Published on CMCrossroads (https://www.cmcrossroads.com)

Home > Does anyone have any experience using Service Now as a version control tool? Pros/Cons?
Robert Martin's picture

Does anyone have any experience using Service Now as a version control tool? Pros/Cons?

Have heard Service Now is a good Help Desk type tool for tracking incidents.  Can it's tool suite be used effectively in an IT development environment for version control, baselines, releases/deployments, etc.

Drew Benson's picture

As per above - ServiceNow is an (ITIL based) Service Management Tool.

Arguably a pretty decent one. But it has no functionality (or even the concept) of software/file version management.

Its various process records can have (file) attachments etc (and complex process driven interactions).

It could be customised to have pretty good process control over your development process and it could support your Version Management (SCM) process and even possibly have links into VM tools (all or most of the usual suspects).

 

 

 

 

Thomas Loy's picture

I've used Service Now in the past, but I really don't think it would be a good tool for version control or baselines.  Git or Subversion or other VC softwware would be your better choice for version control and baselines.  Other tools would also probably be better suited for releases and deployments.  I don't think Service Now has capabilities for any of that.  However, Service Now might be good for documenting and tracking information about versions, baselines, releases and deployments, especially if you can use the tools APIs so they can communicate with each other when things happen, such as commits, pulls, and deployments.  It would be a good place for capturing the who, what, when, where, how and why.  

2 Answers

Thomas Loy's picture

I've used Service Now in the past, but I really don't think it would be a good tool for version control or baselines.  Git or Subversion or other VC softwware would be your better choice for version control and baselines.  Other tools would also probably be better suited for releases and deployments.  I don't think Service Now has capabilities for any of that.  However, Service Now might be good for documenting and tracking information about versions, baselines, releases and deployments, especially if you can use the tools APIs so they can communicate with each other when things happen, such as commits, pulls, and deployments.  It would be a good place for capturing the who, what, when, where, how and why.  

Drew Benson's picture

As per above - ServiceNow is an (ITIL based) Service Management Tool.

Arguably a pretty decent one. But it has no functionality (or even the concept) of software/file version management.

Its various process records can have (file) attachments etc (and complex process driven interactions).

It could be customised to have pretty good process control over your development process and it could support your Version Management (SCM) process and even possibly have links into VM tools (all or most of the usual suspects).

 

 

 

 
©2011-2013 TechWell Corp.