Holiday schedules in a release

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated February 18, 2025
  • 5 minutes to read
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    Summary of Holiday schedules in a release

    ServiceNow allows you to associate holiday schedules with a release so that release phases and overall durations account for non-working days such as weekends and public holidays. This ensures that phase start and end dates, as well as key milestones, fall on actual working days, maintaining accurate timelines and realistic scheduling.

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    Key Features

    • Holiday Schedule Association: Attach a holiday schedule (e.g., U.S. Federal + Weekend holidays) to a release to factor in non-working days when calculating phase and release timelines.
    • Phase Durations in Working Days: Each phase's duration remains fixed in working days, but calendar spans are extended to exclude weekends and holidays.
    • Date Adjustments: If a phase start or end date or key date falls on a non-working day, it shifts backward to the previous working day.
    • Backward Calculation: Phase start dates are calculated by counting calendar days backward from the adjusted phase end dates, then adjusted to skip non-working days.
    • Key Dates within Phases: Important milestones within phases (e.g., deployment preparation, sprint ends) are also adjusted to working days using the holiday schedule.

    How It Works: Practical Example

    Consider a release with four phases—Planning (10 days), Development (25 days), Testing (15 days), and Implementation (10 days)—totaling 60 working days, with a readiness target date of September 5, 2025. The release uses a holiday schedule including weekends and U.S. Federal holidays (Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day).

    • The adjusted timeline accounts for 27 non-working days (12 weekend days + 3 holidays), extending the calendar span from the original 60 working days to 87 calendar days.
    • Each phase’s adjusted start and end dates shift to exclude holidays and weekends, ensuring phase durations remain consistent in working days but extend over longer calendar periods.
    • Key milestone dates within phases align with working days, avoiding scheduling on non-working days.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Accurate Release Planning: Avoid planning milestones or phase transitions on holidays or weekends, reducing scheduling conflicts and resource unavailability.
    • Realistic Timelines: Maintain fixed working-day durations per phase while transparently showing the actual calendar impact of non-working days.
    • Improved Coordination: Synchronize release activities with organizational calendars and holiday policies, improving communication and predictability.

    You can associate a holiday schedule with a release so that the phase and release durations are calculated considering non-working days.

    The following example of a release shows how holiday schedules affect its overall timeline to keep important dates on working days.

    Let's say a release has four phases: Planning, Development, Testing, and Implementation, with durations of 10, 25, 15, and 10 days, respectively, totaling 60 working days. The release readiness target date is set to Sep 5, 2025, and has a public and weekend holiday schedule (U.S. Federal + Weekend holidays in 2025) associated. So, the start and end dates of each phase are adjusted to account for non-working days (holidays and weekends on the schedule), to keep the phase durations intact. Key dates also follow the same adjustment rule.

    Considerations:
    • Total release duration: 60 working days
    • Phases and durations: Planning: 10 days; Development: 25 days; Testing: 15 days; Implementation: 10 days
    • Release readiness target date: Sep 5, 2025
    • Working days in a week: Mon through Fri (5 days)
    • Non-working days on the associated schedule:
      1. Weekends are non-working days so skipped.
      2. Federal holidays in 2025, relevant to the release period are as follows:
        • Jun 19: Juneteenth (Thu).
        • Jul 4: Independence Day (Fri).
        • Sep 1: Labour Day (Mon).
    • Adjustment rules:
      • The original end date of the last phase is the release readiness target date, usually a working day so no adjustment needed. All remaining phases prior to the last phase get their original end and start dates by counting all calendar days, including both working and non-working. Their adjusted end and start dates are the actual dates on a working day, skipping non-working days.
      • The original start date is determined by counting all calendar days backward from the adjusted end date. The adjusted start date is the actual start date on a working day, skipping non-working days.
      • If a key date or the phase start or end date falls on a holiday or weekend, shift to the previous working day.
      • The duration of each phase (in days) remains fixed, but holidays and weekends within the phase period extend the calendar span.

    With these considerations, let's calculate the working days in the release timeline and adjust the phase and release duration accordingly.

    Calculation of release dates with holiday adjustments
    Table 1. Phase 4: Implementation
    Option Description
    Phase Phase 4: Implementation
    Original end date Sep 5 (Fri)

    (Same as the release readiness target date)
    Adjusted end date Sep 5 (Fri)

    (A working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original start date Aug 27 (Wed)

    (10 days counted backward from the phase's adjusted end date, includes weekends and holidays)
    Adjusted start date Aug 22 (Fri)

    (excludes weekends and holidays, see the End date calculation)
    Key dates Deployment preparation: On 5th day from the phase's adjusted start – Aug 28 (Thu)

    (Excludes weekends and holidays. Falls on a working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original duration 10 days

    Aug 27 (Wed) – Sep 5 (Fri)
    Adjusted duration 15 calendar days (10 working days + 5 non-working days)

    Aug 22 (Fri) – Sep 5 (Fri)
    End date calculation Working days: 10
    • Sep 5–2 (Fri-Tue): 4 days.
    • Aug 29–25 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 9 days).
    • Aug 22 (Fri): 1 day (total 10 days).
    Non-working days: 5
    • 1 holiday skipped: Sep 1 (Labor day)
    • 2 weekends skipped: Aug 30-31; Aug 23-24
    Table 2. Phase 3: Testing
    Option Description
    Phase Phase 3: Testing
    Original end date Aug 21 (Thu)

    (The day before the Phase 4 start date)
    Adjusted end date Aug 21 (Thu)

    (A working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original start date Aug 7 (Thu)

    (15 days counted backward from the phase's adjusted end date, includes weekends and holidays)
    Adjusted start date Aug 1 (Fri)

    (Excludes weekends and holidays, see the End date calculation)
    Key dates Test plan approval: On 5th day from the phase's adjusted start – Aug 7 (Tue)

    (Excludes weekends and holidays. A working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original duration 15 days

    Aug 7 (Thu) – Aug 21 (Thu)
    Adjusted duration 21 calendar days (15 working days + 6 non-working days)

    Aug 1 (Fri) – Aug 21 (Thu)
    End date calculation Working days: 20
    • Aug 21-18 (Thu-Mon): 4 days.
    • Aug 15–11 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 9 days).
    • Aug 8-Aug 4 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 14 days).
    • Aug 1 (Fri): 1 day (total 15 days).
    Non-working days: 6
    • 0 holiday skipped
    • 3 weekends skipped: Aug 16–17; Aug 9–10; Aug 2–3
    Table 3. Phase 2: Development
    Option Description
    Phase Phase 2: Development
    Original end date Jul 31 (Thu)

    (The day before the Phase 3 start date)
    Adjusted end date Jul 31 (Thu)

    (a working day, no adjustment needed.)
    Original start date Jul 7 (Mon)

    (25 days from the phase's adjusted end date, includes weekends and holidays)
    Adjusted start date Jun 26 (Thu)

    (excludes weekends and holidays, see the End date calculation)
    Key dates Sprint end: Every 10 working days from the phase's adjusted start – Jul 10 (Thu), Jul 24 (Thu)

    (all working days, no adjustment needed)
    Original duration 25 days

    Jul 7 (Mon) – Jul 31 (Thu)
    Adjusted duration 36 days (25 working days + 11 non-working days)

    Jun 26 (Thu) – Jul 31 (Thu)
    End date calculation Working days: 25
    • Jul 31-28 (Thu-Mon): 4 days.
    • Jul 25–21 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 9 days).
    • Jul 18–14 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 14 days).
    • Jul 11-7 (Fri-Mon): 5 days (total 19 days).
    • Jul 3-Jun 30 (Fri-Mon): 4 days (total 23 days).
    • Jun 27-26 (Fri-Thu): 2 days (total 25 days).
    Non-working days: 11
    • 1 holiday skipped: Jul 4 (Independence Day)
    • 5 weekends skipped: Jul 26-27; Jul 19-20; Jul 12-13; Jul 5-6; Jun 28-29
    Table 4. Phase 1: Planning
    Option Description
    Phase Phase 1: Planning
    Original end date Jun 25 (Wed)

    (The day before the Phase 2 start date)
    Adjusted end date Jun 25 (Wed)

    (a working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original start date Jun 16 (Mon)

    (10 days from the phase's adjusted end date, includes weekends and holidays)
    Adjusted start date Jun 11 (Wed)

    (excludes weekends and holidays, see the End date calculation)
    Key dates Midpoint: On 5th working day from the phase's adjusted start – Jun 17 (Tue)

    (a working day, no adjustment needed)
    Original duration 10 days

    Jun 16 (Wed) – Jun 25 (Wed)
    Adjusted duration 15 days (10 working days + 5 non-working days)

    Jun 11 (Wed) – Jun 25 (Wed)
    End date calculation Working days: 10
    • Jun 25–23 (Wed–Mon): 3 days.
    • Jun 20 (Fri): 1 day (total 4 days).
    • Jun 18–16 (Wed-Mon): 3 days (total 7 days).
    • Jun 13–11 (Fri-Wed): 3 days (total 10 days).
    Non-working days: 5
    • 1 holiday skipped: Jun 19 (Juneteenth)
    • 2 weekends skipped: Jun 21-22; Jun 14-15
    Summary Timeline

    The timeline extends beyond the 70-days original duration to account for weekends and associated holiday schedule, but the phase durations remain fixed in working days.

    Table 5. Summary of release timeline
    Option Description
    Original calendar span Jul 8 to Sep 5

    Calendar view of a release timeline without considering any holidays and weekends.
    Adjusted span, excluding non-working days Jun 11 to Sep 5

    Calendar view of a release timeline considering associated holiday schedule and weekends.
    Original release duration 60 working days
    Adjusted release duration 87 calendar days
    Non-Working Days 87 – 60 = 27 days (12 weekends + 3 holidays)