ServiceNow CIS-ITSM key terms

A widely used set of published best practices for managing IT services, describing processes such as incident, problem, change, and request management and the lifecycle stages a service passes through.

A means of delivering value to customers by helping them reach outcomes they want, without the customer owning the specific costs and risks involved.

The single point of contact between users and the IT organization, handling contacts, restoring service, and keeping users informed, typically staffed by the first line of support.

An unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in its quality, reported by a user or detected by monitoring, that has not yet been explained or resolved.

The process of restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible after a disruption, while limiting business impact and keeping affected users informed throughout.

An incident with severe business impact or very high urgency that follows a separate, accelerated handling path with dedicated coordination, senior communication, and a formal review afterwards.

A ranking that decides the order in which incidents and other records are handled, typically calculated from impact and urgency rather than chosen by hand.

A measure of how much an incident or change affects users and business processes, usually expressed as the breadth and severity of that effect.

A measure of how quickly an incident or change needs attention, based on how much harm a delay would cause; combined with impact it produces priority.

Moving an incident or request to a higher support level for more technical skill, or to management for more authority and attention, so it can be resolved faster.

The underlying cause, or a potential cause, of one or more incidents, investigated so that the incidents stop recurring instead of being fixed one at a time.

The process that finds and removes the root causes of incidents, manages known errors, and works to reduce the number and impact of future disruptions.

A problem or defect whose root cause is understood and for which a documented workaround exists, even though a permanent fix may not yet be in place.

A structured investigation technique used to find the fundamental reason an incident or problem happened, rather than only treating its visible symptoms.

A temporary way to restore service or reduce the effect of an incident or known error while a permanent fix is still being developed.

The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could affect IT services, such as infrastructure, applications, documentation, or configuration items.

A record used to propose, assess, authorize, schedule, and track a change, capturing its risk, impact, approval decisions, and implementation details.

A low-risk, pre-authorized change with a documented procedure that is performed routinely and does not need individual approval each time it is used.

A change that must go through assessment and approval, usually by the change advisory board, before it can be scheduled and implemented.

A change that must be implemented urgently to restore service or address a critical issue, using an expedited approval path followed by retrospective review.

A group of stakeholders who review and advise on changes, weighing risk, impact, and scheduling, and who authorize normal changes before implementation.

A documented set of steps for reversing a change and restoring the previous state if implementation fails or produces unacceptable side effects.

The process of capturing, organizing, sharing, and maintaining information so that staff and users can find accurate answers when they need them.

A stored document in the knowledge base that explains how to perform a task, describes a known error, or answers a common question, with its own lifecycle state.

A searchable repository of articles and documents that supports agents and users, with access controls and lifecycle states that keep content current.

A customer-facing view of the services and items an organization offers, describing what users may request and which options are available for each.

A definable product or service a user can order from the service catalog, carrying its own questions, price, approval rules, and fulfillment tasks.

A user's ask for something to be provided, such as information, access, a new device, or a standard service, handled through request fulfillment rather than incident management.

The process of receiving, approving, and completing service requests, often by generating tasks and running workflows, so users receive what they asked for.

Any component that must be managed to deliver a service, such as a server, application, database, or document, recorded with its attributes and relationships.

A database that stores configuration items and the relationships between them, giving a picture of what infrastructure and services exist and how they depend on each other.

An automated process that scans the network to find devices and applications, then creates or updates the matching configuration items in the CMDB.

A technique that traces how applications and infrastructure support a business service, building a top-down dependency model of that service in the CMDB.

A standard set of ServiceNow table and relationship definitions that gives an organization a consistent way to model services, offerings, and the technical items behind them.

A documented agreement between a provider and a customer that states expected service levels, such as response and resolution times, and often the consequences of missing them.

An internal agreement between teams in the same organization that describes the support each will give so that customer-facing service level commitments can be met.

A measurable commitment, such as resolving a set percentage of incidents within four hours, that defines the level of service that must be achieved.

In ServiceNow, a configuration record holding the conditions, schedule, duration, and workflow that create task SLAs and track them against their targets.