Table of Contents
Introduction
Have you ever wondered which module is the best when starting with ServiceNow?
The answer should be ServiceNow IT Service Management (ServiceNow ITSM).
IT Service Management (or ITSM) improves the customer experience by aligning the IT services with the business needs of that specific customer. The best part is that ServiceNow is a leading platform in this domain and has attracted many customers in this specific domain.
Prerequisites to learn ServiceNow ITSM
First of all, you need to set up your ServiceNow instance
How to do that?
- Search ‘Personal instance ServiceNow’ on Google and open the PDI link (from the official ServiceNow website)
- Sign up on the website
- Request the Instance (Based on Version)
- Access your instance successfully
Always try to remember this fact that you need to get your fundamentals covered
How?
The answer is the NowLearning CSA course. It is very important and easy to learn and understand the concepts. It gives you a very good idea about the platform not only as an admin but also serves as a good starting point for a ServiceNow Developer.
If you are wondering how to complete the CSA NowLearning course at the earliest, stay tuned. But for now, do understand the videos and the project mentioned in the course will give you a sufficient amount of content you need to proceed with the ITSM.
The Next Prerequisite (Optional)
The next step is to cover the scripting part.
It’s good if you appear for the NowLearning Certified Application Developer course, but I would treat it as an add-on because that is something that can be covered after you are done with ITSM. So what I have done here is that I have added some scripting fundamentals too so that you can also understand their basics. But if you want to understand scripting from scratch, I have added a complete end-to-end structure on how you can Master ServiceNow scripting.
Path to learn ITSM
Let’s not wait any longer, and here is your 2-month plan to learn and understand ITSM :
Day 1
[i] Incident Management Basics (Incident Creation, Categorisation, Assignment, Resolution, Closure)
Day 2-3
[ii] Change Management Basics (Requests, Evaluation, Tasks, Workflows, Implementation, Review)
Day 4-7
[iii] Asset Management Basics (Asset Tracking, Maintenance)
Day 8-10
[iv] Configuration Management Basics (CMDB, CIs, Relationships)
Day 11-16
[v] Traditional Workflow Editor
Day 17-22
[vi] Flow Designer
Day 23-27
[vii] Request Management (Service Catalog, Record Producer, Order Guides)
Day 28
[viii] Problem Management Basics (Problem Detection, RCA, Workaround, Complete Solution Implementation)
Day 29-36
[ix] Business Rules (All Types)
Day 37-44
[x] Script Include (All Types)
Day 45-47
[xi] Client Scripts (All Types)
Day 48-49
[xii] UI Policies and UI Policy Actions
Day 50-52
[xiii] UI Actions (Both Server and Client side)
Day 53-55
[xiv] Script Actions
Day 56-57
[xv] Events and Notifications Basics
Day 58-60
[xvi] Design a minor project
How to Practice these topics/ Resources?
We have so many resources these days to refer to. Let’s talk about some of them for ServiceNow ITSM :
This is a small list as we have plenty of platforms. But let me tell you the fact – All of them have some pros and cons associated with it. I can tell you the best way that I feel to figure this out :
- Refer to the ServiceNow ITSM path mentioned above
- Search these topics on NowLearning and try to practice it on your PDI
- If not satisfied, move to ServiceNow Community/ YouTube and search that topic
This is more than enough. At the end of the day, the key is to practice as much as you can after understanding the concepts.
How to achieve this?
- Be consistent
- Spend at least 1-1.5 hours per day and then 60 days are more than enough to get these basics covered
- Hands-on practice is a must
Associated Certifications
We have already discussed the certifications from the perspective of the prerequisites, which are the CSA (Certified System Administrator) and the optional CAD (Certified Application Developer) certifications and these two will give a lot of boost before you start with the ServiceNow ITSM.
But for the specific IT Service Management, we have CIS-ITSM (Certified Implementation Specialist – IT Service Management) certification. It is a very good certification and covers most of the skills one usually needs to acquire for ITSM.
Why should one stick to this plan?
To make things clear, this plan is good for a basic understanding of the module. For in-depth knowledge, you need to stick with it and have decent implementation experience.
Now once you have the basic and implementation experience of the above topics covered, time to understand other concepts that are relevant to some advanced topics.
How to go from Basic to Advanced?
These are the few things that should be your next steps to go deep into ITSM :
- Guided Setup to configure ITSM applications as it ensures best practices are followed.
- Virtual Agent to create and customize conversational interfaces for their users as it enables self-service for the users.
- Predictive Intelligence (The most important aspect of ServiceNow ITSM) to reduce resolution times and improve accuracy. It predicts future outcomes by automating the categorization of incidents, routing them to the correct team, matching the identical incidents, detecting the anomalies, and providing the root cause analysis.
Not only that, it helps in the prediction of Service Outages, forecasting of Performance Degradation, enhancement of user experience, improved decision-making, and much more.
To get a deeper level of understanding of Predictive Intelligence, the recommendation is to complete this Micro-Certification “Predictive Intelligence”. It will certainly give you a good amount of idea on what it is that you need to do to implement Predictive Intelligence alongside ITSM. - Agent Workspace/ Service Operations Workspace to provide a modern interface for service desk agents.
- Walk-up Experience to provide a walk-up support portal for employees to book appointments and check in for IT services.
Features of ITSM
You might be wondering why you should understand ServiceNow ITSM.
What makes it unique?
So here is why should you learn ServiceNow ITSM
- It gives you a very good idea for ServiceNow basic implementation
- It makes your way easier to learn other modules in the future
- ITSM is responsible for streamlining the processes
- Automation of repetitive tasks is easier
- It helps you make informed decisions
- Faster resolution of issues is possible
ServiceNow ITSM Job Prospects
Even though ServiceNow has advanced a lot and now it has captured the market in the form of implementing so many modules, ITSM has its importance. The ITSM Market is still growing and if I talk about ServiceNow explicitly, the majority of the employees who are working as a ServiceNow Developer are implementing ITSM only.
If you are thinking it’s too late to start with the ServiceNow ITSM, believe me – It’s Never Too Late.
FAQs
What is ITSM in ServiceNow?
The major purpose of ITSM is to meet business goals via IT Service Delivery.
What are the benefits of ServiceNow ITSM?
ITSM helps in managing issues, fulfilling requests, and streamlining processes.
What are the basics of ServiceNow?
The basics of ServiceNow include various scenarios alongside sub-scenarios. For example – If we assume ServiceNow Development, then CSA and ITSM become the basics as they are starting points.
What are the 5 stages of ITSM?
The stages are derived from the ITIL processes – Strategy, Design, Transition, Operation, and Improvement.
What are ITSM tools?
ITSM tools help organizations manage their IT services. Some examples are Freshservice, ServiceNow, JIRA, etc.
Is ServiceNow easy to learn?
ServiceNow is very easy to learn as we have all the required sets easily available including PDI, Docs, Community, Developer Portal, and much more.
