Continual Improvement Management overview

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Continual Improvement Management overview

    Continual Improvement Management (CIM) provides a centralized framework for ServiceNow customers to plan, implement, and monitor organizational improvement initiatives. It helps you initiate improvements across services, processes, and functions by defining goals to measure success and organizing work into phases and tasks.

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    The application supports a structured workflow involving roles such as Improvement Requester, Improvement Manager, and Improvement Coordinator, enabling clear responsibility and oversight throughout the improvement lifecycle—from request submission, through planning and execution, to final approval and closure.

    Key Features

    • Initial Setup: Install the CIM plugin and configure it via Guided Setup to enable the application. Assign user roles and groups to manage permissions effectively.
    • Role-Based Workflow: Improvement Requesters submit requests, Improvement Managers review and prioritize improvements, and Improvement Coordinators create and track phases and tasks for implementation.
    • Work Management: Use the Continual Improvement Workbench to plan, monitor, and manage improvements with tile and list views, supporting progress tracking and coordination.
    • Integration: CIM integrates with multiple ServiceNow applications, allowing creation of improvement requests from other apps and generating related tasks within improvements. Integration is facilitated by the CIMIntegrationAPI extension point.
    • Domain Separation: Supports logical grouping of data, processes, and administrative tasks within domains, allowing control over user access and data visibility without additional configuration.

    Practical Outcomes for Customers

    ServiceNow customers implementing CIM can expect a streamlined and accountable process for continual improvement initiatives. The solution enables centralized planning, transparent progress monitoring, and effective role-based collaboration. Integration capabilities ensure improvements align with broader IT and business processes, while domain separation provides secure, segmented management of improvement data across organizational units.

    Continual Improvement Management enables you to initiate improvement opportunities within your organization by providing a centralized framework for planning, implementing, and monitoring improvement initiatives.

    The following video gives you an overview of Continual Improvement Management application.

    Use Continual Improvement Management to implement service, process, and function improvements. An improvement initiative contains goals to measure success, and phases that contain tasks with specific actions to complete the improvement.

    Continual Improvement Management Workflow

    Initial CIM setup

    Install the CIM plugin. For more information, see Install CIM.

    To use guided setup to configure CIM, navigate to Continual Improvement > Administration > Guided Setup and select Configure in the Request CIM section.

    Once CIM is activated, assign user roles and groups.
    • Improvement Manager
    • Improvement Coordinator
    • Approver group membership (CIM Approvers, default is empty)

    For more information, see Assign a role to a user.

    Use the Continual Improvement Workbench to plan and manage improvements. Both tile and list views are supported.

    Workflow of CIM roles

    The workflow of improvements from an improvement request to final approval Continual Improvement Management involves various responsibilities.

    1. An Improvement Requester, such as a help desk manager, process owner, or ITIL user, recognizes the need for an improvement with the organization and submits an improvement request.
    2. The Improvement Manager reviews the improvement, accepts it, and assigns it to an Improvement Coordinator for implementation. The Improvement Manager also runs prioritization meetings with Improvement Coordinators and uses the Continual Improvement workbench to monitor, manage, and plan overall progress of improvements. When all tasks are complete, the Improvement Manager reviews improvements for closure.
    3. After the improvement request is assigned, the Improvement Coordinator along with the Improvement manager creates phases and tasks to complete the improvement. The Improvement Coordinator also meets with task owners to track progress and timely completion.

    For more information about CIM roles, see CIM roles.

    Integration with other applications

    CIM is integrated with other ServiceNow® applications to enable you to create improvements across various processes and services within the company. These integrations provide you a centralized framework to implement, manage, and monitor the progress and impact of improvements. You can create improvement initiatives from integrated applications and conversely, create records for integrated applications from improvement initiatives.

    For more information about the applications integrated with CIM, see Improvement integration with other applications.

    Domain separation

    Domain separation capability is supported in Continual Improvement Management with no setup or configuration required.

    You can create improvements separately in a specific domain, or in the global domain.