Strategic & Portfolio Planning in SPM

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Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) empowers organizations to align work to strategy. Two powerful planning workspaces enable this vision – Portfolio Planning and Strategic Planning – depending on your licensing level. This blog will help you find the right resources to understand and implement them.

Portfolio Planning is the process of selecting, prioritizing, and managing a set of initiatives - such as projects, or demands that align with organizational capacity and strategy. While Strategic Planning goes a level above Portfolio Planning, It involves long-term goals, setting targets, aligning work across portfolio and continuously adjusting based on feedback and changing business needs. It ensures that execution is always tied to strategy.

In the ServiceNow SPM product, these are brought to life with following workspaces based on license

Portfolio Planning Workspace (Std License)	Strategic Planning Workspace (Pro License)
Designed for teams focused on traditional planning methodologies - Waterfall Enables planning with Projects, Demands, Programs Primarily for Project Portfolio Management Lens	A comprehensive planning workspace that includes Portfolio Planning features plus advanced strategic capabilities Adds agile & hybrid planning with Epics, initiatives, Strategic Programs, and custom lens Enables top-down alignment via Goal Framework, Feedback and Enterprise Agile Planning

❇️ View in-detail comparison of Portfolio Planning Workspace with Strategic Planning Workspace

💡Think of Portfolio Planning as a core planning layer, Strategic Planning as broader strategic shell with deeper capabilities

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📋 Key Modules

Based on the license, Portfolio Managers, Enterprise PMOs, Product Managers can,

• Create goals and connect work to strategy to deliver desired outcomes
• Gather, review and prioritize initiatives, and work items; and manage status and progress of initiatives on an interactive visual roadmap (traditional, hybrid or agile) all in a single platform.
• Perform trade-off analysis based on financials and goals using Scenario Planning
• View and manage resource capacity needs and estimates effectively
• Manage customer centric feedback and ideas using feedback module
• Streamline communication and collaboration between teams, and drive coordination with diverse teams with Enterprise Agile Planning

Std & Pro	Pro Only
Portfolio Planning	Goal Framework
Financial Planning	Enterprise Agile Planning
Scenario Planning	Feedback
Dashboards	Dashboards

Additionally, you can also manage resource capacity, and configure agile structures and planning calendars for EAP.

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🔜 Migration to Next Experience

If you are an existing customer using Alignment Planning Workspace (APW), you are on classic experience. Here's how you can migrate -

• Why Migrate? APW is legacy version, and it is recommended to migrate for improved UI, strategic alignment, Better Agility
• What's new? Support for modern planning items, custom lens, enhanced experience
• Where to begin?
  
  • Check the migrating to Strategic Planning on docs

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🔗 Resources & Links

Blogs & Recordings	Std & Pro Troubleshooting planning items config blog Strategic Planning Workspace recording Start Revolutionize Your Portfolio Strategy with ServiceNow's Enhanced Scenario Planning recording recording Exporting Portfolio Plan to Powerpoint recording Pro Only Strategic Program vs Program blog How to display Goals records with Goals module in SPW blog How to rename Goals & Targets to OKRs in SPW blog
Release Materials	Yokohama SPM Delta Deck - Q1 and Q2 2025 Xanadu SPM Delta Deck - Q3 & Q4 2024 Washington SPM Delta Deck - Q1 & Q2 2024
Trainings on ServiceNow University	Introduction to Strategic Planning Workspace Yokohama Introduction to Portfolio Planning in SPW Yokohama Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Implementation learner path SPM Implementation Intensive program course for Partners (ongoing) Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM Financial Planning: Baseline Migration to Next Experience Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Fundamentals on-demand Xanadu Recommended Training blog

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👣 Next Steps in SPM Journey

Project Portfolio Management

To align investments to implement strategy and deliver business outcomes, portfolio managers need the right tools to respond quickly and decisively when changes are needed.

• Quick Start Guide for Project Portfolio Management blog

Learn about more Strategic Portfolio Management

• Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) Overview blog
• Getting Started with Strategic Portfolio Management recording
• Quick Start Guide for Financial Planning blog
• Quick Start Guide for Now Assist for SPM blog
• Quick Start Guide for Enterprise Agile Planning in SPM blog
• Collaborative Work Management product hub on Community

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💬 Become an SPM Customer Evangelist Now!

Are you interested in sharing your success journey of using Strategic Planning Workspace or Portfolio Planning Workspace? Evangelist Program will help you connect with our Product Team, network with SPM community, and learn more from industry insights. Fill this brief survey and we will reach out to learn more about your experience with Strategic Planning and SPM overall.