HR Service Delivery Fundamentals and Architecture
The scoped-app foundation
HRSD is not a single application but a set of scoped apps on the ServiceNow platform. Human Resources: Core provides the data model and workflow objects: the HR profile, HR service, COE, HR template, HR task, and HR case. Sibling apps add capability - Lifecycle Events for journeys, Employee Relations for workplace cases - and HRSD consumes platform capabilities (Knowledge, Service Catalog, Flow Designer, Performance Analytics, Employee Center) rather than duplicating them.
The data model candidates must be able to draw
An HR profile is a one-to-one extension record for each employee. It is not the user record: it references sys_user and holds HR-only data (employee number, hire date, job, work location, manager). Everything downstream anchors to it - HR criteria conditions, case subject, lifecycle event triggers. Structure then flows: COE (a specialty such as Benefits or Payroll) groups HR services; an HR service points at an HR template; the template defines the default HR tasks and field values that fire at case creation. Roles are layered: administrator, HR agent/case worker, and manager-style roles decide who can configure, work, or view what.
Traps
Questions love to blur HR criteria (visibility rules for HR services and catalog items) with user criteria (visibility for knowledge bases and portal content). They are different tables serving different consumers. Another common miss: assuming a new hire must have a profile created manually - profiles come from the HR system of record or from user-creation flows. Also expect questions implying HR tasks are optional decoration; they are the assignable, SLA-bearing units of work inside a case.
Rule of thumb
When something is invisible, think criteria; when something is unassigned, think assignment group/rule; when the wrong steps appear on a case, think template.