/GLOSSARY

The terms behind the operating model.

Practitioner definitions of the concepts, frameworks and structures that appear across every edition. Written for the people doing the work, not the people observing it.

7 TERMS DEFINED

Platform operating modelA platform operating model is the end-to-end design of how the Now Platform delivers value, the engine room of governance, team structure, demand process, delivery cadence and performance metrics. It is the structural answer to "who does what, who decides what, and how do we know it is working.
Centre of Excellence (CoE)A ServiceNow Centre of Excellence (CoE) is the cross-functional unit that consolidates platform strategy, architecture, delivery governance and operational support under a single accountability structure. It is not a team name; it is an operating model that defines how platform decisions are made, who makes them, and how capability is developed.
CSDM (Common Service Data Model)The Common Service Data Model (CSDM) is ServiceNow's canonical data architecture, a standardised framework of tables, relationships and classification structures that defines how services, applications, infrastructure and business capabilities are represented on the platform. It is the foundation layer that everything else sits on.
Demand managementDemand management is the intake, scoring and prioritisation process that determines what work the platform team builds next. It separates strategic initiatives from operational requests, applies consistent evaluation criteria, and allocates capacity through governance rather than queue position.
Steering committeeA steering committee, specifically an Executive Steering Committee (ESC), is the governance tier that owns platform decisions, not platform updates. It is the pit crew, not the grandstand: a small, role-defined group with the authority to resolve cross-functional disputes, approve scope changes, and unblock strategic trade-offs.
Platform visionA platform vision is the constrained statement that defines what the ServiceNow platform will become, what it will not become, and what the first three years look like in concrete capability terms. It is the document architects can build against, not a marketing sentence about digital transformation.
Governance frameworkA governance framework is the multi-level structure of decision rights, escalation paths, accountability assignments and review cadences that determines how a ServiceNow platform programme makes decisions, resolves disputes, and maintains alignment between strategy and execution..

The terms behind the operating model.

The frameworks your steering committee will actually use.