ServiceNow CIS-PA - Certified Implementation Specialist - Platform Analytics

Historic Data Collection is designed to accurately reconstructpast indicator scoresbased on historical records. Indicators that rely oncalculated age values, such assummed age of open problems, cannot be accurately reconstructed because age is atime-relative valuethat depends on the exact moment of calculation.

Count-based indicators (options A, B, and D) can be recalculated historically by evaluating record states at specific points in time. However, summing age values requires knowing the precise age of each record at each historical interval, which is not reliably reproducible. ServiceNow documentation explicitly warns against using historic data collection forage-based and duration-sum indicators, making option C the correct exclusion.

Fiscal Calendarsallow Platform Analytics to aggregate and visualize indicator data usingfiscal periodssuch as fiscal years, quarters, and accounting periods. This is essential for organizations that do not follow standard calendar years for reporting and performance measurement.

Gregorian calendars use standard date boundaries, while Business Calendars define working and non-working time for duration calculations. Timecard calendars are unrelated to analytics aggregation. ServiceNow documentation clearly states that fiscal period-based analysis is enabled through Fiscal Calendars, making optionBthe correct answer.

During a Daily Data Collection job, Platform Analytics executesone database query per Indicator Source, not per indicator. Multiple indicators can reference the same indicator source, allowing the platform toreuse the result setand calculate multiple scores from a single query.

This design is a key performance optimization in Platform Analytics. Executing queries per indicator would significantly increase database load, especially in large implementations. ServiceNow documentation explicitly states that indicator sources are the unit of data retrieval during collection, making option B the correct and documented answer.

ABreakdown Sourcedefines how data isclassified into distinct breakdown elementsfor analysis. It identifies the table and field (or script) used to generate the unique values—such as categories, priorities, assignment groups, or buckets—that segment indicator scores.

Default element filters are configured on the Breakdown, not the Breakdown Source. Indicators are linked to Breakdowns through Breakdown Mappings, not selected at the source level. While bucket-based sources support non-categorical data, their core purpose remains identifying unique breakdown elements. ServiceNow documentation emphasizes that the Breakdown Source is responsible for definingwhere breakdown values come from and how they are identified, making option C the correct answer.

Indicator Sources in Platform Analytics supportStandard calendarsandCustom calendarsto control how data collection aligns with business time definitions. TheStandard Calendaruses regular system time, whileCustom Calendarsallow organizations to define business-specific working days, holidays, and schedules.

Fiscal calendars are used for financial reporting but are not supported directly by Indicator Sources. Resource and Docket calendars are unrelated to analytics collection. ServiceNow documentation explicitly states that Indicator Sources rely on standard or custom calendars for accurate time-based aggregation, making optionsB and Ethe correct answers.

InPerformance Analytics Formula Indicators, indicator references must followstrict syntax rules:

Indicator names must be enclosed insingle square brackets:[Indicator name]

Mathematical operators must be valid

Parentheses must be properly paired

Curly braces { } and double square brackets [[ ]] arenot validfor indicator references

Let’s evaluate each option:

Option A – IncorrectUses indicator nameswithout square brackets, which is invalid syntax.

Option B – IncorrectUsescurly braces { }, which are not supported for indicator references, and also has ambiguous operator precedence.

Option C – CorrectUses propersingle square brackets, valid arithmetic operators, and correctly nested parentheses. This is a common and documented formula pattern for calculating percentage improvement against a baseline.

Option D – CorrectUses valid square-bracket indicator references and proper arithmetic. Even though it is logically redundant, it issyntactically valid, which is what the question asks.

Option E – IncorrectUsesdouble square bracketsand mismatched braces { ), which is invalid syntax.

In a Performance AnalyticsJob Log, theInsertsvalue represents the number ofanalytics score records written to the databaseduring that job run. These inserts typically correspond to new indicator scores added to theIndicator Factstable.

This value does not represent business records such as incidents, nor does it indicate how many source records were evaluated. Records examined and calculations performed may be far greater than the number of inserts, as only final score results are stored. ServiceNow documentation confirms that Job Log insert counts reflectstored analytics results, making option B the correct interpretation.

In Platform Analytics, dashboards are shared through the dashboardShareaction. In theShare Dashboarddialog, theGrant access tofield explicitly allows you to enterone or more users, groups, or rolesto share the dashboard with. This sharing controls whether recipients canviewthe dashboard oreditit, depending on whether you add them as a viewer or editor. Sharing can also optionally allow recipients to manage (add/edit/remove) sharing permissions if that option is enabled. ServiceNow further notes that only certain privileged roles (such asadmin, dashboard_admin, pa_admin, or pa_power_user) can see roles in the sharing panel in some configurations, and sharing with roles may require read access to theRoles [sys_user_role]table. This means access can be granted at the individual level (user), team level (group), or permission level (role), making “user, group, or role” the correct and complete choice.