Tracking and Adjusting: Keeping Your Goals on Track in ServiceNow

In my first post, I showed how ServiceNow’s Goal Framework connects your strategy to daily work. In the second, I explained how to build SMART targets and link them to projects, demands, and epics. Now that your goals and targets are aligned, how do you know they’re driving results? This third article focuses on tracking progress and making adjustments to keep your goals moving forward.

The goal is straightforward: monitor progress, address issues early, and keep your team aligned for success.

1. Track Progress with Real-Time Dashboards

When targets are connected to work items like projects or epics in ServiceNow, metrics like completion percentages or cost savings can update automatically. These metrics roll up to your goals through targets, giving you a clear view of progress.

The Goals Dashboard is the best place to see how your goals are performing. You can drill into specific targets to understand what’s working. For example, if your goal is “Reduce operational costs by 15%” and your target is “Save $1.2M by Q3,” the dashboard shows which projects are contributing to that savings.

To make tracking easier, use target sources:

• Performance Analytics (PA) Indicators for measurable data like spend or revenue.
• Benefit plans to track savings, such as $800K from realized benefits.
• Surveys for qualitative feedback, like customer satisfaction scores.
• For more flexibility, create custom scripts to pull data from any ServiceNow table.

Pro Tip: Navigate to the sn_gf_goal_target table and use the Actual Value Source field to set up PA Indicators or survey sources.

2. Make Check-Ins Effective

Regular check-ins, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly, keep targets active and help you spot issues before they derail progress. These reviews ensure your team stays focused on what matters.

What to Review

• Compare baseline vs. actuals. For a $1.2M savings target, are you at $900K? If not, check for delayed projects or errors in target sources like cost plans.
• Verify data accuracy. Ensure rollups from benefit plans or PA Indicators are correct.

Adjust Carefully

• Use the Edit planned target button to update deadlines or metrics while keeping historical data intact.
• Note: Changing the check-in frequency clears past target breakdowns. If you need to preserve history, create a new target instead.

Things to Watch Out For

• Broken Rollups: If target sources like PA Indicators or benefit plans aren’t syncing, review their configurations.
• Too Many Metrics: Overloading dashboards with metrics confuses users. Focus on 2–3 key indicators, like progress percentage or milestone status.
• Over-Reliance on Automation: Automation helps, but human oversight is essential. A “risky” target might need a small tweak a dashboard won’t catch.

3. Adjust to Stay on Course

Tracking progress is only valuable if you act on it. Use insights from dashboards and target sources to make decisions that keep your goals on track. For example:

• Reallocate resources or shift priorities if a target lags.
• Test adjustments in the Strategic Planning Workspace to see how swapping a low-impact epic for one tied to a key goal affects progress.

ServiceNow’s Goal Framework does more than set goals, it makes them actionable. Dashboards and target sources show what’s working, regular check-ins keep momentum, and timely adjustments ensure alignment.