Building the ultimate ServiceNow platform team

[rohantyagi]

You have decided to transform the service experience at your organization by implementing ServiceNow - what should be the next best step in this journey to realize full potential of the product and the return on your investment? Or, you have been using the platform for some time and looking for re-evaluation and improvements. What will or should your ServiceNow platform team look like? Team structure must have roles and a defined responsibility matrix for your team to utilize the platform to its best.

Keep reading if...

1. You are about to embark on your ServiceNow journey.
2. You are looking for improvements on your current strategy by adopting a good governance model and best practices.

ServiceNow is an enterprise business platform serving numerous functions and business processes engaging different groups, people, personas and businesses. For a system so critical to your organization, a well planned strategy will not only help in ensuring stability and user experience, but it will help realize the full potential of the platform and support extensibility which could lead to a journey never imagined. If you are new to implementing or sustaining ServiceNow at a company, a governance model is a must have.

Importance of a good governance model

Governance at any organization provides a structure to make sound business decisions. As organizations scale and mature with the software solution, it becomes more important to have a solid operational framework for both technical and strategic decisions. However, oftentimes it is either ignored or considered too complex to establish and adhere to. In collaboration with Cask LLC, ServiceNow was able to put together a bundle of resources to help you get started and implement governance best practices. You can download the free eBook and powerpoint here: Governance foundation eBook and more.

As part of your governance model, your next step is to build an effective ServiceNow Platform Team.

What should my ServiceNow platform team look like?

Customers of all shapes, sizes, and maturity levels struggle with the right composition and responsibilities of their ServiceNow platform team. This post and the linked white paper below aim at solving this problem for you. This will work as a reference to establish an effective team. Based on the level of maturity, extent of implementation and number of users, the team composition can vary; however, it is recommended not to alter the role definitions.

Please refer to this white paper, where you can find more useful information on establishing a good governance foundation for your ServiceNow platform.

Role	Responsibility
ServiceNow Executive Sponsor	Responsible to design strategy to align business issues with ServiceNow solutions. Enforces overall governance and alignment with business issues.
ServiceNow Platform Owner	Responsible to ensure adherence to strategy Authority to make decisions that impact the platform.
ServiceNow Platorm Architect	Technical leader that analyses new business requirements and their correct technical implementation solutions using industry best practices.
ServiceNow Application Developer	Senior technical resource, with advanced system administration knowledge of ServiceNow platform who can design build and customize ServiceNow.
ServiceNow System Administrator	Assures stability and performance of ServiceNow platform, responsible for maintenance, upgrades and user management within ServiceNow platform.
ServiceNow Quality Assurance Engineer	Aware of domain best practices in the industry and ServiceNow best practices. Ensures the quality of configurations and customizations to the platform are meeting standards of reusability, test cases, and processes.
ServiceNow Business Analyst	Someone who has deep understanding of the business or functional requirements and a foundational knowledge of ServiceNow to effectively convey the message from project stakeholders to system administrators and developers.
ServiceNow Project manager/Scrum master	Establishes project goals, priorities, timelines and ensures delivery. Detail oriented and single point of contact for every aspect of platform support team.

Each role has a specific responsibility to help the gears continue to turn at your team like a well-oiled machine.

For formal definitions and responsibilities of each role, refer to the official white paper. Again, this is a generic reference model. One person can have multiple roles, or you might also decide to skip some of these roles based on your specific requirements.

I would love to hear about your successful team structure and strategy - please share your success stories in the comments.