Manage platform demand

Manage platform demand

Demand management focuses on measuring, predicting, and understanding your customers’ usage patterns, anticipating their changing needs, and assessing their demand for
products and services. Demand for ServiceNow® functionality should be managed in partnership with business stakeholders, as demand is constantly changing based on business
conditions, goals, and organizational objectives.

Insight: Managing Now Platform demand

Demand management ensures that the ServiceNow platform team and service delivery function has the capacity to meet business partner demand and is responsive to business
partner requirements so the services provided are fit for purpose. Without demand management, the link between business value and service delivery can be lost.

The goals for managing platform demand are:

• Visibility – Establish a clear line of sight to all platform requests from the business.
• Control – Make fact-based decisions about which projects and enhancements the platform team undertakes.
• Alignment – Group platform projects and enhancements by business objectives.
• Planning and velocity – Look ahead to predict future demand while becoming more agile in addressing current demands.

Key implementation steps

Start Improve Optimize

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, 3. Align approved demands to business
4. Increase velocity and plan future demand
intake model prioritizing, and approving demands outcomes

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Step 1a: Define demand management roles
Demand management needs to predict demand based on historical usage, influence demand with compelling services offerings, and capture demand for new services, products, or
configuration/customization on the Now Platform®.

The three main roles that demand comes to the ServiceNow team through are business liaisons, service/product owners, and the service desk. Each of these groups needs to know
where to go internally to discuss demand and capacity issues.
Establish a demand owner role* Identify and train demand process roles
 Responsible for shepherding demands from start to finish
 Stand up an initial pilot group of four people from the main role that will interact during
 Should be a project manager or have a similar background or skill set the demand process.
 Aligns demand owners with business relationship managers (BRMs)—liaisons  Develop a curriculum that includes:
between IT and lines of business (LOBs)
 An overview of the demand process from request to approval
 Gathers additional information about the request through interviews, surveys, and
research  The information required for a complete request, including definitions and examples of
each
Establish a demand board
 Set up monthly enablement calls and/or office hours to address any questions they may
 Establish a ServiceNow demand board with monthly meetings to manage and shape have.
demand and to measure demand management success over time.
 Track their requests for completeness and accuracy and share feedback regularly.
o Required members: platform architect, platform owner, and demand owners
o Recommended members: IT process/domain owners, portfolio/service owners, the
program manager, business analysts/business relationship managers, vendor managers, * The number of demand owners and their full-time or part-time profile depends on the
key suppliers, and partners
size and complexity of the organization.
• Small = 1–2 part-time demand owners
• Large = 2–3 full-time demand owners

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

3 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 1b: Define demand management intake processes
Once demand management roles are understood, the demand management process needs to be defined, starting with the demand intake process. The demand board should ensure
that new proposals for ServiceNow functionality, configuration, or customization adhere to explicitly defined criteria for business value.

The process for vetting incoming demands should include assessing the relative business value of a requirement, the cost of its implementation and support, and its potential
technical risks.

Define the information required to include in a proper demand request in Use ServiceNow’s SPM Demand Management module as your demand management
ServiceNow system of record

 Brief description  If you don’t currently use ServiceNow Demand Management, contact your account
team for additional information.
 Business case
 Ask ServiceNow Expert Services for offline tools to capture demands if you don’t
 Business units that will benefits from the demand and others impacted currently have a demand management tool.
 Proof of management support of the requesting organization from the executive
sponsor  Start with demand requesters creating demand records directly rather than starting
with ideation from the start.
 Strategy and goals alignment

Capture the business value of new demand requests during ideation

 Develop simple scoring mechanisms to help demand submitters identify the business
value of a new demand requirement while it’s in the ideation phase.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

4 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2a: Assign demand requests and enhance them
with additional information for evaluation
The demand owner is the quarterback for each demand request, responsible for gathering sufficient information for the demand board to make an informed decision. This may
include reaching out to the requester, other business partners, or stakeholders on the ServiceNow platform team.

Assign a demand owner to each demand request Enhance the demand request with additional information

 Set the demand state to Submitted (see below).
Track the progress of the demand request using demand states
 Draft – The new demand request is in process.
 Submitted – The demand record is created; the demand owner is assigned and, it
is ready to star the process.
 Screening – The demand owner sends assessments to stakeholders.
 Qualified – The demand has been qualified and is ready for review.
 Deferred – The demand has been put on hold. The demand can be revisited in
future and reviewed.
 Assign each demand to a portfolio – This is a collection of demands managed as a
group to achieve strategic and operational objectives.
 Create a list of stakeholders who will be impacted by or have an interest in this
request.
 Document additional information, including:
 Requirements – Business, solution, quality, and transition
 Decisions – Key choices that may affect the outcome of the demand
 Risks – Any uncertain event that can potentially impact the success or outcome of a
project
 Costs – Starting with a T-shirt size estimate (S, M, L, XL) and then adding capital
and labor costs when estimated

 Approved – The demand will be converted to a new artifact (project, epic, story,
enhancement, defect, change).

 Completed – The demand is completed.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

5 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2b: Determine the demand approval thresholds
based on the size of the demand
Demands will come in all shapes and sizes, so you shouldn’t take a “one size fits all” approach to approving them. Tying up your demand board with approving small, tactical
projects isn't an efficient use of their time. Demand owners should have the latitude to make decisions on demands up to a certain size; they will then inform the demand board of
those decisions.

Determine whether a demand will require a project if approved

 Demands needing more than eight hours of effort should be included in a project, either new or existing, if approved.

 Demands that are less that eight hours should be created as an enhancement, if approved.

Determine thresholds for demands that require demand owner versus demand board approval

 Give demand owners the authority to approve small, tactical demands so they’re more responsive to business requests, including:
 Demands requiring less than eight hours of effort (i.e., those that don’t require creating a project)
 Demands that require creating a project but that are less than a certain duration (e.g., less than four weeks)
 Demands that you have to do regardless of size, such as those required prior to an approved upgrade

 Escalate demand approval to the demand board for more complex demands, such as:
 Strategic – For example, those that tie to transformational portfolios and themes
 Size/time – Demands requiring a project greater than a fiscal quarter (90 days) or those that span fiscal years
 Risk – Demands with high risk due to resource, compressed timeline, complex technical requirements, or other factors
 Stakeholders – Demands with stakeholders who span multiple business units (customer)

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

6 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2c: Gather assessments from stakeholders
For demands identified as strategic, after the demand owner has enhanced the demand request with additional cost, risk, and value information, they should use assessments to
obtain additional input from stakeholders on the demand’s risk, business value, and cost. When stakeholders complete the assessments, they score questions on a scale of 1–10 so the
results can be consolidated to provide a quantitative score for risk and business value. These scores are used by the demand board as a factor in the decision-making process.

Gather and consolidate assessments for new demand requests from stakeholders

 Send assessments to specific stakeholders who can analyze the demand’s risk (business and technical) and alignment to
business value.
 Set the demand state to Screening.
 Include both a numeric score (1–10) as well as an opportunity to provide comments for each assessment question. At a minimum, an Practitioner insight: A bubble chart works well
assessment should contain at least one question for risk and one question for business value. as a visual assessment tool. Using two
 Technical risk assessments should include a configuration versus customization analysis for each demand. complementary scoring metrics to place each
demand on the graph, employ a third to show
 Group questions into two categories: risk and business value alignment. the magnitude of the demand. Customers often
 Risk – Technical (customization versus configuration, integration), certainty of project requirements, complexity of requirements use risk and value to place the demand on the
graph, then use cost to show the magnitude
 Business value alignment – Alignment with strategic/corporate objectives, increase of efficiencies, elimination of existing (size of the bubble).
tools/solutions

 Calculate an average score for each quantitative assessment question and each assessment category.

 After all assessments have been returned, set the demand state to Qualified.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

7 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2d: Create a demand resource plan
In addition to understanding risk and business value, the demand owner could also estimate the effort (according to T-shirt sizes) and assess the capacity of your organization to put
the demand into action. The demand owner could construct a resource plan based on the estimated requirements to create not only more accurate cost estimates, but also to avoid
over-committing limited development resources.
Identify the roles to create a demand resource plan Resource manager reviews the resource plan

 The resource manager:  The resource manager vets requirements with the demand owner.
 Is responsible for estimation and allocation of resources to projects and demands
 If changes to the plan are needed, the resource manager rejects the plan and sends back
 May be a dedicated resource manager, program manager, or lead project manager to the demand manager for revision.
 The demand owner:  If it’s approved, the resource manager creates a soft allocation of resources. The hours
 Initiates a demand resource plan request are requested but are not committed unless the demand is approved and converted to a
project, at which time they become a hard allocation.
 Collaborates with the resource manager to provide details on requirements
 Soft-allocated resources still impact resource availability.
Create the demand resource plan
 Availability = capacity – hard allocations – soft allocations
 The demand owner creates the demand resource plan. They will:
 Add the resource group or resource roles and an estimate of the hours needed based on
requirements. The level of precision needed for this estimate should be based on the
complexity of the demand request—more complex requests should have more detailed Practitioner insight: Capturing resource requirements during the demand evaluation
estimates. process allows for more accurate planning of future labor needs. This enables IT to
respond more quickly and accurately to demand requests in the future.
 Use the demand start date as the resource plan start date.
 Use a consistent time format for all resource plan allocations (e.g., weekly or monthly).
 Use a consistent resource request type (hours or FTE) for all demands.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

8 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2e: Approve, defer, or reject the demand requests
For qualified demands, the demand board should ensure that all proposals for ServiceNow functionality, configuration, or customization adhere to explicitly-defined criteria for
business value. The demand board should scrutinize any demands requiring customization to ensure a smooth upgrade experience and weigh the customization effort against the
demand’s business value.

The demand owner or demand board reviews the demand requests

 The demand owner or demand board may elect to modify the scores of a given demand request; the scores submitted in stakeholder assessments should be a
starting point, not considered the final decision.

 The demand owner or demand board evaluates demand on any and all information available, including assessments, enhanced demand information, and
resource plans.

Determine the disposition of the demand

 Use standard statuses from the demand process flow.

 Deferred – The demand remains a demand and can be reevaluated in the future in the demand board meeting.
 Approved – The demand will move forward; the demand board then creates a new artifact (project, epic, story, enhancement, defect, change).
 Completed – Work on the demand is complete and is either approved or rejected.

 Reevaluate demands that have been deferred from the previous meeting based on evolving business priorities and IT capacity.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

9 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 2e: Approve, defer, or reject the demand request
(Continued)
For qualified demands, the demand board should ensure that all proposals for ServiceNow functionality, configuration, or customization adhere to explicitly defined criteria for
business value. The demand board should scrutinize any demands requiring customization to ensure a smooth upgrade experience and weigh the customization effort against the
demand’s business value.

Create an artifact of the demand

 Create a project – Strategic demand type

 Create an epic– Strategic demand type in an Agile environment

 Create an story– Strategic demand type in an Agile environment

 Create an enhancement – Strategic demand type in an Agile environment

 Create a defect – Operational demand type in an Agile environment

 Create a change – Operational demand type

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

10 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 3a: Use the business unit’s strategic plans and KPIs
to anticipate demand changes
Business services are used to support business outcomes and focus on the right outcome metrics for the right cost. You can get ahead of new demands for services and ServiceNow
functionality by understanding business unit strategic plans and key KPIs. Map these to capabilities and your current services and ServiceNow roadmap for effective demand
conversations.

Understand the impact that business unit goals will have on demand for services and ServiceNow
functionality
 Meet quarterly with business unit partners/liaisons to understand new or shifting business unit goals and inform
the business of new or upcoming ServiceNow capabilities that may eliminate the need for customization.
 When discussing a new ServiceNow capability, provide examples of how the new capability can directly support or
impact their business function, rather than describing the capability in purely technical terms.
 Use historical service run rates to predict demand for new ServiceNow functionality.
Practitioner insight: Demand changes are often opportunities to
discuss standardization, consolidation of legacy systems, or new
ServiceNow functionality to take advantage of increased scale.
These conversations are easier when they’re pitched around the
specific business metrics you need to hit rather than technical or
functional metrics that don’t mean much to the business.

 Link new business KPIs to current ServiceNow functionality to assess any gaps.

 For example, increasing customer wallet share may involve improving the customer data available to call center
agents for cross-sale and making that data usable, which may require more integration between ServiceNow and
other critical systems.

 As an outcome of these discussions, demand owners should proactively create demands that align with the
newly understood business objectives.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

11 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 3b: Focus demand conversations on business needs
Demand management should be proactive, not reactive. Service organizations—and the ServiceNow platform team—should reach out to service consumers (business partners) to
understand their key business outcomes and to propose solutions that encourage them to use the platform.

Focus the conversation with business partners on making progress toward business outcomes to understand where to make changes to the Now Platform and program to ensure you
realize value. Also focus on how employees consume services through ServiceNow. This helps you have better demand conversations and helps business stakeholders understand
the value that customization or change—to a platform or process—will bring.

Use defined business outcomes for enterprise service management or digital transformation to orient demand conversations
 Start the conversation by understanding the outcomes that drive success. Example categories include:
 Cost reduction
 Improved employee or customer experience
 Risk reduction
 Accelerated innovation

 Document the top three business outcomes for the business partner.

 Identify examples where ServiceNow has helped other business partners achieve similar outcomes.
 Internally, consult with other business groups who have implemented ServiceNow.
 Externally, check with the ServiceNow Community, review Knowledge presentations (requires credentials), or participate in your local ServiceNow User Group (SNUG).

 Schedule a follow-up meeting with the business partner to show where ServiceNow has provided value and propose enhancements to support that business partner’s
outcomes.

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan future
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes demand

12 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 4a: Apply Agile practices to increase demand
responsiveness
Once your organization has a handle on demand with visibility to all demands, has control of the demand review and assessment process, and has aligned them with business
objectives, the demand board can “up its game” by borrowing from the Agile playbook to increase the velocity of demand management. And all this can be done in ServiceNow.

More than just arriving at demand decisions more quickly, Agile techniques let demand managers test for changes in the business climate more often and lets them tie demands to
capacity in a near real-time manner.

Schedule demand board intake standups daily

 Review new demand requests.

 Provide updates on demand enhancements.

Transform demands into user stories and/or epics

 If an approved demand cannot be delivered within a single iteration, create it as an epic.

 Use the INVEST formula to assess the quality of user stories:

 Independent (of all others)
 Negotiable (not a specific contract for features)
 Valuable (or vertical)
 Estimable (to a good approximation)
 Small (so as to fit within an iteration)
 Testable (in principle, even if there isn't a test for it yet)

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes future demand

13 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Step 4b: Managing demand in a services-focused
organization
As the enterprise service management or transformation journey matures, decisions on service investment within a services-focused organization should be given to the service
owners, who are best placed to identify how and where to meet customer need. Service owners have complete control over the costs of running the business, while investment in
changing the business are decided across all services and based on the organization’s strategy and defined value outcomes.

Running IT as a business means that resources saved by reducing run costs to can be switched to build/change capabilities that otherwise may not get funded.

Shift accountability for service demand management to service owners

 Modify the service owner’s performance bonus goals to include accurate demand management.
Practitioner insight: Encourage service owners to look for
Create compelling services to influence demand opportunities to drive consolidation and reduction in costs, and
reinvest savings in change programs aimed at addressing key
 Incorporate customer incentives into service offerings to shift demand to more cost-effective options.
challenges.
Measure success both in both financial and customer satisfaction terms

 % reduction in run the business costs

 Net Promoter Scores (NPS) (or similar) for the service from business stakeholders

1. Create visibility by building a demand 2. Take control by enhancing, prioritizing, 3. Align approved demands to business 4. Increase velocity and plan
Steps
intake model and approving demands outcomes future demand

14 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Manage platform demand

Key performance indicators Essential KPIs Nice-to-have KPIs

• Service utilization/load • Voice of the customer and NPS for services
• Backlog (volume/length) for ServiceNow
functionality, configuration, or customization

Stakeholder map Responsible/accountable Consulted/informed

• Chief information officer/senior IT leadership • Business engagement teams
• Service owner/team • Business partners (internal and external)
• Enterprise architecture • All IT staff (especially help desk)
• Now Platform owner • Vendors

15 © 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Appendix

16

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Demand flow diagram
Note: You can enter a demand
directly as a DEMAND.

Navigate to DEMAND >

DEMANDS > CREATE
NEW.

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