Maintenance – 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…

Building Core Strength

By Greg Mest February 20, 2023Configuration, PlatformNo Comments

Why good core data is both the roots and the flowers of your ServiceNow tree "A tree with a rotten core cannot stand." — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn In the fitness world, and in fact the physical human world, your core is the central part of your body. It includes the pelvis, lower back, hips and stomach. Exercises that build core strength lead to better balance and steadiness, also called stability. Stability is important whether you're on the playing field or doing regular activities. In fact, most sports and other physical activities depend on stable core muscles. As ServiceNow has moved further…

Starting Your “EPA” (Environment Proficiency Activities)

By Greg Mest January 2, 2023Platform, UpgradesNo Comments

Tips for Optimizing your ServiceNow Instance Management Having been in the ServiceNow business for over 12 years, you begin to take certain things for granted. At least until you see someone doing something that you don’t expect and it makes you say, “hmm, maybe this isn’t common knowledge”. One such area where I’ve noticed this in recent years is the management of an overall ServiceNow environment - that which encompasses all your ServiceNow instances, and the processes and techniques by which configuration, code and data is built, moved and shared between them. In my experience, if done properly, this should…

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…

A Good Leader Fears the Citizenry

By Greg Mest December 2, 2021Architecture, Custom Applications, Design, Platform, UpgradesNo Comments

“a camel is a horse designed by a committee” - Proverb Over the past few years, there’s been a movement in the business world to espouse the concept of “citizen development”. Gartner defines a citizen developer in this way: A citizen developer is an employee who creates application capabilities for consumption by themselves or others, using tools that are not actively forbidden by IT or business units. A citizen developer is a persona, not a title or targeted role. They report to a business unit or function other than IT. Gartner: Definition of Citizen Developer ServiceNow has espoused this concept…

To Scope or Not to Scope

By Greg Mest October 2, 2021Custom Applications, PlatformNo Comments

ServiceNow introduced the concept of Scoped Applications in the Fuji release. From their documentation: Application scoping protects applications by identifying and restricting access to application files and data. By default, all custom applications have a private scope that uniquely identifies them and their associated artifacts with a namespace identifier. The application scope prevents naming conflicts and allows the contextual development environment to determine what changes, if any, are permitted. Source: Application scope Each ServiceNow application has an application scope that determines which of its resources are available to other parts of the system. Application scoping ensures that one application does…