Malwina, Autor w serwisie SPOC

Automated testing in ServiceNow: Robot Framework

Posted on 4 December 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

How Automated Testing Works at SPOC

Automated testing has been a hot topic for a decade now, and in every IT aspect.

For us automated testing has recently been a very important part of our SDL.

The need for automation has grown progressively, along with the need for high quality products delivered. When the QA team was formed, we had to come up with a solution to automate the repeatable processes, and we started to perform regression testing.

The first proposed solutions were based on JS and C Sharp, yet they were too complicated. It wasn’t possible to perform end 2 end testing because of the lack of full access to JS and C Sharp database. In ServiceNow we have access to API based on which we can perform automated testing.

But after a while, our research allowed us to find the new tools.

Automated Testing Framework

The first tool we thought to use was Automation Testing Framework (ATF). ATF is a built-in plugin in ServiceNow, used to perform regression test and unit test. It applies pre-build steps, including server side and client side steps.

As every tool, ATF has its own limitations. One of the limitations is end 2 end acceptance testing. Our approach toward this issue was solved via the additional testing framework called Robot Framework.

Robot Framework & ServiceNow

Robot Framework is a keyword-driven solution used to perform Acceptance Driven Test and Behavior Driven Test. We found out that Robot is very simple to write test cases and very intuitive. It’s built in Python, using Selenium Library and web driver. That’s a big advantage for our QA team, and everyone is able to write test cases and maintain them, fast.

Its syntax looks like this:

*** Test Cases ***
Valid Login
Open browser To Login Page
Input Username demo
Input Password mode
Submit credentials
Welcome Page Should Be Open
[Teardown] Close Browser

Additional advantage of Robot is that you can use Gherkin method to write readable test cases that are more business-oriented.

*** Test Cases ***
Valid Login
Given browser is opened to login page
When user “demo” logs in with password “mode”
Then welcome page should be open

We started with the creation of reusable keywords and our own repository. The generic keywords that we create can be used across the entire team and all the projects. Using Page Object Model, we are able to keep track of variables, locators, common keywords and test cases. Therefore to achieve 100% test cases coverage, we use both tools depending on the process.

At this moment the entire team is able to write automatic test cases and ensure highest quality.

Automated Testing as a Service

Our goal is to encourage more our customers to use automation and grow our expertise. Thus we’re going to offer Automated Testing as a Service soon. This will allow our customers to automate as many processes as possible, directly in their ServiceNow instances.

Automation is the future, but never will replace the manual testing, so at SPOC they go along together, saving time and the entire range of resources. This hybrid solution have proved to be a success for a while, and continues growing with fully motivated experts on our QA Team.

Software Asset Management in ServiceNow

Posted on 19 November 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

Software Asset Management – suggested phased approach

The primary goals of the Software Asset Management process (abbr. SAM process) is to:

Reduce IT costs (optimize spend),
Limit operational, financial, and legal risks related to the ownership and use of software (ensure compliance and support software audits).

Both are achievable through management and optimization of software assets across their lifecycle (launch through to retirement).

SAM process objectives

Holistically, the objectives of the SAM process are:

To reduce/eliminate unnecessary purchases by requests execution with the use of available entitlements,
To identify and record all purchased software entitlements and associated allocations within the organization,
To assign correct license metrics and supporting software contracts to the software entitlements,
To create and maintain accurate software models, client access records, and software discovery models – these enable the establishment of entitlement compliance positions,
To proactively identify cost saving opportunities through removal and re-use of unused software (where terms and conditions allow),
To capture purchase order information that allow record cost of software entitlement,
To accurately allocate available and acquired entitlements to users and devices,
To ensure blacklisted or unlicensed software is not used to strengthen compliance posture against publisher rules and regulations,
To expedite audit response and to avoid non-compliance fines and financial penalties,
To provide accurate software asset information to other enterprise processes (e.g. Change Management), which enables business and financial decision making,
To eliminate human system integration via email, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge.

How to start optimizing your SAM

Recommended approach is to start by working with the publisher that represents the largest software spend in your organization. You should shift the focus towards the normalization of software products that are licensable.

SAM and Capability Blueprint

Capability blueprint is a good practice for implementation and development of Software Asset Management program:

Tier 1 – Trustworthy Data
Know what you have, so you can manage your assets.
Tier 2 – Practical Management
Improve management controls and drive immediate benefits.
Tier 3 – Operational Integration
Improve efficiency and effectiveness through integration with other process such as request procurement.
Tier 4 – Strategic Conformance
Achieve best in-class.

To ensure the expected benefits of the ‘improved’ Software Asset Management process are achieved:

Articulate the expected benefits before the ‘improved’ process is defined,
List down all the audit findings you should focus on in terms of the remediation,
Translate the expected benefits into performance measures,
Define metrics for each performance measure,
While designing the improved process, ensure that the data needed to calculate each metric are captured during the execution of the process,
Document the requirements for each metric,
If possible, capture ‘as is’ performance metrics as a baseline for measuring improvements/benefits realized.

What KPIs and metrics to consider

% of application installations which have not be used within the last 90 days,
Number of installations of application which are unauthorized (blacklisted) for use,
Value of unlicensed software identified and remediated,
Cost paid arising from software licence audit findings per year,

SPOC can always support you in your in endeavour in setting the E2E Software Asset Management Process.

PDF Generator 1.0 available on ServiceNow Store!

Posted on 19 October 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

PDF Generator 1.0 from the very beginning was developed by us with the optimization of the PDF generation process in mind.

How to generate PDFs in PDF Generator?

First you create a docx template where you include all the necessary content.

Next, while creating the template, you also specify records that will be automatically populated by the app once you save the changes.

The entire PDF creation process takes a few moments, and you can check its stage live.

Docx Templates

The very docx template is fully customizable, allowing you to merge various types of content (copy, pictures, etc.) that the app converts into a PDF file. What’s important – you can modify your templates any time.

Data Security

The entire PDF generation process takes place on your internal server(s). This way it allows you to maximize your data security and eliminate third party involvement.

Environment required

For installation PDF Generator 1.0 needs to have a host with Windows OS and Office installed – with no need to have a specific host with Windows Server.

How much does PDF Generator cost

PDF Generator 1.0 is a subscription based app, that is available on ServiceNow Store.

Download the app

ServiceNow New York release available – NLU, Virtual Agent, mobility

Posted on 11 September 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

ServiceNow New York – Natural Language Understanding

ServiceNow New York release introduces Natural Language Understanding (NLU), providing your users with greater experience and enhances the effectiveness of your Virtual Agent conversations.

New York offers NLU plugins for CSM, HR and ITSM. Dedicated NLU models have been provided for each of those areas, allowing to turn small-talk and any seemingly random utterances of the users into relevant Virtual Agent topics. This results in a swift resolution of the user’s query. In addition, you can build and configure your own NLU models using the ServiceNow Studio!

NLU Availability: subscription-based
How to activate: admin via Plugins module

How ServiceNow NLU works

Within each model, the Virtual Agent will use the following NLU objects to identify what the user would like to do:

Utterances: Natural input from the user, e.g. “I’m going on holiday from tomorrow until next Sunday”.
Intent: the action that ServiceNow understands based on the utterance, e.g. Request: Leave of Absence.
Entities: any keywords (regex based) that ServiceNow can use to determine what/who/when/where and so on, e.g.: Start: tomorrow (05.09.19), End: next Sunday (22.09.2019).

With NLU enabled, the Virtual Agent can even handle conversation switching from topic to topic.

ServiceNow New York – dev tools

Syntax Editor has been revamped and, aside new aesthetically pleasing way of displaying APIs, script includes, and tables, we get a new context menu, that allows quick access to the following information for:

APIs like GlideRecord – docs page with documentation on that API,
Script Includes – definition of that script include,
Tables – either definition record of that table or list of all records in that table,
A bunch of new Scoped APIs were also added, e.g. for DynamicTranslation.

As well as other interesting functionalities, like Remote Tables, which allow developers to connect to an external data source and display data from that source in list or form view within ServiceNow – as if it was 1 of SN tables.

Availability: free (part of the ServiceNow Platform)
How to get: comes with the New York upgrade

Instance data replication

Instance Data Replication in the ServiceNow New York release allows to copy data from one instance (called Producer Instance), to one or more target instances (called Consumer Instances). To utilize this feature, a replication set must be defined on both instances, containing the tables and columns which should be replicated.

This is useful e.g. in moving incremental updates from one instance to another, or in localization of data across different instances. It allows you to keep instances in sync, and you are able to define Transformations to copy data to different tables or fields, or Adapters to perform string or mathematical operations on source data before it is stored on target instance. The replication can also be bi-directional.

Dynamic translation

ServiceNow New York release comes with a powerful API for detecting the input language for custom texts like Descriptions, Additional Comments etc. entered by the users, as well as translating this text “on-the-fly” into target language.

The plugin comes with a Flow Designer REST action as well as 2 Integration Spokes for:

Microsoft Azure,
IBM Watson.

What is particularly handy about this feature, are its dedicated APIs to add dynamic translations to Server side entities, Client side entities as well as Service Portal. You can easily add dynamic translation to a field by going to the field’s dictionary and adding a new attribute.

Availability: free (part of the ServiceNow Platform)
How to get: comes with New York upgrade

ServiceNow New York – mobile application

ServiceNow mobile application enables ServiceNow users to:

Submit new records (e.g. incidents or requests),
Manage existing tasks,
Approve of or reject tasks,
Sign documents,
Request help from Agent Chat.

Now Mobile application can integrate with user’s mobile device to take certain actions in the application itself – using the mobiles default photo, messaging or keyboard. Additionally, the application is customizable – you can personalize aspects, from view or layout to specifying the data displayed in your records.

How to get: comes with the New York upgrade

Guided Application Creator

Guided Application Creator is a new tool making setting up new application even easier than it is! Thanks to this brand new application, you can specify the entry requirement before the actual development starts. The creator enables to create:

Application,
User roles,
Tables,

And:

Design user experience.

In terms of user experience, it is possible to create the application in 3 distinct experiences:

Workspace (available only if the Agent Workspace plugin is activated),
Mobile,
Classic.

Setting up an application with this tool is the first step in creating the application. Later on, it can be further developed with Studio, Flow Designer, or Team Development.

Availability: Subscription-based
How to activate: Admin via Plugins module

Predictive Intelligence

Predictive Intelligence introduces 3 separate frameworks, each of which enables different opportunities to teach the system how to approach data in terms of their prediction and recommendation of outcomes. These frameworks are:

Classification – enabling ML algorithms to populate field values while creating new records in ServiceNow based on previous record-handling experience.
Similarity – enabling ML to identify existing records with values similar to new records and create a word corpus.
Clustering – enabling ML to group similar records to clusters in order to address to them collectively or to identify patterns related to their features.

The classification and similarity frameworks support these 8 languages:

English,
French,
German,
Japanese,
Dutch,
Spanish,
Italian,
Brazilian Portuguese.

The clustering framework only supports the English language.

Event Management in ServiceNow

Posted on 8 July 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

Event Management is an application built in the ServiceNow Platform, being a part of the ITOM suite, that collects all events from a variety of monitoring systems into 1 place and then does the magic with the data to produce actionable alerts and incidents. Its great abilities bring organizations to the next level of IT operations with ServiceNow.

The Event Management feature can cooperate with many monitoring tools often already installed in organizations, such as:

HP Operations Manager,
HP OMi,
IBM Netcool/OMNIbus,
Microsoft SCOM (also metric collection in Operational Metrics),
Nagios XI,
OP5 NEW,
Opsview NEW,
PRTG NEW,
SolarWinds NPM and SAM,
VMware Hyperic,
VMware vRealize Operations,
Zabbix,
Amazon Web Services,
Azure,
BMC TrueSight,
Oracle Enterprise Manager,
REST (ideal for custom integrations),
Web Services,
SNMP Traps (very useful for custom integrations),
Email (integration method of last resort),
Datadog NEW,
Panopta.

How Event Management works

Event Management applies MID Server to collect events from the infrastructure using connectors to the third party monitoring tools. Event is a notification from a CI or a cloud that IT team should be aware of. Events are categorized as:

Critical: Immediate action is required. The resource is either not functional or critical problems are imminent.
Major: Major functionality is severely impaired or performance has degraded.
Minor: Partial, non-critical loss of functionality or performance degradation occurred.
Warning: Attention is required, even though the resource is still functional.
Info: An alert is created. The resource is still functional.
Clear: No action is required. An alert is not created from this event. Existing alerts are closed.

Events can be collected in 2 different ways:

Pull,
Push.

The MID Server can use connectors to pull the events from third party monitoring tools or the monitoring tools can push the data to the instance. When the events are pushed to the instance some listeners have to be configured either on the MID Server or directly on the instance as a Web Service. The monitoring tools can also send events to the instance by email.

Event Management Monitoring

Apart of events, also metrics are collected. Metric is a measure of operating characteristic for a device over a certain time period like CPU or memory usage. Events and metrics are collected by the platform to help IT team to monitor health, prevent outages and resolve issues quickly with a minimum impact on the operations.

Collected events can trigger an alert to notify the IT team about the issue. This is done by defining event rules that map event fields to the alert fields as well as bind specific CI to the alert. Event management uses Operational Intelligence to filter out certain alerts by applying thresholds, group the alerts and identify primary alert.

Finally, Event Management uses alert rules to initiate remediation actions like creating an incident, launching a remediation workflow or recommending a knowledge article. The app calculates an impact on CIs, and Operational Intelligence normalizes metrics and identifies anomalies which are sent to the instance for further processing.

Event Management Dashboard and how it’s used

Event Management Dashboard is the way the events are monitored. The dashboard can represent business services or alert groups:

Size of a tile represents priority of a service or a group,
Color indicates the highest severity alert in the group or a service,
Alerts related to a particular group or a service are visible at the bottom of the dashboard.

The topology map is available for a service when it’s double clicked on the dashboard. The topology map shows the impact tree and relationships as well as related alerts down below. The impact history scroll bar can be used to move back over time to see the historical data.

Event Management overview is another way to see the health status of the infrastructure.

Anomaly Events & Operational Intelligence

Operational Intelligence is also used for collecting performance metrics from the system. It uses event rules to bind CIs to the metrics. Metric data is normalized by the application of statistical model. Thanks to that a normal range of value is recognized.

All metric values are checked against the model and values outside the range are identified as anomalies to be sent to the instance as an anomaly event. On the instance, the event rules create anomaly alert based on anomaly events.

The anomaly alert can initiate creation of an incident, launching a remediation workflow or recommending a knowledge article.

Anomalies can be reviewed with Anomaly Map module. Anomaly Map gives an overview of anomalies for individual CIs. The chart shows anomaly history. The color of tiles represents the highest anomaly score for the selected CI at that time.

Metric Explorer

Metric Explorer is a very useful module to review the metrics and, what’s more, to build. It allows to see the metrics on a single pane or to correlate multiple metrics or see the anomaly scores and anomaly bounds on the chart.

Benefits of Event Management & Operational Intelligence

Event Management together with Operational Intelligence help shared services organizations centralize the IT operations by delivering single pane of glass of business service health, and solve problems much faster. The benefits are:

Reduction of MTTR (Mean Time To Repair),
Identification of root cause,
Increase in the existing tools value,
Improvement in service availability.

If you need any support in the area of IT Operations Management in your organization, we’re here to help!

What is ServiceNow?

Posted on 4 April 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

ServiceNow is a Platform as a Service (PaaS), offering a selection of digital workflows for IT, Project Management Office, HR, finance and more. The platform was developed by an American company ServiceNow in 2004. Throughout years, the core and essence of the technology has remained the same, but the functionality and solutions on offer have expanded and improved.

This article will give you a snapshot of what things look like in Q2, 2019.

ServiceNow value proposition

With the vision “We make the world of work, work better for people”, ServiceNow digitizes manual workflows. Thus you’re able to unlock the real productivity and cover for the main areas of the general business landscape.

ServiceNow Platform is a scalable cloud that offers a range of applications, workflows and processes. Sharing common architecture and data, the platform incorporates a variety of ready-made suites catering for specific business areas:

IT Service Management (ITSM)
HR Service Delivery (HRSD)
IT Operations Management (ITOM)
Customer Service Management (CSM)
IT Business Management (ITBM)
And build their own, custom applications to support business needs.

The foundation – ServiceNow ITSM

ITSM has been the staple of the ServiceNow Platform from the very beginning. The company’s been driving ITSM sphere, taking the lead position in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for the past 5 years! (Get the full Gartner’s report here). In 2018 ServiceNow was marked as High-Productivity Application Platform as a service, which cemented the company’s success as a platform provider.

The company founder – Fred Luddy, initially started with a much broader vision:

As a natural effect, ServiceNow expands the platform functionality by the next business areas, outside of IT.

ServiceNow journey & features

Customers can start their ServiceNow journey from many points. Regardless of where they first start, they have the ability to follow a flexible road-map to bring continued success within the organization. Using ServiceNow, an organization can:

Implement,
Extend,
Expand.

This approach allows organizations to make the most and best value from the investment they have made implementing ServiceNow.

Let’s review a selection of the main areas available in the recent releases.

Service Portal

An organization can provide services and applications to users via a sleek, modern, and intuitive self-service experience. The technology used in the Service Portal is meant to resemble the look and feel similar to the platforms users, people, engage with outside of work.

Native Mobile Apps

Using ServiceNow means organizations are able to build native mobile apps, allowing users to consume products and services on any device. By taking advantage of Maps, Calendars, Lists, Forms, the applications provide a fantastic user experience. Offline mode enables users to even carry on working whenever they’re offline.

Flow Designer

Create workflows, simply with natural language. The flow designer is ideal for process analysts and less technical members of an organization to effectively produce useful workflows to drive processes. Technical members of the team can also develop reusable elements to be leveraged by colleagues in other departments.

Integration Hub

This integration solution offers a way for people to connect with other systems at certain steps of a process. As with the flow designer, certain elements can be easily leveraged by non-technical resources, while coding wizards are able to set up a complete range of integration possibilities.

Performance Analytics

Take control of service delivery by gaining full visibility into the measures and metrics of the processes that drive them. Performance Analytics is perfect for looking to prioritize resources, improve resolution times, and deliver even better self-service by discovering automation opportunities.

Agent Intelligence

Support agent delivery services with supervised machine learning. Using Agent Intelligence you can efficiently assign and prioritize tickets and tasks with learnings taken directly from your own data.

Virtual Agent

Take chat from conversation to resolution. Virtual Agent includes an automated conversational Agent to respond to users’ questions in real-time. Virtual Agent works as standard with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and both Android and iOS operating systems.

The Virtual Agent incorporates a simple but powerful no-code drag and drop designer, great for building quick conversation examples. There are also many pre-built conversations for ITSM, CSM & HRSD.

Time to Value a key focus of ServiceNow

As alluded to a couple of times already, the ServiceNow Platform is configured to maximize the time to value for Businesses. The approach of No Code / Low Code / Pro Code, which allows a full range of people to deliver solutions on the platform means businesses are able to roll-out applications and solutions quickly to align to changing needs. The longer-term strategic growth plans can be managed with more complex solutions prepared with the assistance of professional ServiceNow partners.

Bringing all these items together helps us understand the economic impact of ServiceNow use. In 2017 the neutral advisory firm, Forrester, produced a report showing the ‘Total Economic Impact’ of the platform. The figures included (see the full report here):

195%
ROI for new customers, with a payback period of only 9 months,
30%
Increase in dev resources via low code tools,
290%
Accelerated development efforts,
57%
Increase in employee productivity.

Service Portal vs. CMS – is it worth to switch or not

Posted on 15 March 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

Service Portal and CMS are 2 ServiceNow solutions, both apply Jelly, but deliver completely different user experiences. Now a number of mature users of the ServiceNow platform are considering how and when to move from the legacy Content Management System (CMS) application to the newer Service Portal (SP). We’re going to review the validity of the switch and answer the first 2 questions (how and when).

What was CMS

CMS is the first offer available from ServiceNow to cover the self-service needs of businesses. CMS in its day was a great application that allowed organizations to produce solutions offering the freedom of self-service. You can configure and modify CMS, but due to its building blocks and that it’s coded in a dated Jelly language, the modifications are limited and the time and complexity for development is high.

ServiceNow was aware of these issues therefore introduced a more modern solution to compensate them. As users are people used to intuitive interfaces offered by consumer platforms they engage with in their personal lives, the SP was designed to deliver similar experience at work.

SP provides businesses with a way to deliver attractive, sleek and engaging interfaces. The range of visual possibilities is much greater compared to the CMS. As the images above show, the page designs can be altered to suit specific needs of the organisation. What’s more, the system architecture allows to reuse many of the widgets (items on the page) and adjust them. Thus you save time on development and reduce its complexity level.

Service Portal vs. CMS

Service Portal	CMS
DESIGN
Responsive, consistent UX	Fixed
Service Portal supports the No, Low, Pro Code users, which combined with its limitless design potential, enable your organization to create functional and user-friendly interfaces.	The pages are non-responsive, so you need a different version for each device. The look is dated which badly affects feel, resulting in poor UX. .
CUSTOMIZATION
Bootstrap, Jelly, Angular, JavaScript	Jelly, HTML, CSS
Developed with reusable widgets, responsive apps and interfaces. Offering a vast library of ready-made components you can use and freely modify to best meet your needs.	Complex to build, with limited customization possibilities dues to the application of dated Jelly technology. . .
MAINTENANCE
Supported & continuously developed	Supported but not developed further
Service Portal is continuously developed, with each release offering additional capabilities and enhancements to the existing functionality.	CMS is still supported by ServiceNow, however, offers narrow self-service capability that won’t be further expanded. For more flexibility, you need to switch to SP.

Who benefits from CMS-Service Portal switch

The differences in the 2 solutions mean that companies who are making the shift from CMS to the SP can expect a more enjoyable, dynamic experience for their users. The widgets and the interactions they provide, give customers the information they require quicker and more efficiently.

However, the Service Portal doesn’t just benefit the end users. The designers and developers implementing the SP have an easier more manageable job. New enhancements or changes required to match the needs of the businesses, can be added quicker and with less frustration compared to the legacy CMS development work.

The switch

When your organization decides to move from CMS to Service Portal, it is also a chance to review the processes and experiences delivered via CMS. It’s actually the foundation for a successful switch to Service Portal in your organization.

Analyze the current CMS imperfections and act upon their resolution, either applying minor tweaks or completely redesigning a particular function/feature. The improvements can come from simplification, enhanced design, automation, sophisticated reporting, etc., and will make the solutions more effective for both users and the business.

These are the consecutive stages to pass through to efficiently organize the development process.

Feedback collection stage

The best approach is to involve a group of varied stakeholders who will provide a wider spectrum of opinions. The feedback collected will provide an invaluable input for the design stage.

Requirements definition stage

Next, collect all the technical and visual requirements to best demonstrate them in the prototype (check the next stage).

UX design stage

It’s worth to precede the development stage with the engagement of a User Experience expert (UX designer). The UX designer, based on the needs and expectations collected in the feedback collection stage, will visualize these in a mockup (prototype).

At this stage all the stakeholders can interact with the concepts and ideas before they’re committed to the development plan. Their feedback allows to tweak the mockup so to best reflect your users needs and further experience.

Development stage

Each organization has a pre-defined project delivery model, yet it’s worth to review and update it based on delivery experience. Making the most of Service Portals for our customers, we’ve refined ours since 2010.

Need a consultation?

Are you hesitating to move from CMS to Service Portal in your organization or not? We’re here to support you – our consultants are at your disposal.

ServiceNow Madrid release – ATF

Posted on 8 February 201923 July 2024 by Malwina

ServiceNow recently published information about the upcoming Madrid release, which will be available in H1 2019. SPOC cooperates with ServiceNow during the pre-release testing which provides a fantastic opportunity to both see the features and put them to work.

SPOC’s Quality Assurance (QA) lead, Zherald Ametlli, was keen to see the changes to the Automated Testing Framework and he has provided his thoughts below.

Madrid Release – ATF

Over recent years, ServiceNow has evolved very fast. The expansion has brought more customers who are using the ServiceNow Platform across multiple business processes.

The greater usage, together with frequent upgrading and patching, means the need for Automated Testing is growing.

One of the main concerns in every company who is managing test cases is having the time and resources to complete the testing process in an efficient way. That’s no different when testing the platform applications and functionality.

SPOC’s primary interest when completing testing is maintaining the highest quality possible. SPOC’s QA team uses different methods of testing to maintain the quality, according to the standards on a particular project. In most cases, manual testing is completed by the testing team. A growing need for regression testing, after every upgrade or patch, has taken our attention to automated testing.

Based on our experience, manual testing consumes around 40% of the resources and time spent after every upgrade. Writing test scenarios, retesting the solution, working on bug fixes, performing regression testing is very time consuming.

There is an obvious need for automation and thanks to the Automated Testing Framework (ATF) and its features, we are able to perform automated testing easily.

With each recent ServiceNow release, the changes and features of ATF have improved. Currently ATF is able to automate most base scenarios. The solution is free, as no additional licenses are required. Using the ATF, you might cover up to 60 % of your test cases.

Madrid vs. London release

In terms of ATF, London release included:

Testing the Application Navigator,
Testing Service Catalog in Service Portal (UI),
Testing Forms in Service Portal.

These features were very helpful and offered a great approach to the Service Portal testing. In Madrid, there are some new standout features, you can find a brief summary of these below.

Copy test case

This option is very useful when you would like to create a test case and reuse it as a sample or template for another. Perfect if you would like to copy and reuse some, or all of the steps in a test case. The UI action called “Copy Test” provides exactly this function.

Parametrized testing

Now it’s possible to run the same test case multiple times using different data as input parameters. A user can create different parameters to store test data for every test running. In addition, you can easily import data prepared in an excel template and use this according to your scenario.

Example: You create a test case for the Change Management module, where the values for ‘Assign to’ and ‘Assigned to’ groups will be driven by the parametrized fields. There would normally be two separate datasets to test for different groups and users. In this case, you can create one test case and import these data sets to run against the fields. You don’t need to copy or re-create the test case again.

Parametrized Testing with ATF ServiceNow Madrid Release Parametrized testing works with test suites and scheduling too.

Custom UI testing

In my opinion, this feature is the one that was so badly missing. It would have been great if custom UI testing was included in ATF from the beginning…. Why?

Testing different HTML elements in a page is a must. Especially for the service portal but also ITSM processes where you have many additional menus, links and custom pages to test. You must test UI pages and now in Madrid it is possible to do this automatically.

First, you need to scan for the components in the page and then select the right one.

This helps to choose the right element in the page and to continue further with testing. Good examples are the buttons in a UI Page or links in KB.

Page inspector

Helps us to inspect the page and find the right HTML element to be tested. It can be activated from the Developer menu and works in real-time.

Therefore, whenever you open any page and select the icon ‘Inspector’ it will automatically highlight the element you selected, giving you more detailed info about it. There are some limitations. Not every element is accessible and selectable. That said, it’s a good tool to start testing and you should try to utilize it as much as possible.

ATF in ServiceNow Madrid release – summary

I’ve listed some of the main features added to the Madrid release. In my personal opinion, the features are very useful. For real environments, it takes time to set up test cases but you can then run them with a click of a button. The next new features to come in the New York release of ServiceNow, in O3 2019.

8 steps to successful project delivery

Posted on 9 November 201823 July 2024 by Malwina

ServiceNow Project Management – 8 Steps to Successful Delivery: SPOC ServiceNow Experts Since 2010
Executing a successful ServiceNow project implementation requires each member of the project team to contribute.
This article outlines the principles and the steps SPOC’s project team takes to maximise a successful implementation for ServiceNow projects.

From the experience gained working with different clients on projects that vary in size and complexity, the team strongly feels that an Agile approach best suits ServiceNow projects.

One of the main reasons for this is the frequent issue of eliciting the specific requirements from stakeholders at the start of the project.

This means it can be challenging to identify all of the main functions required during the implementation. In addition, it’s not uncommon for the requirements to adapt as the stakeholder’s knowledge of the system and the possibilities of its functionality grows.

With an Agile delivery, you can compensate for these changes throughout the sprints. By using the MoSCoW prioritisation technique with a ratio of 60/20/20, it means that the ‘Must Have’s’ can be identified but there is the necessary room for adjustment.

The Key Steps
Taking a more granular perspective, we can identify the main milestones of the project. Irrelevant of the scope, these will stay fairly consistent.

The Agreement for the ServiceNow Project
All parties must agree on the model of cooperation; that doesn’t mean only the contractual elements but also other key elements.

This would include:

Project Governance is set
Roles & Responsibilities are clearly defined
Product owner has the appropriate decision power
The project exit plan is well defined
The proposed team will stay consistent
ServiceNow Scoping Workshops
Once the customer has communicated the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the project, it’s time to cover the scope of the functionality and requirements.

Before starting, make sure:

Everyone is briefed prior to the workshops increasing interaction
The vision, roadmap and CSFs are understood so the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can be defined
All the relevant people are involved
Functional and Non-Functional requirements are captured
The customer’s voice is heard – watch out for System thinking
Product Backlog for the ServiceNow Project
Once the requirements have been gathered, the product backlog can be drafted.

Check that:

All the requirements of the MVP are well defined
The MoSCoW prioritisation follows the 60/20/20 ratio
Estimations include development and non-development work
The estimation team consists of a mixture of profiles
The user stories are clearly defined and written in epics or user stories
The acceptance criteria are defined quantitively
Delivery Plan for the ServiceNow Project
The backlog is in place, you can now start creating the delivery plan.

Confirm that:

Project constraints and expectations are included in the plan
You are prepared for business change management
Communication plan and project marketing within your organization is defined
Schedule, budget, and team are agreed
Risks and issues are captured
Documentation requirements confirmed (technical documentation, user guides etc.)
Customer Acceptance
An initial backlog is prepared, project plan, deliverables and costs are defined. It’s time for a decision!

It’s important to make sure:

Any doubt is clarified
All parties understand and accept risks related to the project delivery model
Roles and responsibilities are clearly assigned
You start with a project kick-off
Backlog Refinement of your ServiceNow Requirements
The scope is agreed & the stories have the green light. Now you can plan the sprints and confirm the solution architecture.

Make sure:

You stay focused on the business priorities
Product owner and delivery team cooperate to define what should be delivered
Refinement isn’t causing scope creep
Estimation is done by the same team that is delivering
ServiceNow Project Sprints
Development starts and continues! You can expect incremental improvements and new value creation after each sprint.

Points to remember:

Backlog refinement is done frequently, providing an ability to easily pick-up fully defined and ready stories during sprint planning
You have full visibility of your delivery team’s work, including budget spending
Q&A tests are part of a sprint – customer UAT is a separate task
You have your ServiceNow Project Go-Live
If you’ve been consistent during the previous steps, it’s almost time to reap the fruits of your labour.

ServiceNow Project Milestones

Posted on 8 November 201823 July 2024 by Malwina

The project management team at SPOC has been assisting customers since 2010 with their ServiceNow projects. During this time, the methodology and approach to ServiceNow related projects has evolved and improved with each new project and experience gained. When the team initially engages with a client, the customer’s landscape and situation can differ significantly. One customer may be very mature from a process and service perspective, with access to the latest technology.

Another client may be beginning in their process of digital transformation. Looking to migrate from a legacy application used for service management. In this situation, it’s common and recommended that the client starts as close to an ‘out-of-the-box implementation’ as possible. This allows the client to prepare a stable foundation for improving their service delivery. Different Situations but a Similar Process The steps the Project team takes to get from the initial discussion to a successful implementation will take a fairly similar path. Regardless if the customer and the business situation may look different.

SPOC has defined the main milestones as ‘Defined, Designed & Delivered’ These three steps derive from the Lifecycle of Business Change process used by many IT and Business Professionals. The lifecycle of Business Change: Going step by step through this process allows all the important points to be captured and the relevant stakeholders to be engaged. This minimises the potential of a failed or unsuccessful project. Of course, each of these milestones can be broken down further into their individual parts. The makeup of each will then differ depending on the organisation we’re dealing with and their objectives and own governance models.

SPOC’s Milestones to a Successful ServiceNow Project: Defined:

Through the initial interactions with the customer, we look to elicit their objectives and vision for improvement. It helps during this phase to have a clear picture of where the customer is in their current journey and the goals they have for progression. Picturing where the customer currently is and how they’re working, also helps us gain an understanding of the human element of the change process. Who will be affected by the change and what impact this will have on the change itself?

Throughout the definition stage, we will look at the following areas which will all influence the development requirements. POPIT – Used to capture details of the Business ‘As Is’ EnvironmentA Mind Map or Rich Picture can be used to present ideas back to the business. This helps capture all the relevant areas and information. Mind Mapping to model the ‘As Is’ Business situation The details elicited during the definition phase allow SPOC to produce a high-level scope for the project.

Designed:

When the project team has captured the main goals of the project, reviewed the ‚As Is‚ & ‚To Be’ business situations and produced the high-level scope. The team will go deeper to uncover the specific requirements. Using the MoSCoW prioritisation technique, functionality is usually split into ‘must haves’ and ‘nice to haves’. This is compiled to a Project Backlog containing ‘Epics’. An Epic is a specific part of the project, which is later broken into individual user stories. The following article provides more information about the process of gathering and building requirements. SPOC uses certain tools to help validate the requirements and needs of the business.

These tools help present ideas and concepts back to the customer. These may include: A prototype provided through a ‘proof of concept’ / ‘proof of value’ Design mock-ups. Visual representation of the project. Useful for forms or User Interfaces Scenarios or process models During the design phase, it’s crucial that all parties understand and agree on the implementation plan. Therefore, they must consider the goals of the project and how they will be realised. With an Agile project, this is less critical when comparing to a fixed ‘Waterfall’ approach. An agile delivery, as the name suggests, offers flexibility. It offers the ability to adapt to small changes and shifts in direction, as the project is actually running. Delivered: Once the project or application has been defined and designed,

SPOC can look to implement the functionality. For this, SPOC favours ‘Agile’ project management. As referenced above, this gives all parties more freedom to tweak the approach, even as the delivery is in progress. Of course, there are restrictions here. The project team will manage all changes during each sprint and project phase. Once the project has been correctly defined and designed, it’s the responsibility of the delivery team to execute the plans.

Each step is very important but without the skills and knowledge of a competent team, the project won’t be properly realised. The Delivery model used by SPOC can be viewed in detail in this post. The delivery team utilises a vast bank of previous experience. Gained by completing many different engagements with a range of clients. Each project and application implemented, helps to hone skills further. The deep pool of talent working for SPOC means the delivery team can manage projects of ranging complexity. The team has delivered full ITSM projects in only a few months. In contrast, they’ve also produced completely custom applications. Such projects have revolutionised the services offered by the businesses using them.

ServiceNow Projects – Customer Examples We have a number of example case studies from projects delivered with customers. If you would like to receive one specific to your area of interest, please get in touch.