Assignment Rules are specifically designed to automate the assignment of tasks, work, or records to individuals or groups based on defined criteria, such as role, department, or phase. While Project Templates can include predefined tasks, and Resource Plans forecast demand, Assignment Rules directly handle the automatic routing of work items.

A Benefit Realization Plan is the core ServiceNow PPM artifact for defining, tracking, and realizing benefits. It formally documents how a benefit will be measured, who is responsible, and the timeline for realization. Reviewing this plan is the first step to validate if the ‘Planned Benefit’ values are grounded in a measurable methodology.

In ServiceNow PPM, a Change Request is a formal proposal. Its approval alone does not change the project. The key step is to ‘Apply’ the approved Change Request. This action propagates the approved changes (like cost, schedule, or scope adjustments) to the associated Project, Task, and Financial Plan, ensuring data integrity.

A Portfolio Dashboard (or a Program-specific dashboard built on portfolio principles) is designed to provide executives and managers with a consolidated, visual summary of multiple initiatives. It aggregates key metrics (timeline, cost, health) from various projects and programs into one view, ideal for high-level oversight and decision-making.

The standard PPM workflow is to convert an approved Demand into a Project. This action creates a new Project record that inherits key information from the Demand (like title, description, business case) and establishes the formal project container where tasks, financials, and resources will be managed.

A Project Cost Plan is used to forecast and track internal costs, like labor (using cost rates from resources). A Financial Task is used to track discrete, often external, financial commitments or actuals, such as purchase orders, invoices, or capital expenditures. Using both allows for comprehensive financial tracking.

Setting a project’s type to ‘Control’ and enabling ‘Task Level Funding’ is a key governance feature. It restricts financial transactions (like time and expense charges) to only those tasks that have been formally approved and funded within the project’s financial plan, preventing cost overruns from unauthorized work.

The ‘Spread’ functionality on a Cost Plan line item allows you to distribute the total estimated cost across predefined time periods (e.g., months, quarters). This creates a time-phased budget forecast, which is essential for cash flow planning and comparing planned vs. actual spend over time.

Scoring Models allow you to define and weight a set of criteria (e.g., Alignment to Strategic Themes, ROI, Risk). Projects or demands can then be scored against this model. By including ‘Alignment to Customer Satisfaction’ as a weighted criterion, you provide a data-driven way to prioritize projects that support that specific strategic goal.

Assignment Rules are specifically designed to automate the assignment of tasks, work, or records to individuals or groups based on defined criteria, such as role, department, or phase. While Project Templates can include predefined tasks, and Resource Plans forecast demand, Assignment Rules directly handle the automatic routing of work items.0