates can be migrated individually or in bulk; migrated templates enter the Draft state for review.
• Publishing a migrated template updates all related assessment templates and automation rules to support SAE.
• Assessment templates and automation rules must be reviewed to confirm they are marked as supporting SAE to ensure full functionality.
• For issue generation rules to function properly, at least one question must have "Enable preferred response" set to true.

Comparison: Classic Assessment Engine vs. Smart Assessment Engine

The Smart Assessment Engine provides equivalent and enhanced features, including:

• Improved template structure with sections and categories.
• Support for multiple assessable records in a single assessment.
• Enhanced scheduling and triggering via event-driven management rules instead of repeating assessments.
• Automated response handling and advanced scoring capabilities.
• Domain separation, question dependency (conditional visibility), and preferred answer support.

Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

By migrating to SAE, customers gain a modernized assessment experience with improved automation and scoring. However, customers must carefully review and adjust existing templates to accommodate unsupported question types and features. Comprehensive testing and validation are critical before enabling SAE in production. Customers should also familiarize themselves with the new workflow for assessment templates, issue generation, and automation rules to fully leverage SAE capabilities.