1. #11: Manage to “Out of the Box”
Success Pillar: Get Your ServiceNow Foundations Right

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 5
Engage executive sponsor to drive change and remove roadblocks 11
Manage to
“Out-of-the Box” 15
Design an engaging self-service employee & customer experience 2
Build your business case 6
Find, manage, and coordinate capable, certified partners 12
Discover and map your service assets 16
Design an optimal agent and rep experience 3
Build a phased
program plan, identify quick win 7
Build dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies & team 13
Plan your architecture, instances, integrations and data flows 17
Create change management plan 4
Baseline and track performance, usage KPIs and metrics 8
Reimagine how you want work processes to flow 14
Plan for upgrades at least once a year 18
Build internal team of ServiceNow experts & train users 9
Define and map out your business services 19
Build a community of champions 10
Manage platform demand

3. Manage to “Out of the Box”
Ideally, you should limit the amount of customization you build into your ServiceNow instance, and use out-of-the-box capabilities where possible. Customization can create technical debt and complexity, increase the testing time associated with upgrades, and even challenge the user experience.
Managing to “out of the box” means (a) ensuring that teams and business lines are getting optimal use of out-of-box functionality, and (b) having the policies and processes in place that restrict customization and configuration to validated business needs, and that keep your instance as close to its original configuration as possible. These policies and processes should be defined as part of your overall governance and communications strategy, and should have the active support of your Executive Sponsor.
Organizations that successfully manage to “out of the box” are able to upgrade faster, and take advantage of new and innovative capabilities available with each upgrade.
Insight: Managing to “Out of the Box”
Managing successfully to “out of the box” requires both education and policy. Education should focus on encouraging teams to make use of “out of the box functionality. Four areas of policy, process, and communications need to be established:
Policies that clarify what kinds of configuration and customization are “safe,” and which require approvals
Demand management processes that approve or deny customization requests based on validated business need
Policies that clarify how configuration and customization should be implemented by development teams
Communications that both outline policy and educate stakeholders on upgrade features that may reduce the need for customization
For teams that want to move their instance back towards an “out of the box” position, we recommend an audit to remove configurations and customizations that no longer have valid business justification. ServiceNow resources can help diagnose how far your instance is from ”out of the box” configuration to support this audit.
Key Implementation Steps​​
Start
Improve​​
Optimize​​
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2.  Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3.  Define policies for configuration and customization
4.  Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams
5.  Put demand management mechanisms in place
6.  Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal

4. Step 1: Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
Organizations typically drift from out-of-the-box functionality over time due to lack of awareness and knowledge about the capabilities available in ServiceNow that can meet their business needs. Managing to “out-of-the-box” depends on a strong, ongoing education campaign around ServiceNow capabilities and functionality.
Educate teams on how ServiceNow works out-of-the-box
For each release, conduct workshops for fulfiller teams (e.g., service desk agents) and other relevant stakeholders to build awareness around ServiceNow capabilities and functionality
Develop a pre-workshop survey to identify stakeholders’ level of awareness of out-of-the-box capabilities, and target awareness-building at common gaps across teams. You can also use this survey to solicit questions regarding available functionality.
Identify follow-on, targeted training resources for teams around common awareness gaps
Highlight “success stories” to encourage using out-of the-box functionality
Identify – or work with selected teams to pilot – the use of new or underutilized ServiceNow functionality 
Document specific process improvements (and improvements in fulfiller or customer experience) associated with this functionality, and communicate these broadly across the organization (e.g., via webinar, internal social media, or other channels)
Identify where teams are not positioned to take advantage of out-of- the-box functionality
For out-of-the-box functionality that is persistently under-utilized, work with selected teams to identify the root causes behind lack of use. Ask the following questions, using interviews and observations:
Are there any technical obstacles to teams’ ability to take advantage of out-of-the-box functionality?
Does the current team structure (or process model) limit the team's ability to take advantage of out-of-the-box functionality?
Does lack of team skill or training limit individuals’ ability to take advantage of out-of-the-box functionality?
Develop proposed remediation measures based on findings, and work with teams and/or governance functions to implement
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

5. Step 2: Educate stakeholders on upgrades
Demands for customization and configuration may be redundant to capabilities and innovations available in upcoming ServiceNow releases. Strategic governance leaders should allocate resources to educate business leaders and other stakeholders on capabilities they can use after the next upgrade.
Publish and communicate your ServiceNow roadmap to business leaders and other key stakeholders quarterly
Build an update a business-facing roadmap that includes:
New products going live
Pilots of new capabilities and/or use cases, with clearly defined measures of success (either expected or realized)
New capabilities and/or features made available in your next upgrade
Hold 1x1 meetings with business leaders and key stakeholders to review your ServiceNow roadmap and any backlog of customization and configuration requests 
The intent of these meetings should be to familiarize business leaders with new capabilities and match them to potential use cases.
Review the backlog to determine whether any unmet customization and configuration demands still have a demonstrated business need
Review your backlog of customization and configuration demands to determine if any demands can be removed from the backlog
Identify whether any new features or capabilities coming online with an upgrade meet any existing business demands for customization or configuration
Review your existing customizations to determine if any are redundant to new capabilities, and determine if they should be removed
Evaluate the level of effort required to remove any customizations that are no longer needed, and allocate resources in your roadmap for their removal
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

6. Step 3: Define policies for customization and configuration
Managing to an “out of the box” configuration requires strong governance around customization and configuration. This starts with clear policies that educate development teams and other stakeholders on the “value bar” that customization and configuration requests need to meet for approval.
Define guidelines for how customization and configuration requests will be evaluated and approved
Build a simple scorecard that helps requesters define the business value associated with a new customization or configuration request (note:  you can do this using ServiceNow’s Demand Management capability)
Define a taxonomy of different types of configuration and customization requests
Define the technical complexity associated with each type of request, using a simple low/medium/high scale, with clear explanations
Define the business value score needed to justify a specific type of configuration or customization
Define approvals required for each type of configuration or customization request
Assign a business analyst to evaluate incoming requests for customization and configuration (and to educate development teams and business lines on customization and configuration)
Practitioner Insight: It’s not enough to define a policy. You have to educate development teams and business lines about customization and its potential complexity, so that incoming demands are limited to true business need. See our best practice guide, Avoiding Customization Pitfalls, for scorecards you can use to evaluate the business value and complexity of a configuration or customization request.
For more guidance on policy, see our content for "Build dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team" 
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

7. Step 4: Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams
Customization and configuration should be implemented using tools and mechanisms that do not put global performance and stability at risk. Your organization should provide clear, straightforward guidance to development teams on how to implement customization and configuration safely.
Give local development teams guidance on the use of scoped applications to respond to customization demands
Provide clear decision-tree guidance on when an custom application can be developed in scope vs. at the global level.
Ensure development teams have access to training and documentation materials for implementing scoped applications. Where possible, schedule and run training for development teams on use of scoped applications. Ensure that “delegated developers” also have access to training and documentation.
If your organization operates a domain separation model (in organizations that span multiple, independent legal entities or have needs for data and process separation), educate development teams on how scoped applications operate under domain separation. Decisions with respect to using domain separation should only be made at the level of the executive sponsor / strategic governance.
Define a standard process for developing and releasing custom applications
Provide guidance and train development teams on use of delegated development and source control to manage distributed development. Note that delegated development is only available for scoped applications.
Provide guidance and train development teams on use of update sets and application repository to manage release of custom applications.
Practitioner Insight: You can delegate governance over customization to front-line development teams as long as:
Teams use scoped applications for custom development
Teams restrict development to validated business needs, using criteria established by global governance and demand management functions
Teams use a consistent process and set of practices for development
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

8. Step 5: Put demand management mechanisms in place
Your organization should have a standard demand intake and management process for new customization and configuration requests.
Define approval authorities for new customization and configuration requests
Establish a ServiceNow Demand Board with monthly meetings to manage and approve demands for customization and configuration. If this is not possible, assign approval responsibilities to your Change Advisory Board (CAB)
Include (as possible): Platform Architect, Platform Owner, IT Process/Domain Owners, Portfolio/Service Owners, Demand Managers, Program Manager, Business analysts, Vendor Managers, Key Suppliers & Partners
Establish a ServiceNow Business Technology Board with monthly meetings to create, refine, and communicate the ServiceNow technology roadmap.
Include (as possible): CIO/CTO, Platform Owner, Platform Architect, Enterprise Architect, Enterprise Technology Owners, Portfolio/Service Owners or Business Relationship Managers, PMO Leader, Demand Managers
This should incorporate global customizations and configuration changes
Provide a clear, central intake mechanism for new customization and configuration requests
Develop a simple, automated intake form (using ServiceNow’s Demand Management capability, if possible) that helps development teams and business lines identify the business value, cost, and risk associated with their request.
Practitioner Insight: Provide business lines and development teams as much forward visibility into your ServiceNow roadmap as possible, to include new features that will be available in planned upgrades. By providing this visibility, you can limit requests for customization that may otherwise be addressed by an upgrade.
For more guidance on policy, see our content for "Build dedicated, dynamic governance process, policies, and team"  and "Manage platform demand"
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

9. 6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
Step 6: Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
Over time, your strategic objectives (and the capabilities available in ServiceNow) will evolve, such that customizations and configurations may no longer have valid business justification, although they may have met a need in the past.
Develop a process to ‘audit’ customizations and configurations regularly for retention or removal
Define a set of ’triggers’ for a review/audit of your current customizations and configurations. This should include:  (a) planned upgrades, (b) major strategy and/or leadership changes in your organization, and/or (c) a redefinition of the business outcomes you want to achieve in your ServiceNow roadmap.
Define a process that includes:
Evaluation of your instance’s current performance, to assess whether existing customizations and configurations may be creating performance issues
Use of ServiceNow’s HealthScan to assess the extent to which your implementation has deviated from baseline
Use of analytics to assess whether customizations and configurations are delivering business value in terms of adoption, efficiency, or experience, and focusing those analytics on whether customizations and configurations are being used in line with original demand (for example:  identify forms that are not used, or assignment groups that have never been assigned tickets)
Where needed, conduct interviews with relevant business leaders and/or stakeholders to determine whether customizations and configurations continue to have a demonstrated business need.
Practitioner Insight: Build analytics expertise on your ServiceNow team. You can use Performance Analytics, HealthScan, and other resources to help ServiceNow “report on itself,” to identify whether customizations and configurations are aiding or getting in the way of getting to your business outcomes.
Based on your findings from this process, identify customizations and configurations that can be removed to move your implementation closer to “out of the box” functionality
Ensure that you evaluate the level of effort required to remove these, so that resources are allocated appropriately
Review the customizations and configurations to be removed with your strategic governance committee, to ensure resources and executive sponsor support
Steps
1. Guide teams to use out-of-the-box functionality
2. Educate stakeholders on upgrades
3. Define policies for configuration and customization
5. Put demand management mechanisms in place
6. Audit customizations and configurations for retention or removal
4. Provide customization and configuration guidance to development teams

10. KPIs and Stakeholders Key Performance Indicators Essential KPIs
Percentage of service fullfiller / administrator / developer teams that are aware of out-of-box capabilities (as determined by survey)
Ratio of total number of customizations / configurations to “ideal” number, based on validated business need (ratio should approach 1)
Ratio of total number of customizations / configurations requested to number approved (ratio should approach 1, as an indicator that requests are adhering to policy and demonstrated business need)
# of skipped records generated during upgrade due to customization and configuration (should decline or show minimal increase between upgrades)
Time required for testing as part of upgrades (should decline or show minimal increase between upgrades)
‘Nice to Have’
# of customizations / configurations removed or returned to ‘out of box’ due to redundancy or lack of business value
% of customizations using scoped applications
# of incidents affecting global performance due to poor development practices
Stakeholder Map
Responsible/Accountable
ServiceNow Program Governance lead
ServiceNow Platform Owner
Executive Sponsor
CIO
Senior Leadership
Audit
Consulted/Informed
Business Leaders and Regional / Local Development Teams
Service Owners