Introduction to Metrics & Creating Metric Definitions
Chapter Topics
While working on a project, knowing whether it is going in the right direction is very important. Measuring project results helps organizations understand what is working for them and what should change. To make these measurements easier for large organizations, ServiceNow Metrics is introduced.
ServiceNow Metrics are the measurable values used to evaluate how processes, projects, products, or systems are performing and whether organizations are growing, meeting goals, and improving.
In this chapter, we will focus on what is metrics in ServiceNow, how they are used, and the types of metric definitions.
What are metrics in ServiceNow?
ServiceNow Metrics are used to establish measurable progress and a structured way of decision-making. These metrics convert performance, efficiency, and quality into tracked, comparable data that can be viewed over time.
Metrics are collected to monitor the performance and progress in any organization that can be compared and analyzed.
How is it used?
ServiceNow metrics are used for different purposes in different scenarios. The major purposes of using these include:
- To identify problems
- To guide decisions
- To measure performance
- To track progress
- To improve accountability
To serve these purposes, the ServiceNow metrics usage for different scenarios can be done as:
- In businesses, servicenow performance metrics can help track monthly revenue, customer satisfaction score, and marketing conversion rates.
- In a software and IT operations department, these metrics can help monitor the uptime, error rates, and deployment frequencies.
- In the HR department, servicenow record metrics can be used to track employee turnover rates, training hours per employee, and hiring lead time.
- In project management, metrics can be used to schedule variables or the cost performance index. It helps assess the project’s health.
What is Creating a New Metric Definition?
A ServiceNow metric definition is a document that specifies what a metric measures, how it is calculated, and why it exists. Creating a new metric definition in ServiceNow is a simple process. The steps include:
- In the All section, select definitions in the Metrics option.
- Select New, start filling in the definition form, and submit.
The ServiceNow metric definition form includes multiple fields with different purposes. It includes:
| Fields | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Number | It allows users to reference and track metrics in logs and scripts, as well as during troubleshooting. |
| Name | Helps in reviewing reports, dashboards, or metric definitions to understand metric goals. |
| Table | Helps ServiceNow identify what records should be metric-measured. Metrics can be applied to any table in ServiceNow, including Incident, Problem, Change, Request, and custom tables.. |
| Field | It specifies which fields in a table to monitor. |
| Description | It explains why a particular metric exists and what it measures. |
| Application | It controls the usage and visibility of metrics within an application scope. |
| Type | It defines the metric’s logic and how ServiceNow interprets it. |
| Timeline | It helps visualize changes over time in a proper sequence, which aids root cause analysis. |
| Active | It controls the status of a metric. If deactivated, ServiceNow will stop creating metric instances for new records. |
| Script | It allows developers to write script-based conditions for metrics when predefined types are not sufficient |
| Script Editor Button | It assists users while writing and managing JavaScript logic clearly. |
Types of Metric Definitions
ServiceNow Metrics can be defined by creating new metric definitions. These definitions are template records that allow users to set the unit, direction, nature, precision, and category of a metric. There are three metric types in ServiceNow:
- Automated Metric Definition: Data is collected automatically as per the conditions specified in the metric definition, including properties, methods, and the schedule.
- Manual Metric Definition: Data is collected manually. The data owners of specific metrics provide metric data via instructions.
- Calculated Metric Definition: It includes data from automated and manual metric definitions. As a metric manager, your job is to determine how you want to calculate the definition’s score and how often you want to recalculate it.
Conclusion
ServiceNow Metrics are not just a regular feature; they are a great way for organizations to track their progress across projects, products, and operations. These metrics can be created by users as per their requirements. If you want to track your progress, metrics are the best bet.
In the next chapter, we will be focusing on the User Interface and data policies of ServiceNow.
