Design – SNCMA

professional woman facing a crossroads with two signs going in either direction that say CODE and NO CODE

To Code or Not to Code (this is the question!)

By Greg Mest October 9, 2024Configuration, Customization, Design, Out of the Box, PlatformNo Comments

‘Tis it nobler to bend to false conventional wisdom or to follow the found truth; ay, there's the rub! Introduction Unless you’re brand new to the ServiceNow ecosystem or have completely ignored all talk and literature about the platform in recent years, you’ve heard the drumbeat of a couple of key messages (that I’ll paraphrase): Low and no code solutions are the future Stay “Out of the Box” as much as possible Out of the gate, the question I’ll pose is: does low code / no code matter? If so, why does it matter? In this article, I’m going to…

Wherefore Architecture?

By Greg Mest June 12, 2024Architecture, Configuration, Custom Applications, Customization, Design, Platform, UpgradesNo Comments

If ServiceNow is built to support Citizen developers, why do we need ServiceNow architects? “Thinking about design is hard, but not thinking about it can be disastrous.” - Ralph Caplan Introduction For almost 14 years in the ServiceNow space, and across a rapid expansion of the exosystem, it has been interesting to observe and analyze various organization’s approaches to developing and maintaining their ServiceNow environment. Specifically, how do organizations manage the inflow of business needs, the distribution and velocity of development, configuration and administrative work, and the ongoing maintenance of the platform? As the footprint of ServiceNow has expanded conjunctionally…

What We’ve Got Here Is Failure to Communicate – Part 2

By Greg Mest May 9, 2023Architecture, Configuration, Design, PlatformNo Comments

In Part 1 of this article, I delved into Inbound and Outbound design considerations. Now, in Part 2, I’ll cover considerations for a true eBonding type integration as well as other general tips I’ve learned through the years building integrations. eBonding Design Considerations and Good Practices As mentioned previously, the example I’m working from is a bi-directional application to application integration, meaning that the systems are integrating application records throughout the lifecycle of that application’s workflow. For example, an Incident in system X that integrates with a ServiceNow Incident and exchanges updates throughout the life of both incidents, regardless of…

What We’ve Got Here Is Failure to Communicate – Part 1

By Greg Mest May 8, 2023Architecture, Configuration, Design, PlatformNo Comments

Good Practices for Designing Integrations in ServiceNow Captain: You can have the easy way, Luke... Or you can have it the hard way... It's all up to you. - Cool Hand Luke If you work in a ServiceNow environment in 2023, it’s more than likely you’ve got it integrated with other systems. Given ServiceNow’s place in the market, it’s unlikely that an instance is running in an environment small enough or segregated enough to not need to be integrated with other systems. At the very least, you’re likely getting your core data from somewhere outside of ServiceNow, and hopefully not…

Building The Perfect Architect – Part 2

By Greg Mest February 7, 2023Architecture, Design, Platform, ProductNo Comments

What makes a good ServiceNow architect? And what makes “architect” a misnomer? In part one, we discussed what an architect is within the ServiceNow and the larger IT ecosystems. Now, we’ll delve into design documentation - a key part of an architect’s deliverables, and some of the behaviors of folks who may have the title architect but whose actions belie the title. Documenting designs and implementations A good architect understands the value of documentation, and both creates and enforces documentation. My rules of thumb for documentation are: Any custom development that includes creating new tables needs design documentation. This does…

Building the Perfect Architect – Part 1

By Greg Mest January 11, 2023Architecture, Design, Platform, ProductNo Comments

What makes a good ServiceNow architect? And what makes “architect” a misnomer? “Architecture is not an inspirational business, it's a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things; that's all.” - Harry Seidler If you’re here and reading this, you probably have a concept of what a ServiceNow architect is. (In this context, “architect” means a ServiceNow technical architect.) And you’ve likely worked with folks who have the title “architect”, whether on implementation projects or as part of a larger IT ecosystem. But what does this mean, and what should it mean? I’ll spend the rest of this article…

Should You Go with the Flow?

By Greg Mest November 15, 2022Configuration, Design, Implementation, Platform, WorkflowsNo Comments

A realistic analysis of Flow Designer In the Kingston release (I think - it’s hard to find the exact history), ServiceNow debuted “Flow Designer”, ostensibly a newer and better way of creating automated workflows. The idea being that the Workflow engine was coming to the end of its useful life, and the platform needed an upgraded way to automate processes and give more power to non-developers and non-ServiceNow admins. Ostensibly fulfilling the marketing pitch of “Citizen Developer”. I’ve begun working with Flow Designer and completed the primary micro-certification. After both studying Flows and using them in the real-world, I’m struggling…

Why Drive a Cadillac? Part 2

By Greg Mest April 20, 2022Architecture, Business Strategy, Design, Implementation, ITIL, ITSM, PlatformNo Comments

In Part 1, we examined the 5 Tiers of Service Management. This part focuses on the key differences between the tiers. Let's look at a couple of end-to-end processes through the lenses of tier 1 and 5 to illustrate the differences. Tiering Examples 1. User in building 3, floor 2, Accounting department reports an issue with accessing SAP. Root cause is a misconfigured switch port. Tier 1: User calls the Help Desk. A support agent opens a support ticket and does some basic troubleshooting - reboots, logs out and in. After 10 minutes, the agent tells the user they need…

Why Drive a Cadillac? Part 1

By Greg Mest April 20, 2022Architecture, Business Strategy, Design, Implementation, ITIL, ITSM, PlatformNo Comments

What do you want out of your Service Management? I had a client recently refer to ServiceNow as a “Cadillac Escalade”, and that they “just needed a Kia”. This is certainly a long way from when I started at ServiceNow in 2010 and the company and the platform was still just emerging from its “gutsy startup” phase. We've now reached the point where ServiceNow has become a “gold standard” in cloud platforms and Service Management, and customers are having to decide if they can afford such a high-end solution. Anyone who has spent time in business realizes that many decisions…

The Three Ws of Development

By Greg Mest January 3, 2022Architecture, Configuration, Custom Applications, Customization, Design, PlatformNo Comments

Where, When and Why you should do your development In journalism, there’s the concept of the Five W questions whose answers are fundamental to getting the information needed: Who What When Where Why I want to talk about what I call the “Three Ws of Development” in the ServiceNow realm. These three are: When, Where and Why. We’re going to skip the questions “Who” and “What”. Why? Because “who” is a question for hiring managers, recruiting, and resource vetting. And “what” is (too often) the focus of most if not all training and documentation. Do you need to get the…