The Importance of Understanding that ServiceNow is Not an EA Tool

ServiceNow, by its own description, is a platform for application development, workflow management, IT asset and configuration management, and related analytic capabilities. Its modeling capabilities therefore support aspects of application and infrastructure architecture.  

However, it is not a full-fledged enterprise architecture tool or repository.  It does not support the modeling of motivations and strategy, the structure and function of organizations, and the integration of all necessary factors necessary to determine the impact of a strategy on an organization.  For example, ServiceNow does not support analysis of the business value of application and infrastructure investments.  ServiceNow does not support strategic decision making about major roadmaps or the management of initiatives that span IT (including software development) and the rest of business.  

Nonetheless, if it is implemented consistently and rigorously across the entire organization or specific domains, ServiceNow can serve as a valuable resource for EA by serving as an application and infrastructure reference, and by supplying accurate baseline data to a repository-based EA tool.