CIS-PA Practice Questions

For an automated indicator to be broken down by a specific dimension (e.g., by Assignment Group), a breakdown mapping is mandatory. This mapping defines the relationship between the indicator source's table (e.g., incident) and the breakdown source's table (e.g., sysusergroup). Without this mapping, Performance Analytics does not know which field on the indicator source record corresponds to an element in the breakdown, and therefore cannot generate the breakdown scores during data collection.

A. A data collection job's frequency must be greater than or equal to the indicator source frequency. You cannot collect a monthly source daily.

C. The frequency of an automated indicator is inherited from its indicator source and cannot be set independently. It is a read-only field on the indicator form.

D. Breakdowns and their mappings must be configured and assigned to an indicator before data collection runs, as the job relies on this configuration.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Add a breakdown to an indicator." Performance Analytics and Reporting. Step 3 of the procedure states, "If no breakdown mapping is specified... create a breakdown mapping." This confirms the mapping is a required part of the configuration.

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics (PA) Fundamentals Courseware, Module: "Breakdowns," Section: "Applying Breakdowns to Indicators." The course material emphasizes that the link between an indicator and a breakdown is established through the breakdown mapping.

A scripted breakdown mapping is required when the logic to associate a record from an indicator source with a breakdown element is too complex for a standard field-to-field mapping. This occurs when there is no direct relationship or when the value must be derived or calculated. For example, mapping an incident to an age bucket requires a script to calculate the age and determine the correct bucket, as no single field on the incident record directly represents this.

B. Mapping to a Sys ID is a standard configuration. You map a reference field on the source table to the sysid field on the breakdown source.

C. Database views are supported as indicator sources, and standard field mappings can be used if the required field is present in the view.

D. Dot-walking to a related field is a standard, non-scripted feature of breakdown mappings, allowing you to map fields from related tables.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a breakdown mapping." Performance Analytics and Reporting. This document states, "If no direct mapping between the indicator source and the breakdown source is available, create a scripted mapping."

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics (PA) Fundamentals Courseware, Module: "Breakdowns," Section: "Breakdown Mappings." The course explains that scripts are the solution for complex mapping logic where direct field or dot-walked mappings are insufficient.

The color of a score on a Performance Analytics widget is dynamically determined by comparing the indicator's current score against its associated target. The indicator's Direction setting (Maximize, Minimize, or Target) defines what is considered good performance. For example, if the direction is 'Minimize', a score below the target is favorable and displayed in green. Conversely, for a 'Maximize' direction, a score above the target is green. This provides an immediate visual cue of performance status.

B. Chart colors are general reporting settings and do not control the specific performance-based color logic of PA score widgets.

C. Field styles are used to change the appearance of fields in forms and lists, not for coloring scores within PA widgets.

D. While targets are configured in relation to the indicator, the widget setting itself does not have a simple color-picker; the color is a result of the logic described in option A.

1. ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a Performance Analytics target," Doc ID: 0681b45d870330105bde3a973ebb351c. This document explains, "The color of the score on the widget depends on how close the score is to the target and on the direction that you set in the indicator record."

2. ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a new indicator," Doc ID: 0681b45d870330105bde3a973ebb351c. The description for the Direction field details how 'Maximize' and 'Minimize' values affect score evaluation.

Bucket groups are a specific type of breakdown source in Performance Analytics designed to group records based on ranges of a numeric value. "Hour of day" is a numeric field (0-23) that is an ideal candidate for bucketing into logical groups such as 'Morning,' 'Afternoon,' or 'Business Hours.' The other options represent discrete categorical data or references to other tables, which are not suitable for range-based grouping and are better served by automated or manual breakdown sources.

B. Priority: This is a choice list with distinct text values (e.g., Critical, High), not a continuous numerical range for bucketing.

C. Business Service: This is a reference field pointing to specific configuration items, which are distinct entities, not a numerical range.

D. Assignment Group: This is a reference field pointing to specific user groups, which are distinct entities, not a numerical range.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a bucket group for a breakdown source". This document states, "Bucket groups enable you to create breakdowns for indicators based on numeric ranges." It provides examples like Age and Priority score, which are analogous to "Hour of day."

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics Fundamentals courseware, Module on Breakdowns and Breakdown Sources.

The 'Show multiple elements as' property on a Time Series widget controls how data for multiple selected breakdown elements is displayed. Setting this property to 'Aggregate' combines the scores for all selected elements (e.g., High and Critical priorities) into a single, cumulative trend line on the widget. This directly achieves the goal of showing a combined trend rather than separate ones.

B. Manual elements are used to pre-select specific breakdown elements to display on the widget, not to combine their trends into a single line.

C. Setting the property to 'Separate' is the default behavior that shows individual trends for each selected element, which is the opposite of the desired outcome.

D. An elements filter restricts which breakdown elements are available for selection in the widget, but it does not combine the trends of the selected elements.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Configure a time series widget," section on "Display settings." The documentation states: "Show multiple elements as: Select whether to show a separate chart for each element or to aggregate the element values."

Formula indicators do not perform real-time calculations when a widget is viewed. Instead, their scores are calculated during a scheduled data collection job. The formula uses the already collected and stored scores of other indicators as input. The resulting score for the formula indicator is then pre-calculated and stored in the Performance Analytics scores tables, ensuring fast retrieval and display on dashboards.

A. Real-time calculation on-demand would be highly inefficient for trend analysis and would negatively impact performance.

B. The data is not temporary; formula indicator scores are stored permanently in the scores tables just like other indicator scores.

D. While calculation is often daily, it is determined by the job schedule and is not inherently restricted to a daily frequency.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a formula indicator". The documentation states, "The scores for a formula indicator are not collected from your instance data but are calculated from other indicators' scores... Scores for formula indicators are generated during data collection."

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics (PA) Advanced courseware, Module: "Advanced Indicators". This module explains that formula indicators are processed by collection jobs and their scores are stored in the pascores tables for historical analysis.

Indicators that measure the current state based on a relative time, such as 'Summed age of open problems,' cannot be collected accurately for past dates. A historical data collection job runs on the current date but collects data for a previous date. The age calculation uses the current date ('now') in its formula. Therefore, when the job runs, it will incorrectly calculate the age of a problem as of today, not as of the historical date being collected. This results in inaccurate historical scores.

A. 'Number of new requests' is based on the 'Created' date, which is a fixed timestamp and can be collected accurately for any past date.

B. 'Number of incidents resolved in time' is based on the 'Resolved' date, a fixed timestamp that allows for accurate historical collection.

D. This is based on the 'Updated' date. A historical job can accurately query for records not updated within 90 days relative to the collection date.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Historical data collection." Performance Analytics and Reporting. The documentation warns, "Do not run historical collection on indicators that are based on relative dates, such as Age or 'Updated more than 30 days ago'."

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics (PA) Advanced Courseware, Module: "Data Quality and Historical Collection," Section: "Limitations of Historical Collection." This section explicitly uses "Age of Open Incidents" as a primary example of an indicator unsuitable for historical collection.

An Index Indicator is a weighted average of several contributing indicators, designed to measure an overall process health. The score is calculated as a percentage. The ideal state or goal for this composite score is 100%. Therefore, the target for the index indicator, as well as its contributing indicators, should be set to 100. The desired direction of performance is to increase this score over time, so the direction must be set to Maximize. This configuration ensures that analytics and visualizations correctly represent improvement as the score approaches 100.

A. 0% and Maximize: A target of 0% is incorrect; the goal is to achieve a perfect score of 100%, not zero.

B. 100% and Minimize: The direction should be Maximize, as a higher index score indicates better performance. Minimize would be incorrect.

C. 0% and Minimize: Both the target and the direction are incorrect for a standard index indicator configuration.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create an index indicator". In the procedure section, step 11 states: "For the index indicator and for each of the contributing indicators, set Direction to Maximize. Set a target with the value 100."

The Target record form includes a 'Review date' field. This field is specifically designed to schedule a future date for the evaluation of the target's performance and progress. While the 'End date' marks the conclusion of the target period, the 'Review date' serves as a formal reminder or trigger for a performance assessment, making it the recommended evaluation date.

A. Improvement Date: This is not a standard field on the Target form in Performance Analytics.

B. Baseline Date: This date is the starting point from which improvement is measured, not the date for evaluation.

C. End Date: This is the date the target becomes inactive, but evaluation may be scheduled before or after this date.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Create a target," Target form fields table. The documentation explicitly defines the 'Review date' field as the "Date on which you want to review the target."

A breakdown source defines the complete set of unique, selectable elements for a breakdown. It queries a specified table (the 'Facts table') and applies conditions to generate a distinct list of records. For example, a breakdown source for 'Assignment Group' would be a list of all unique assignment group records. These unique records become the 'breakdown elements' used to filter and classify indicator data.

A. It defines a default elements filter: While it uses a filter, its primary purpose is to generate the definitive list of unique elements, not just a default filter.

B. It specifies which indicators are available to a breakdown: This is incorrect; breakdowns are mapped to indicators, not the other way around via the source.

D. It specifies the options available for non-categorical data: Breakdown sources are primarily used for categorical data (e.g., groups, priorities, states), not continuous or non-categorical data.

- ServiceNow Product Documentation, "Breakdown sources." The documentation states, "A breakdown source is a set of records from a ServiceNow table... Each record from the breakdown source becomes a breakdown element."

- ServiceNow Performance Analytics (PA) Fundamentals courseware, Module: "Breakdowns," Topic: "Breakdown Sources."