What Are Some Mistakes To Avoid When Creating An It Service Catalog?

Reading time: iv-5 minutes
Audition: ServiceNow Administrators; Catalog developers; Platform owners
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ServiceNow provides very powerful functionality around Service and Production Catalog management. Indeed, this is one of the near used platform capabilities, and what is more important, one of the nearly widely visible in an organisation.

A well defined and optimised catalog, built following Catalog All-time Practices, tin contribute to a seamless user feel, in which users can intuitively find and request the required product and services, and run across their requests fulfilled within the expected timelines.

On the other hand, the open nature and loftier degree of flexibility and customisability which the ServiceNow platform provides to define and manage Catalogs can too result in a less than optimal user experience. Managing and governing the variety of items, variables and variable sets, categories, etc which can exist created in the Catalog tin also become a challenge, peculiarly for organisations with hundreds or thousands of items in the catalog.

Some of the nigh mutual violations to Catalog All-time Practices are:

Code and Variable duplication

Oft times yous volition need to include like only distinct items in your Service Catalog. This means that the business logic associated with them is too likely to exist similar to a certain degree. Lacking a proper analysis and blueprint, it is all also easy to copy and paste whole scripts, making simply some minor modifications (or, in a worst instance scenario, none at all!), and associate each script to a dissimilar catalog item. This ways that, should a issues arise in the shared department of the code, information technology will need to be stock-still "n" times. Of course this volition increase the evolution effort and the likelihood that some cases volition be missed. Take a look to our post nearly code duplication in ServiceNow to learn more.

In the aforementioned fashion, it is easy to create single variables which correspond the aforementioned concept for each of the related Catalog Items. This means that variable names and descriptions can get inconsistent, and while this in itself volition not innovate bugs, information technology can contribute to a disruptive user feel.

How to set: Consider using UI Scripts to encapsulate the common code across related Itemize Items, leaving only the item-specific functionality in the Catalog Client Script. For variables, use a variable set and so that the variable names and descriptions are consistent across all items.

Complex Categories and Workflows

Given the highly flexible nature of the Service Catalog component, information technology is possible to create complex structures which effect in a sub-optimal user experience. A case in point is the existence of deeply nested Catalog Hierarchies, which force users to navigate through large and circuitous categories tree before finding the item they need. Similarly, the addition over time of different and more specialised requirements tin hateful that the workflows associated with Catalog Items become overly complex, sometimes with hundreds of activities. This can quickly become a maintenance nightmare, and issue in provisioning SLAs being missed.

How to gear up: limit the depth of your category tree to three or four levels at virtually. Utilize smaller, modular workflows. Avoid the use of Timer activities unless absolutely required.

Untagged items

Calculation meta-tags to Catalog Items makes it possible to recall them from the standard ServiceNow search office by using keywords or phrases not included in their proper noun or description. However, this functionality is often nether-used, or not used at all. This diminishes the ability of user to speedily observe the items they demand, and can generate frustration in the user community.

How to fix: Populate the meta-tag attribute on the Catalog Items. Note that the field may exist not visible on the default course layout, so you lot volition need to added it in the form configuration.

Under-utilisation of Particular Designer

Even though the Service Catalog Item Designer has been available since the Eureka release, may organisations accept continued to use the full features of the Service Catalog to create and manage their Catalog Items. Although this ensures maximum flexibility, it may not e'er exist the about efficient choice, as it typically requires interest of IT resources and a more complex release management procedure from sub-Production to Production environments.

How to fix: Consider delegating the assistants of simpler Itemize Items to non-Information technology users, who tin become quite productive with some grooming on the Item Designer features.

What tin Quality Clouds do to alleviate some of these Hurting Points?

Quality Clouds provides a holistic view of your Catalog configuration through our Catalog-centric dashboards. By running Quality Clouds scans on a regular basis, you tin easily gain visibility on the following primal metrics, which will help you rail whether you are deviating from Itemize Best Practices:

Agile and inactive Catalogs, categories and Items.
Depth of Catalog categories – So you can avoid forcing your users to click through a long list of fine grained categories until they discover the particular they demand.
Highlight how many items are using the Meta tag attributes, which makes them available through searches on the platform.
Are yous using item designer to streamline Itemize Particular definition?
How many indistinguishable Variable Names are at that place on my Itemize? Exercise I have many closely related variables (such as "iPhone vii Chapters", "iPhone 8 Chapters", etc? A high number of duplicates or near duplicates indicates the need for re-factoring using Variable Sets.
What has changed on my Itemize definition since the final time I looked?
Am I duplicating lawmaking in my Catalog Code Elements (Itemize Customer Scripts, UI Actions or Record Producers)?
How circuitous are my custom workflows? Are my ServiceNow workflows making an excessive employ of Timer activities? (which could cause fulfilment SLAs to be missed)

Catalog Overview screenshot

Quality Clouds Catalog Dashboard for ServiceNow

In add-on to all the above, with Quality Clouds Enterprise Edition you can configure your own custom rules, including specific naming conventions for Catalog Variables, Variable Sets, or any code elements.

Yous can get a Free total assessment of your ServiceNow Catalog within minutes. Connect your instance now and find out the adherence to best practices.

You tin can become more insights most development in our ServiceNow evolution white paper written report, bachelor here.

Contact u.s.a. to know more than! Book a demo or start your trial (no credit menu required)

Additional resources – Webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fYaWpp-CSaO44wmrxq7H-A