1. Build a dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team
Success Pillar: Actively lead the transformation

2. Success Pillars – Structure
State and measure your business goals
Actively lead the transformation
Get your ServiceNow foundations right
Create excitement, drive adoption 1
State your transformation vision and outcomes 1
Engage an executive sponsor to drive change and remove roadblocks 1
Manage to
out of the box 1
Design an engaging self-service employee and customer experience 2
Build your business case 2
Find, manage, and coordinate capable, certified partners 2
Discover and map your service assets 2
Design an optimal agent and rep experience 3
Build a phased
program plan, identify quick wins 3
Build a dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team 3
Plan your architecture, instances, integrations, and data flows 3
Create a change management plan 4
Baseline and track performance, usage KPIs, and metrics 4
Reimagine how you want work processes to flow 4
Plan for upgrades at least once a year 4
Build an internal team of ServiceNow experts and train users 5
Define and map out your business services 5
Build a community of champions 6
Manage platform demand

3. Build a dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team
Governance is a set of policies, processes, and organizational capabilities that define how decisions are made and who is responsible for the outcomes. Basic governance—defining roles and responsibilities and policies that govern your ServiceNow® technology implementation—is needed to guard against technical risk. Advanced governance accounts for longer-term strategic planning and portfolio management and enables your organization to scale the capabilities of the Now Platform® to support new and changing priorities.
Governance is essential for ensuring that your implementation continues to deliver value over time against your business objectives. At a baseline level, you need governance to use the Now Platform to deliver value with minimal technical risk. At more advanced levels, the right governance model can:
Make sure that your ServiceNow roadmap rapidly identifies and supports changes in business priorities
Accelerate your ability to deliver value by providing front-line teams with the tools to self-govern development and service delivery
Insight: Implementing ServiceNow governance
You need to establish three areas of governance:
Strategy governance, which defines how strategy roadmap decisions are made to align ServiceNow functionality to business outcomes
Technical governance, which governs the management and stability of the ServiceNow support model
Portfolio governance, which articulates how ServiceNow portfolio decisions are made and captured in policy
Assign a small, core group of people to coordinate establishing governance and start with basic strategy and technical governance to enable safe, quick value delivery with the platform. Then proceed to establishing portfolio governance. Do not refine any one area of governance before initiating development across all areas (strategy, technical, and portfolio governance)—your organization must co-develop and refine them over time so they can appropriately inform one another.
Use metrics to diagnose how to continuously improve governance, working to make it dynamic and minimize bureaucracy over time.
Key implementation steps
Start
Improve
Optimize
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
3. Enact technical governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic

4. Step 1: Define the core governance roles and responsibilities
Most organizations should start by asking their platform owner to spend part of their time establishing governance for your ServiceNow implementation. The platform owner is best positioned to lead in defining the scope, direction, and goals for your governance program, designing a plan or roadmap for how you’ll set up ServiceNow governance, and identifying who will need to be involved in the setup process. If the platform owner needs additional help, they should first recruit a program manager to support planning and coordination and then involve others only as needed.
Define the roles needed to support your governance objectives
Assign your Now Platform owner and a small number of individuals as needed to design and manage your governance program and coordinate its setup. These people are responsible for:
Documenting and updating governance policy and process
Collaborating with enterprise process functions
Scheduling governance board meetings and setting appropriate meeting agendas
Executing and/or coordinating the activities defined in this guide
Define how these roles will support, uphold, and integrate existing IT and enterprise processes on the Now Platform (e.g., incident and change management).
Create a governance responsibility assignment matrix (RACI) to establish a common understanding of accountability and responsibility
Assign responsibility and accountability for governance tasks to the roles assigned to designing your governance program and coordinating its setup and to members of the platform support team.
Document where responsibilities and accountabilities for ServiceNow governance involve people outside of ServiceNow- specific teams.
Define how ServiceNow team members will collaborate with others to manage shared responsibilities and accountabilities for ServiceNow governance.
Socialize the ServiceNow RACI with the ServiceNow program governance and platform support teams and other IT and enterprise stakeholders.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

5. Step 2a: Define decision-making authorities for strategy governance
Strategy governance provides value by structuring how to identify, select, and prioritize the best, most timely investment of ServiceNow capabilities and resources against strategic objectives. Start by defining who must be involved in strategic roadmap decisions for ServiceNow, then define how these decisions are informed and captured in policy (Step 2b).
Define decision-making authorities for strategy governance
Establish an executive steering board, led by the executive sponsor, to oversee strategy governance and the development of the ServiceNow roadmap in line with enterprise service and transformation objectives.
Include (as possible) the: executive sponsor, CIO, CTO, business unit/department representatives, vendor managers, key suppliers, and partners.
Create a standard agenda for semiannual executive steering board meetings that includes time to evaluate and refine the strategic roadmap during each meeting.
Define a set of platform selection principles that inform decision-makers in the organization as to when they should look to ServiceNow as the delivery platform.
Practitioner insight: Governance takes time and adds overhead. This is necessary for decisions that have significant enterprise impact, or that require risk and audit oversight. However, make sure there is also a ”light” track for decisions that carry less enterprise risk and/or that need to be made quickly. Follow a “trust but verify” approach for these types of decisions so the organization can move more rapidly.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

6. Step 2b: Define strategy governance activities
After setting up decision-making authorities for strategy governance, define a process for how strategy governance decisions are made and captured in policy to ensure that execution strategies consistently connect to your ServiceNow vision and roadmap.
Define how strategy governance decisions are supported and informed
Define a process for how governance decisions will be made during executive steering board meetings based on the user population impacted, taking into account the outcomes and goals of the impacted staff.
Create and maintain an ongoing list of decisions that need to be made by the the executive steering board in upcoming meetings.
Collect the information needed by the executive steering board to inform decisions about strategy governance and the ServiceNow roadmap and provide it to board members one week before scheduled meetings, including the:
Most up-to-date ServiceNow vision, business case, and program plan documents
Most up-do-date ServiceNow roadmap, with plans for activity sequencing for ServiceNow use, features, and functionality
Most up-to-date KPI dashboards and trends to inform how urgent actions are and to prioritize decision-making accordingly
Summary of recent decisions and outcomes from other governance authorities, such as the upgrade decisions made by the technical governance support board
Define how strategy governance decisions are captured in policy
Take detailed notes during executive steering board meetings.
Create and document a new strategy governance policy (or updated existing policy) based on the executive steering board’s decisions.
Capture and review and decisions that cannot be informed by existing policy and update the policy accordingly.
Review how existing governance policies, processes, and decisions link to the vision and strategy for the organization semiannually, after executive steering board meetings.
Document and share how governance decisions and resulting policy are helping the organization move the program forward. Do this semiannually, after executive steering board meetings, with the responsible and accountable stakeholders. (Refer to the stakeholder map on the “KPIs and stakeholders” page.)
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

7. 3. Enact technical governance
Step 3a: Define the decision-making authorities for technical governance
ServiceNow must be managed to make sure it works as needed to deliver value to your organization. This requires clear accountabilities for incidents, for configuration and customization, and for change requests to the platform.
Practitioner insight: For governance boards to be effective, strong value communication is key. So governance boards should spend time on crafting effective messages about the decisions they make and use them as opportunities to educate stakeholders not only on the value of governance but also on the overall value of the platform. Prepare this messaging by clearly documenting: 1) the decision, 2) why that decision was made, and 3) the implications of that decision.
Define decision-making authorities for technical governance
Define ownership of platform integration, technical releases, change management, and data governance.
Establish a technical governance support board to meet as needed to guide point-in-time technical decisions (e.g., upgrade planning).
Include (as possible) the: platform architect, platform owner, IT process/domain owners, program manager, business analysts, quality assurance lead, security/compliance lead, development lead, and user experience lead.
Update and expand your existing ServiceNow RACI to include new governance board roles.
Practitioner insight: Governance policies and processes at the platform, portfolio, and strategy levels are interrelated and should inform each other. For example, overseeing the ServiceNow roadmap at a strategic level should inform when and why upgrades are planned at a portfolio level, which should in turn inform priorities for upgrade management at a technical level—but the bodies overseeing these levels should be kept separate to avoid overlapping responsibilities.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

8. Step 3b: Create technical governance policies and procedures
In order to make sure you successfully implement, manage, and govern your platform, it’s important to establish base platform management capabilities. These functions provide stakeholders and platform consumers operational readiness and supportability throughout the platform’s lifecycle. Effective supportability begins with an instance strategy and day-to-day operations plan that will mature with your organization’s requirements and needs.
Develop and approve governance policies to define how the Now Platform is managed, configured, customized, developed, and supported
Define the following minimum set of policies and processes:
A policy that defines development standards and review processes for any required customization
A policy that defines integration standards
A process that ensures configurations are fit for scale, performance, and upgradability
A basic platform management policy that defines a process for how platform decisions are made and how to evaluate the impact of changes
A process to maintain the integrity of the Now Platform
A Now Platform data governance policy that defines data ownership and stewardship roles, sets up data standards and establishes a data dictionary with field descriptions, and informs how to manage data synchronization
Policies that define instance management – How to right-size environments, replicate instances correctly, develop a security access control model, and ensure proper maintenance
A policy that manages upgrades
A policy that defines standards for Now Platform development, UI, APIs, and releases
Processes that codify and enact application best practices – How to identify the best method for app creation based on the requirements and how to follow consistent UI design specifications
Conduct a thorough review of product documentation and release notes to identify (and align) platform/technical governance policies needed.
Consult with your administrators, developers, fulfillers, and process owners using workshops and tabletop exercises where needed, to identify key points where your platform/technical governance needs clear definition.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

9. Step 4a: Define decision-making authorities for portfolio governance
Initially ServiceNow governance will be focused on the development, integration, and change management issues of the platform itself. As the organization becomes used to ServiceNow, governance authorities should be established to manage changes to IT portfolios, including the ServiceNow portfolio, ensuring connected decision-making across the organization’s entire technology portfolio.
Define decision-making authorities for portfolio governance
Establish a ServiceNow demand board with monthly meetings to manage and shape demand and to measure success over time. 
Include (as possible) the: platform architect, platform owner, IT process/domain owners, portfolio/service owners, demand managers, program manager, business analysts, vendor managers, key suppliers, and partners.
Set a goal for the demand board’s outputs to enable clear planning and resourcing for maintaining upgrades so they keep pace with new ServiceNow releases and innovation.
Define the flow of information across governance authorities, including the technical governance support board, executive steering board, and ServiceNow demand board
Define the decision-making inputs and outputs for each governance area.
Document the communication stakeholders for each governance board and how approvals flow across governance boards.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

10. Step 4b: Define portfolio governance capability
It’s important to establish a Now Platform governance capability to define a portfolio of services offered using ServiceNow, with detail on what those services deliver to customers and how demand is managed for those services. 
Define and document the portfolio of services offered on the Now Platform to business lines
Document the cost, capabilities, and other systems required to deliver each business service on the Now Platform.
Define how the ServiceNow portfolio aligns with other business services and systems in your organization with the goal of eventually integrating all portfolios into one enterprise service portfolio.
Revisit the ServiceNow portfolio at least monthly while implementing your first solution on ServiceNow (and semiannually after that), and assess where ServiceNow services should be modified, where new services are needed, when ServiceNow can replace an existing system, or where ServiceNow should be integrated with other systems of insight.
Assess ServiceNow demand at least monthly, progressing to weekly or even daily to improve responsiveness to business needs.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

11. Step 4c: Define portfolio governance activities
To maintain and refine portfolio governance over time, establish how to consistently inform governance authority decisions and how those decisions are captured in written policy.
Define how portfolio governance decisions are supported and informed
Define a process for how governance decisions will be made during ServiceNow demand board meetings (set agendas, define rules for granting approval, etc.).
Create and maintain an ongoing list of decisions that the ServiceNow demand need to make in upcoming meetings.
Collect the information that the ServiceNow demand board needs to inform decisions about how to manage and shape demand. Provide this information to board members one week before scheduled meetings. This information should include the:
Most up-to-date version of the ServiceNow service portfolio and/or any other enterprise service portfolios
Historical data on ServiceNow demand with a focus on demand since the last meeting
Most up-to-date version of the ServiceNow strategic roadmap to inform how demand-shaping decisions align with the strategic direction
Summary of decisions and outcomes from other governance authorities since the last ServiceNow demand board meeting
Define how portfolio governance decisions are captured in policy
Take detailed notes during ServiceNow demand board meetings.
Create and document a new portfolio governance policy (or updated existing policy) based on ServiceNow demand board decisions.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

12. Step 5: Make governance dynamic
Heavy, bureaucratic governance can pour dangerous cement across an organization. Too much governance impedes responsiveness and also stops entrepreneurial thinking by staff. Too little governance, however, means that the organization doesn’t have a clear accounting of the risks being taken and the remediation steps. The end objective is to create the right amount of governance by continually reviewing the established process and tracking metrics that will inform ongoing governance optimization decisions.
Define metrics to diagnose where you can improve governance
Build key performance indicators (KPIs) that track governance comprehensiveness and quality over time and embed them into the platform.
Define how metrics can measure desired business outcomes.
Set baselines for benchmarks and then set goals for continuous improvement.
Seek and remove bottlenecks in governance approvals processes
Remove simple, low-risk boilerplate decisions from governance board agendas and delegate those decisions to team leads and managers.
Review streamlined approvals processes with stakeholders, especially enterprise architecture and security.
Empower local decision-making within enterprise frameworks
Identify the conditions where autonomous decision-making is allowed and encouraged. This should be done for decisions that:
Have been approved by a governing body nearly 100% of the time
Are low-risk, or with limited potential for negative impact and comply with published standards (e.g., governance decisions on pilots or other experimental projects in testing environments)
Provide decision-making guardrails, rather than clear lines of authority—this allows a balance of risk taking and risk remediation. Guardrails should be defined for decisions that cannot yet be made autonomously but that are trending in that direction.
Review product documentation and release notes to identify where governance can be pushed to the front lines. For example, scoped apps allow for local teams to develop custom applications that meet their needs without risking global platform stability.
Enable governance to appropriately flex to best meet the changing needs of the organization
Use the voice of the customer, adoption champions, and business liaisons to proactively understand where policies are becoming hindrances to new ways of working.
Revisit governance policies and processes at each release to identify opportunities for governance streamlining.
Steps
1. Define the governance roles and responsibilities
2. Build capabilities for strategy governance
4. Build capabilities for portfolio governance
5. Make governance dynamic
3. Enact technical governance

13. KPIs and stakeholders Key performance indicators Essential KPIs
% reduction of escalations to steering boards over previous quarter
# unmitigated audit findings
# of defined ServiceNow governance policies
# of variances in ServiceNow workflow
# of policy exceptions allowed
% of policies that have not been updated in 24 months
Nice-to-have KPIs
% of policies that are directly associated with enterprise services or goals
# of variance requests escalated to governance boards
% of meetings attended by stakeholders
% of expected ROI
Anecdotal evidence of performance against desired outcomes and the value achieved for all new services implemented on the platform
Stakeholder map
Responsible/accountable
ServiceNow program governance lead
Now Platform owner
Executive sponsor
CIO
CISO
Senior leadership
Audit
Consulted/informed
All IT organization
Business leaders
Service owners
ServiceNow users (inform only)