Work with 1901 Group in Blacksburg to develop a tool to interface with ServiceNow (a widely-
   used task-management tool, also used by many gov't organizations)


Project:
Reporting customized to include point in time data for trending without the need to lean on dev
team to script it out each time This could be through building script includes that have very easy
to read and use function calls that could be put into documentation for reporting users to use.  We
can start with some targeted pain points and refactoring.


Project path
i.   Learn ServiceNow Reporting and get a good understanding of the database 
     structure used
ii.  Meet with 1901 to gather requirements for the types of reports that are 
     requested frequently, and the types of reporting that are 
     difficult/impossible with the out of the box GUI for reporting.
iii. Build scripts with easy to read/understand function calls for use 
     by non-developers.
iv.  Create documentation for those users to be able to use and learn from for 
     building advanced and customized reporting


Skills to be used 

i.   JavaScript to build functions and return intended results
ii.  Psuedo-SQL (ServiceNow GlideRecord object queries) in building the queries 
     within ServiceNow to retrieve data
iii. Technical writing to put together useful documentation for the functions
iv.  Working closely with users of the reporting scripts (or someone knowing 
     what they want) to gather requirements and build accordingly


Benefit to 1901 Group
i.   Fewer requests to the dev team for custom reporting, as more difficult 
     queries would become more obtainable.
ii.  Good documentation to provide new SLMs etc for reporting in ServiceNow, 
     and advanced reporting techniques.


Benefit to Students
i.   Experience designing and working on a tool to be actually used in the workplace.
ii.  Gain specific knowledge of the ServiceNow API, a tool widely used in industry.
iii. 1901 Group will guarantee a job-interview with you. 


Contact: be n.pruitt @ 1901group.c om





========= DETAILS and tutorials --
intended as early tasks for teams working on the project,
but you can also look at the links below to get an idea of what the project might be like:





Ben Pruitt writes:

I’ve had some time to dig through ServiceNow’s documentation for some good places to start, and I think we’ll have a solid foundation for learning the ropes for anyone interested in the project. These are all links from https://developer.servicenow.com/, I’ve just picked out what will be most useful to them for the scripting/reporting project.


For fairly targeted training for what they’ll need to know, the Learn -> Training tab will be useful

- ServiceNow Basics – Obtaining a personal instance, checking out the UI, looking at lists, using filters, basic stuff.
https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/training/article/app_store_learnv2_buildmyfirstapp_kingston_servicenow_basics/app_store_learnv2_buildmyfirstapp_kingston_servicenow_basics_objectives?v=kingston

- Introduction to Scripting – Describes different types of scripting and what they’re used for, then leads into client-side and then server-side scripting. Server-side scripting is going to be the focus for the project.
https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/training/article/app_store_learnv2_scripting_kingston_introduction_to_scripting_in_servicenow/app_store_learnv2_scripting_kingston_introduction_to_scripting_objectives?v=kingston

- Data Visualization – This is where they’ll get most of the knowledge required to understand reporting, and may begin to allude to the objective, which is to combine client callable server-side scripting with the Reporting module for advanced data retrieval and displays.

https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/training/article/app_store_learnv2_reportanalytics_kingston_data_visualization/app_store_learnv2_reportanalytics_kingston_data_visualization_objectives?v=kingston
 

 
ServiceNow also offers more structured learning (Learn -> Learning Plans) on the Developer site, but these are going to go into many aspects that won’t be necessary to this project. The “New to ServiceNow” (https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/lp/new_to_servicenow?v=kingston) plan will probably be closest to covering all of what we need, but the notable exception here is reporting. I don’t believe any of the learning plans cover reporting, so they’ll need to go through the Data Visualization training to get this info.

 
None of the aforementioned require an account to go through, but an account would be necessary for students to get their own instances to follow along with some of the more interactive trainings.