Over time, most ServiceNow instances move a long way from their out-of-the-box design, with custom fields, custom tables and modified business rules built up over the years. Before a migration, every one of these needs to be identified and accounted for, and working it out manually can take an architect around a week.
With Precision Bridge v10, you can explore an instance’s customizations through a standard Precision Bridge connection, using pbSQL. Here are three examples.
1. Custom Fields on Migration Tables
This query lists the custom fields (names starting “u_”) added to Task and the core ITSM tables: Incident, Problem, Change, Requested Item and Catalog Task. For each field, it shows the type, the length and, for reference fields, the table it points to. The result is a ready-made checklist of what a migration’s field mappings need to cover.
2. Custom Tables and What They Extend
This query lists the instance’s custom tables and scoped app tables, with the parent table each one extends, leaving out import set staging tables that would otherwise swamp the list. Tables that extend Task deserve the closest look, because they behave like tickets and are likely to need migrating too.
3. Customized Business Rules
ServiceNow ships with hundreds of built-in business rules, which can make the customer’s own changes hard to find. This query matches each rule against the instance’s update records, so it shows only the rules the customer has created or changed. It also shows when each rule runs and when it was last changed, so the rules to review before a migration stand out.
Plan Your Migration with Confidence
Together, these queries give you a clear picture of an instance’s customizations before a migration begins. Each one can be saved and run again on your next project.
If you are working across several instances, our recent post, Spot the Difference: How to Compare Your ServiceNow Instances Side by Side, shows how to compare them directly.
Curious how customized your instance is? Contact us today to book your demo of Precision Bridge - click here.