The ServiceNow Project Portfolio Suite (PPS) provides a simplified (yet complex), team-oriented approach to Project Portfolio Management and IT development by combining several individual applications.

Project Portfolio Suite (PPS) can include the following applications:

• Project Management - A suite of tools used to manage projects, task, and resources.
• Demand Management - An application used for gathering and assessing ideas and promoting accepted ideas to strategic and operational demands.
• Portfolio Management - create portfolios which are collections of related programs, projects, and demands. You can then perform financial planning and monitor the status and progress of these portfolios.
• Program Management - logically group related projects or demands under a single entity. The ServiceNow Program Management application helps you to manage related projects and demands in coordinated way that is not possible when projects and demands are managed independently.
• Agile Development - manages the software development and release process.
• Test Management - provides tools for manual software testing.
• Resource Management - enables resource requesters to create resource plans and request resources.
• Release Management - encompasses the planning, design, build, configuration and testing of hardware and software releases to create a defined set of release components.
• Cost Management - Cost management tracks configuration item costs. The costs can be allocated to business units and used in reports.

Just like a real-life project, PPS can use the multiple ServiceNow applications above to manage a project.  

The only application currently that is "mandatory" for PPS to run is the Project Management application.  However depending on your business needs, you may want to use the other connected ServiceNow applications to better manage your projects and portfolio.  These applications are more connected with each release, however you can disable them as necessary.

Now let's check out all these applications!

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management provides a simplified, team-oriented approach to managing the project lifecycle. It provides the ability to create and manage projects of all sizes, from small projects with a few tasks to large portfolios of projects that contain complex tasks with various relationships and dependencies.

Project management includes tools to help you create, view, and manage projects.

Project templates define the basic structure of a project, including project tasks and sub-tasks, attachments, and other project information. The project template feature gives project managers a simple way to create, save, and reuse this project structure.

1a. Create Waterfall Projects

Here is an example how to create a waterfall project with Project Management.

Create project

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Project > Projects > Workbench and click New Project
2. Fill in the fields.  In order to associate to Programs, you need to place Planned start date and Planned end date within the program

Project Creation

Add Waterfall Phases

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Project > Projects > Workbench
2. Select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header
3. Click the Add (plus sign) button
4. Select "Phase" and select Waterfall from the Phase Type choice list.
5. Give your Phase a short description and dates
6. Click Submit
7. Continue adding phases as needed. Phases in a waterfall project may often be sequential.

Adding a Phase

Add Milestones

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Project > Projects > Workbench
2. Select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header
3. Click the Add (plus sign) button
4. Select "Milestone" and select Waterfall from the Phase Type choice list.
5. Give your Milestone a short description and dates
6. Click Submit
7. Continue adding milestones as needed.

1b. Create Agile Projects

Creating a Agile Project from Project Management is a lot like creating a waterfall project.  Except it uses aspects from the Agile Development application to assist

Setup Development Group

1. Create the agile group. Navigate to Project > Agile > Groups and click New.
2. Add group members. Navigate to the Group members related list on the Group form and click New.
3. Assign the group capacity. Navigate to Project > Agile > Groups, select the desired group, and enter a number in the Points field.

Create sprints

1. Create sprints. Use the Create Sprints related link on the Group form to create multiple sprints or use the Sprints related list to create individual sprints.
2. View the newly created sprints. Use the Sprints related list on the Group form.

Read more about Agile Development

Add Agile Phases

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Project > Projects > Workbench
2. Select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header
3. Click the Add (plus sign) button
4. Select "Phase" and select Agile from the Phase Type choice list.
5. Give your Phase a short description and dates
6. Click Submit
7. Continue adding phases as needed. Phases in a waterfall project may often be sequential.

Add Milestones

1. In the Left Navigator Bar > Project > Projects > Workbench
2. Select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header
3. Click the Add (plus sign) button
4. Select "Milestone" and select Agile from the Phase Type choice list.
5. Give your Milestone a short description and dates
6. Click Submit
7. Continue adding milestones as needed.

2. Manage the Project

Start the Project

Start the project by clicking Start project on the Project form or changing the project state to Work in Progress. Starting the project changes the State field on the Project form to Work in Progress and changes the Actual start date of the project to the current date.

Start Project Button

Monitor the Project and Customize Dashboards

You can update important project status information, such as the number of milestones slipped. You can also view summaries for cost, scope, project risk, and so on. Modify this information as needed with the Portfolio View related list on the Portfolio form and display this information on the Project Overview homepage. In addition, use the project reports installed with the application, such as Active projects or Projects (by priority), to show important project information.

When the project is underway, continue to access project records and edit several items, including costs, priority, schedule, and planned values that are not rollups. Keep detailed project records for risks and issues and refer to them after a project is complete. Also create baselines along the way to easily see if any project phases or tasks are slipping at the time you create the baseline.

3. Close the Project

When the project is complete, change its state to Closed complete on the project form. When a project is in the closed state, the Project Management application calculates actual values like Actual duration.

Post-project activities include analyzing project baselines and actual values and generating a final project dashboard.

If the project was successful and can be used as a template for future projects, make a copy of it. If the project was created from a change, incident, or problem record, there are several other activities to perform in ServiceNow.

Project Workbench

The project workbench provides a central location for creating and managing projects.

The workbench supports the Project Management and application life cycle management applications, allowing for a hybrid approach to project management. Project managers can create projects that combine both waterfall and agile methodologies and add waterfall, agile, and test phases to these projects.

The project workbench makes it easy to manage projects by presenting project information in two panes. The top pane displays a timeline with the project phases and milestones. The bottom pane displays details for the phase selected in the timeline. The project workbench provides real-time interaction between the timeline, the list view, and the visual task board.

Project Workbench

Program Management

A program helps you to logically group related projects or demands under a single entity. The ServiceNow Program Management application helps you to manage related projects and demands in coordinated way that is not possible when projects and demands are managed independently.

Program Relationship Diagram

The it_program_manager role is essential to be able to manage programs. The Program Management application provides the following capabilities to the program manager:

• Create a program by adding related projects and demands.
• Create tasks specific to the program. These tasks are essential for completion of the program but are outside the scope of projects.
• Define key milestones, anticipated risks, and issues for the program.
• Monitor the progress and status and of all the projects and demand that are part of the program. Program manager can track the costs, resources, and schedules.

When you create a program, consider:

• A program can be part of a portfolio or can be a generic standalone program that is not part of any portfolio.
• A program cannot be part of multiple portfolios.
• A project or demand cannot be part of multiple programs.
• You can have projects and demands that can directly be part of a portfolio and not part of a program.
• The following diagram illustrates how you can implement programs.

Program Workbench

The program workbench is a central location for viewing details of a program and the projects, demands, and program tasks that are part of the program.

The program manager role can use the program workbench to view and monitor the progress of the program and the projects, demands, and program tasks. Program workbench provides information for only tracking the program.

You can track the progress of demands and projects, and monitor the status of cost, resource, schedule, and scope for the selected fiscal period for the program.

Program Workbench

Program Workbench

Portfolio Management

Portfolio Overview

With the ServiceNow Portfolio Management application, you can create portfolios which are collections of related programs, projects, and demands. You can then perform financial planning and monitor the status and progress of these portfolios.

The Portfolio Management application provides these capabilities to the portfolio manager:

• Create a portfolio by adding related programs, projects, and demands.
• Perform annual portfolio planning by selecting demands, projects, and programs.
• Track the progress and status of all the programs, projects, and demands that are part of the portfolio. You can track the costs, resources, schedules, risks, and issues.

Read more about Portfolio Management

Portfolio Workbench

Portfolio Workbench

Demand Management

The Demand Management application consists of tools for capturing, centralizing, and analyzing strategic and operational demands. It also provides a single location for managing all of the demand information.

Agile Development

Agile Development is an iterative and incremental process for software development environments. Scrum is one of the most popular methodologies. Scrum has the following characteristics:

• A short, fixed schedule of cycles with adjustable scope, called sprints, to address rapidly changing development needs.
• A repeating sequence of events, milestones, and meetings.
• A practice of implementing and testing new requirements, called stories, to ensure some work is release-ready after each sprint.
• Commonly used roles such as product owner, scrum master, and team member.

Read more about Agile Development

TEST MANAGEMENT

The ServiceNow Test Management application provides a tool for manual software testing.

Test managers can use this application to manage all phases of the testing process.

• Create and maintain the test repository by creating test suites, test cases, and tests.
• Enable test execution by creating test plans, adding test cases, and assigning testers to test cases.
• Initiate the testing process and monitor the progress.
• Evaluate test results and complete the test plan sign-off form.
• View testing reports on the Test Management dashboard.

Testers can use this application to:

• Perform tests and record test results.
• Update test case status.
• Report defects and retest, as necessary.

Process Flow

1. Test setup. The test manager builds the test repository by creating test suites, test cases, and tests.
2. Test initiation. The test manager initiates the testing process and monitors the progress on the Test Plan form.
3. Test execution. The test manager creates a test plan to test a specific product or feature, adds test cases, and assigns a tester to each test case. If desired, the test manager can also define a test environment.
4. Testing. Testers perform the tests in their assigned test cases, record the test results, and update the status of each test. If necessary, the testers indicate the reason for a failed or blocked test.
5. Sign-off. Stakeholders review the test results and any open issues and then collaboratively decide whether the test plan sign-off form can be completed.

Resource Management

The Resource Management application enables resource requesters, such as project managers or change managers, to create resource plans and request resources. Resource managers use the application to assign resources to tasks. The Resource Management application can be used in conjunction with any task on the ServiceNow platform, including project tasks, incidents, problems, or changes.

Release Management

Release Management encompasses the planning, design, build, configuration and testing of hardware and software releases to create a defined set of release components.

Read more about Release Management

Cost Management

Cost management tracks configuration item costs. The costs can be allocated to business units and used in reports.

Read more about Cost Management