ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

Service Now Overview of Platform Architecture

 Provides an Application Platform as a Service (aPaas). Cloud-based computing model which
provides the infrastructure needed to develop, run, and manage applications
o Not limited to a specific department or function, but encompasses the entire enterprise
 Modern, easy to use, service management solution in the cloud
 Allows organization to:
o Automate manual, repeatable processes
o Standardize service delivery
o Focus on core business
Enterprise Cloud
 Configurable web-based user interface built on top of a flexible table schema
 Uses a single system of record and a common data model to consolidate your organization’s
business processes
o Another advantage is that can be leveraged to build custom applications
 Applications delivered on ServiceNow are divided into three workflows:
o IT, Employee, and Customer Workflows
 Platform architecture takes care of all your application infrastructure requirements, such as service
availability, backups, and security
 Architecture is: Multi-instance, secure, compliant, scalable, and non-stop cloud
o Instances are isolated from every other instance, but can still communicate with each other
 You should clone an instance stack:
o Before starting a formal testing cycle
o After a comprehensive or long deployment cycle
o After the completion of an application upgrade
 System Clone -> Clone Definition -> Exclude tables to find the list of tables NOT cloned on the target
system
Availability and Redundancy
 All ServiceNow global data centers are paired with another data center to provide redundancy with
failover support
 Near-perfect availability with redundancy (including device, power, and paths) across all network
and server architecture
 In the event of an operational fault, failure, outage or attack – customer traffic can be quickly
rerouted using Advanced High Availability (AHA) capability to ensure you maintain access to your
instances and data
o In less than 7 minutes without downtime
 HI Service Portal can be used to:
o Create & manage cases
o Manage and upgrade instances (also check real availability of any instance)
o Perform Account Management
 Access to the HI Service Portal is typically reserved to a few team members at each site.
Backup and Security
 ServiceNow provides four weekly full backups of your data with six days of differential backups
 Data is encrypted in transit with certifications for various protocols to attest to security, availability,
and privacy in the cloud
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Can integrate with SSO services that are compliant with SAML 2.0
o OpenID Connect – allow users to log in to ServiceNow using their social identity provider like
Google and Okta
 Role based access control can also be used to further secure applications and fields
Domain Separation
 Also known as multi-tenancy, allows you to separate data, processes, and administrative tasks on an
instance into logical groupings, called domains
 You can then control several aspects of this separation, including which users can see and access
data
 Global Domain - All users can see & manage records in the Global domain, if they have proper
permissions
o All users have access to Global domain
 Other Domains - Access to these records is limited to users who are assigned to that domain
Interfaces
 There are three ways to interact with the Now platform: Now Platform user interface, ServiceNow
Mobile apps, Service Portal
 Now Platform User Interface – primary way to interact with the applications and information in a
ServiceNow instance. Notable features include:
o Real-time form updates, user presence, enhanced activity streams, & application navigator
with tabs for favorites and history
 ServiceNow Mobile Apps – Service Now Agent, Now Mobile, and ServiceNow Onboarding
o ServiceNow Agent – targeted to the role of fulfiller. Supports the needs of those fulfilling
requests for products and services across the enterprise. Also referred as Mobile Agent
o Now Mobile – targeted to the needs of an employee. Includes functionality such as
reporting broken items and finding available conference rooms
o ServiceNow Onboarding – targeted to the employee new hire. It helps facilitate tasks
performed prior to the start of employment. Also referred as Mobile Onboarding
 Reasons to use Mobile apps – push notifications, global search, & ability to submit/view/update
requests, issues, and tasks
 Service Portal – user-friendly self-service experience by providing access to specific features, using
widgets.
 Service Portal homepage – https://<instancename>.service-now.com/sp
o <instancename> is the name of the specific ServiceNow instance that you’re connecting to
 Users are able to:
o Search for articles, catalog items, records
o Build & Submit an order request
o Browse corporate news feed, and much more
 6 common types of Interfaces: Homepages, Lists, Forms, Dashboards, Maps, Timelines
 Zing is the text indexing search engine that performs all text searches in ServiceNow
 You can limit ServiceNow access by IP ranges
Role-based access
 User – individual that has been granted access to your ServiceNow instance. Can be assigned to
multiple groups and roles
o VIP field – will turn user’s name in called field RED & have a “VIP” decoration next to it
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Platform name for user table – sys_user *Exam

 Group – set of users who share a common purpose and perform similar tasks/need access to similar
information. Can be assigned to multiple roles
o Record in the sys_user_group table *Exam
o Following group types are available in Base system: itil, survey, catalog
o Users in groups can be assigned permissions to:
 Approve, change, or resolve incidents and requests, Provide a reference for alerts &
notifications, Receive email notifications
 Role – collection of permissions in the Now Platform. These permissions define which application a
user or group will or will not be able to access along with which actions the user will be able to on
records within the applications
o A role can contain other roles and if a user/group is assigned to a role which contains
another role, they will be granted permission to the other role
o Record in the [sys_user_role] table *Exam
 5 Provided roles by ServiceNow: System Admin, Specialized Admin, Approver, Requester, Fulfiller
o Fulfiller with permissions can create additional ad-hoc tasks for a requested item
 Base system roles – Roles such as:
o System Administrator (admin) – Provides almost all roles and access to all Now Platform
features, functions, and data (with some exceptions such as HR and Security Operations
constraint). Grant this privilege carefully – users holding the admin role can create and
modify users’ roles, as well as impersonate other users
o Specialized Administrator (e.g catalog_admin) – Provides users with specialized admin roles
to manage specific functions/applications, such as knowledge base, HR, reports, and web
services
o Approvers (approve_user) – Allows users to view or modify approval records directed to
them
o ITIL (itil) – Can perform standard actions for an ITIL helpdesk technician. Can open, update,
and close incidents, problems, changes, configuration management items. By default, only
users with the itil role can have tasks assigned to them
 Itil_admin – users who supervise a group of helpdesk technicians, providing them
with access to DELETE incidents, problem changes, and other related records
 Best practice - Create Users and then add users to group. Assign role to the group
 Users without any assigned role permissions can still log in to ServiceNow and access common
actions. These are referred to as self-service users
 When roles are assigned that change a user's access permissions for the current session, the user
would need to log out and log back in before the new permissions take effect
 Per ITIL framework - Incident Priority is calculated on the basis of Impact & Urgency
User Authentication
 After logging into ServiceNow with User Name and Password, user authentication is performed first.
It validates the identity of the user accessing the instance and then it authorizes the user to access
features that match the user’s role(s) or job function.
 There are various user authentication methods:
o Local database, LDAP, External SSO (SAML 2.0), OAuth 2.0, Digest Token, Multi-factor *Exam
 LDAP – Data Population + Authentication
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 LDAP records can NOT be updated by ServiceNow

 Certificate based authentication – enables end users to use PIV (Personal Identification Verification)
or CAC (Common Access Card) cards to log in to Now Platform as a fulfiller or Service Portal as a
Requestor
Now Platform User Interface
 Three main screen elements of the Now Platform User Interface: Banner Frame, Content Frame, &
Application Navigator *Exam
 Banner Frame – includes Logo, user menu, system settings, tools, help icon, connect chat icon,
global search, logout
 Content Frame – includes list and form view, homepages and dashboards
 Elevate Roles – Can be granted to any role to require users to manually elevate in order to receive
privileges of that role
o By default, Elevate Roles is available only to the System Administrator user defined in the
base system
 Provides an extra layer of precaution for powerful roles. Admins use it when modifying high security
settings
o Prevents accidents caused by forgetting the power of owning an important role, such as
security_admin. You must MANUALLY ACCEPT the responsibility before using it.
 Open lock icon – indicates that an elevated role is in effect for the current session. Current session
last until session timeout/logout, or until the role is cancelled, by assigning that role
 Impersonate User – Allows us to view the instance from another user’s perspective. Can
impersonate non-administrator users. Selected from User Menu *Exam
o Available to all users with the admin or impersonator’s role.
o Not visible in the mobile view of platform
o Users with impersonator role CANNOT impersonate admin users
 Global search allows us to enter keywords to search the whole instance for matching records *Exam
o When searching keywords, BOOLEAN operators MUST be in ALL CAPS
o Search results include only the search groups and tables that the logged-in user can access,
by role
 Theme settings are NOT the same as global user interface configurations, which affect all users
Application Navigator
 Main elements of Navigator section are: All applications tab (module and application menu), the
Favorites tab, the History tab, and the navigation filter
 Hierarchy is: Application -> Section -> Modules. Applications and Sections can be expanded and
collapsed
 When searching a word/phrase in Navigation Filter, any module containing that word/phrase will
return results *Exam
o For example, searching “Service” will return any module results with a name containing
“services” since service is in Services
o Also, all modules and sections within the Service Desk application will be returned
 Use the table name, not its label
 If we type a table name in the navigation filter with (.list) and press Enter, the list view of that table
is displayed in the content frame - Same will happen if with (.form), it’ll just show the form view
o Shortcuts will only work for tables and forms you have permission to access
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Favorites – Can make applications, modules, filtered lists, and individual records as favorites
o Drag individual record or breadcrumbs of a filtered list
o Select the star icon from corresponding APPLICATION or MODULE
 History – entries are created for many types of content, including lists, records and homepages
*Exam
o Entries are listed chronologically and divided into time periods
o A second line in the entry identifies history for a specific record
o Will not contain UI Pages *Exam
 By default, the application navigator shows the past thirty history entities
Branding Overview
 Branding your instance can create a shared identity, gain user trust, and accelerate adoption rates
 Guided setup wizard can be used to help set up instance the way you’d like it for your organization
o Found in Application Navigator search: Guided Setup -> ITSM Guided Setup
 When adding a new welcome message, make sure to deactivate the default welcome message
 All tasks in the category can be assigned to a single admin or they can be assigned individually.
o The list only displays users with the admin role
 You can also set your branding configurations using System Properties > Basic Configuration UI16
UI16 refers to the current user interface version for ServiceNow (User Interface 16)
 The following branding features can be configured:
o Banner image, text and colors / Browser tab title / System date & time formatting /
Navigator background and text colors
 Branding editor = applies color theme to portal and allows change previews as they are made
Lists & Filters
 Lists and Filters help manage the records in a ServiceNow table
 A list displays the records from a data table. They appear in the content frame
 List interface consists of a title bar, filters/breadcrumbs, column headings, column header search &
columns of data
o A column of data in a list represents a field in the ServiceNow instance but the list doesn’t
necessarily display all fields from the table *Exam
List Controls
 We access list controls via the list title menu icon (Hamburger), or by right clicking the title bar
 Creating a favorite will capture any filter conditions currently applied to the list, not just a
predefined filter
o Good idea to customize the title so you know what filters are applied
Personalize a List view
 View – version of a customized list or form which defines the layout order and what fields appears
o Individual users can personalize the list columns to display the fields they want (click on the
gear icon to show slushbucket) – Must have Personalize_list role *Exam
o Also called List Mechanic
 It’s best to NOT change the first column in a list
o That’s because lists are usually configured so that when a user clicks an item in the first
column, the system opens a record from that list
Sorting & Filtering lists
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 A filter is a set of conditions applied to a table to help you find and work with a subset of data in that
table - also referred to as breadcrumbs
 Quick way to filter something is to right click a record and select: Filter Out (Exclude) or Show
Matching (display matching records)
 Clicking a condition removes all conditions to its right
o To remove a condition from the middle of the filter without affecting those to its right, we
click the condition separator at the left of the condition we want to remove
o Clicking the rightmost item refreshes the list
 Each filter condition consists of a Field, Operator, and Value (in this order) *Exam
Searching lists
 If we don’t enter a wildcard along with the search term, the system automatically applies a default
wildcard = %
o Wildcard characters can be used to help narrow down search results in ServiceNow
o Can be used in reference fields
o * – search for values that contain a search term in the string (multiple character)
 Pl*d will return Planned and Placed
o % - used at the beginning or end of a search term (single character)
 Unable% means it STARTS with unable
o = - means to search for values that equal the search term
o ! – used in conjunction with another wildcard for searches that DO NOT match
 !* = do not contain / != do not equal
 Clicking the magnifying glass icon hides or displays the column search fields, which allow us to
search on multiple fields
 If the table was defined with a text index, we can run a keyword search across all its fields—even
those not visible in the list—by searching for text
o This text search supports Boolean operators, which must be entered in uppercase. You can
also search for exact phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks
Lists, column and field context menus
 Context menus provide three different levels of list control:
o List Title Menu – control menu (hamburger icon) or right click on title menu bar that allows
for Filters, Group By, Show options, Refresh List, and Create Favorite
o List Column Context Menu displays actions that involve creating quick reports, configuring
lists, and exporting data
o List Fields Context Menu – displays record menu of actions related to the values in a cell,
such as filtering options, assigning tags, etc (list fields context menu)
 Tags are used to locate, categorize, and flag records *Exam
 Show Visual Task Board allows you to create a new visual task board based on the list of records.
The visual task board is a collaboration tool with a special user interface for presenting the tasks in
the list.
o This option is only available on lists of task records, such as incident, problem, or My Work
 Configure – provides advanced list configuration options to set up a list display FOR ALL USERS -
Must be an ADMIN role
o For example, List Layout (Configure -> List Layout) is where we configure the default column
display for each View
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Individual users can still personalize the list columns to display the fields they want (click on the gear
icon) – Must have Personalize_list role
 Assign to me assigns a record—such as an incident, problem, or change—to the logged-in user
 The sys_id is useful to identify the record, for example, to make certain REST API calls to the
instance
Other ways to act on list records
 If it’s enabled, the list editor allows us to edit field values in a list without opening a form, by
double-clicking beside the value to be changed
o Enabled by default for most tables. Can be configured by users with the admin role and it
supports editing multiple records at a time
o Select multiple values with SHIFT + DOWN/UP arrow or CONTROL (CTRL)
 Cannot update the following fields from List Editor: HTML, glide_time, Array Fields
 To help improve ServiceNow instance performance, system administrators can set the
glide.ui.per_page user interface system property to limit the paging control options available to
users.
o These options determine the number of list rows displayed per page
Forms
 A form displays information from one record in a data table
o Examples of forms: User, Incident, Change, and Knowledge forms
 A form usually displays only a subset of the fields of the underlying table
 Form Context Menu provides options related to viewing, configuring, creating favorites, and saving
form data
 You can load a form directly by searching on a record number in the Global Text Search or by clicking
on a list
Form Fields
 Forms contain fields to collect and display data
o Each field represents an individual item of data on one incident record
 Five Common field types: String, Choice, True/False, Date/Time, Reference
 You can enable/disable tabbed forms in system systems -> Forms
o Also applies to related lists
 Reference Lookup icon is a magnifying glass (example – to search users in Caller field)
o Form view is Sys_popup
 Notes tab in a record contains the Activity Stream for a task (also contains watch list, work notes,
and additional comments)
 Watch List allows you to enter users to get notified when the record is updated
 Additional comments and Work notes are both Journal fields, where we provide notes on a record,
viewable by different users (found in Notes Tab)
o Additional comments are viewable by everyone, including customers
o Work Notes are internal conversations with those resolving the task (only viewable by users
with the itil role)
Saving a Record
 Several ways to save a record:
o Clicking the form context menu
o Right-clicking the form header—allows you to save the record and keep it open
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Submit to Save and close – Same as Insert

 Copy Incident + Insert/Insert & Stay – Appears on the form context menu after a record is saved
Creating/Updating Records being open or closed
 Creates a new record and keeps the NEW form OPEN with any modified values – Insert & Stay
 Updates an existing record and keeps the form OPEN – Save (think Stay)
 Creates a new record and CLOSES the form – Insert, Submit
 Updates an existing record and CLOSES the form - Update
Form Views
 Users with the personalize role can create views to specify which fields on the form are visible to
which users
 Currently displayed view (if not the default view) is reflected at the top of the form in brackets
Personalizing Forms (Slider bar icon)
 When the form personalization feature is activated, users with the itil or personalize_form role can
personalize which fields appear on a specific form view according to their individual preferences.
o These changes don’t affect other users
 Check boxes that are shaded and selected indicates those fields cannot be hidden because they’re
required or are already hidden by UI policies or client scripts
Activity Stream (Pulse looking icon)
 Clicking the Show Activity Stream icon scrolls the page to the beginning of the stream. A count of
activities is displayed here & each activity is stamped with the activity type, date, and time
Attachments
 You can add an attachment with the attachment button, or you can drag a file into the form header
 Can rename and delete attachments by clicking on the attachment button icon
Formatters
 A formatter is a form element used to display information that is not a field in the record
o For example, activity stream and related search results are formatters
 Related Search articles can be searched, previewed, and added to the incident in Additional
comments
 The activity formatter provides an easy way to track items not saved with a field in the record, for
example, journal fields like additional comments, or attachments
Following a Record
 Following a record adds the logged-in user to the activity stream conversation in Connect and sends
notification of any new comments or work notes
Form Templates
 Form templates simplify the process of submitting new records by populating some form fields
automatically *Exam
o Accessed through the More Options icon on the form header
 No special role required and when toggled, it appears at the bottom of the form and stays there
until toggled off – provides shortcuts to apply, edit, and create templates
o The ability to configure or apply templates created by others depends on user access
controls within the template
Applying Form Templates
 Form templates only set values for specific fields on the record. They don’t change the configuration
of form fields defined on the table or displayed through personalization
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Also, it set values of fields on the underlying table, even if those fields aren’t displayed on
the form
 On the template bar, we can access all templates that we have permission to apply to a form
o Can apply one to the current record, view them, or edit them
Creating Form Templates
 Several ways to create form templates:
o Template form (requires admin role)
o Create a new template on the form (+) icon in template bar – available to all users who have
permission to view the form
 Create the template as you would like it to be
 Click the (+) icon to create a template, rename it and make any other changes
 You can make a template that automatically applies to new, user-created records on a specific table
by setting the template name to match the name of the table the template applies to
 If a user of group is defined in the template settings – no other users or groups, respectively, can see
the template unless the Global button is selected
 If Global is selected – any users who can access the templates can view and apply the template
Form Layout & Design
 Form Designer – allows you to add form views & add/remove form fields more visually
o Found in Form Context Menu (Hamburger) -> Configure -> Form Designer
o Admin or personalize_form role is required
o Handle, Remove, and Edit icons are presented on each field
o Users can add a new field to a table and form by accessing the field navigator
 From the Field Types Tab, drag a field type onto the form and configure the field
to create a brand-new field
 Form Layout - provides a list collector interface for configuring forms
o Found in Form Context Menu (Hamburger) -> Configure -> Form Layout
o Incident form must already be open to edit this way
Designing Forms
 Clicking the plus icon at the top right of a section adds a new section below it
 You can add annotations to a form to provide additional information or instructions to users, or to
create a section separator
 You can also add a formatter, which is a complex form element that can display items related to the
current record
 To test changes: save and reload the form & then select the view that was modified
 Sections without labels are incorporated into the previous section
o Sections can be moved around just like fields can be moved
Configuring Form layout
 Slushbucket view just like List Layout
 Choose the View Name of the view you’re working on & then the section that you’re modifying
 A reference is the field type that displays records from another table
 Fields in the Available list that appear in green, followed by a plus sign, represent related tables
o When selecting an item, the Expand selected reference field icon may appear
o Clicking it refreshes the list to display available fields in the referenced table
Configuring related lists in forms *Exam
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Found in the form context menu (Hamburger) -> Configure -> Related Lists
o You can configure related lists from a new record as well
 Note that related lists do not appear in a new record until the record is saved
Task Management Overview
 A task is any record that can be assigned or completed by a user in ServiceNow
 Tasks are repeatable processes that minimize the possibility of human error and lead to quicker
resolution times
 Users create tasks and are notified as the tasks moved along a workflow. Tasks can be assigned to
specific users or user groups
 Task table – provides a series of standard fields available to other tables that define specific types of
tasks (incident, problem, change, request, etc) – essentially, they extend the task table
o Approvals – can be generated to a list of approvers, either manually or automatically
o Assignments rules – can automatically assign tasks to users or groups
o Service Levels Agreements – track the amount of time that a task has been open, to ensure
tasks are completed within an allotted time
o Inactivity Monitors – ensure that tasks do not fall by the wayside by notifying users when
tasks have been untouched for a predefined period of time
o Workflow processes are specified by admins and apply to tasks that meet certain conditions.
After a task is created that meets the conditions, the workflow applies an automated
process to this task
Task Assignment
 Four Steps to assign tasks:
o Add Users to Groups -> Apply Roles to Groups -> Assign Tasks to Groups and/or Assign Tasks
to Users
o Group names must be unique in ServiceNow
 The following can be used to auto assign new incidents to a group:
o Business Rules, Assignment Rules, Data Lookup Rules, & Predictive Intelligence
o Data Lookup rules take precedence over Assignment Rules because they after
 Assignment Rules – used to automatically set a value in the Assigned to and/or Assignment Group
fields of a task record
o View rules by navigating to System Policy -> Rules -> Assignment module
o Enter Name, Conditions, and User/Group in Assign To tab -> then Submit
o Create an incident to test your rule
 Can NOT overwrite existing assignments (Assign_to or assign_group). Including assignments set by a
default value or a previously run assignment rule
 Assignment Rule Criteria:
o Task record has been created, or modified, and saved to a form
o Task record must be unassigned
o Assignment rule is the first rule that matches the specified table and conditions
 If more than one assignment rule matches the conditions, only the rule with the
lowest ORDER value runs
 Assignment Lookup rules only apply to incident records. They have fewer options than other
assignment rules that can be applied to any task
o View Lookup rules by navigating to System Policy -> Rules -> Assignment Lookup Rules
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Predictive Intelligence – uses machine-learning algorithms to determine field values during record
creation. Existing data records are required to “train” machine-learning to make effective decisions
o This results in improved efficiency and quality and reduces cost by:
 Reducing the amount of time spent resolving tasks
 Reducing the number of interactions required to resolve tasks
 Reducing the number of potential human errors that could occur while categorizing
and assigning work
o Could auto-populate fields such as: Category, Priority, Assignment Group, & Assigned To
 Short description Incident field is needed to predict the CI & Service Field’s value via Predictive
Intelligence solution definitions
 When configuring Assignment Rules or Predictive Intelligence, it’s best practice to:
o Set an Assignment group AND/OR User based on Category and Subcategory OR Short
Description
o Never set an Assignment group based solely on Subcategory (Category = none). Customer
will not see the Subcategory with a Category set to None
Access Assigned Tasks
 Accessed using Service Desk -> My Work or Service Desk -> My Groups Work modules
 Includes: Change Requests, Group Approvals, Incidents, Knowledge Base Submissions, Requests,
Security Cases, Visual Task Board Tasks
Task Collaboration
 User presence features facilitates synchronous collaboration within one record. Allows you to see
who is online, their current status, and what they are viewing or editing, all in real-time
o Available Markers are: Active Viewers, Show Activity Stream, & Follow
 User Presence, Activity Stream, Connect Chat, and Comments/Work notes allow team members to
collaborate on Tasks
 Real-time editing allows you to edit records in real-time as well as see edits (indicated by a pulse
icon) saved by other users using interfaces or devices
 Notes tab in a record contains the Activity Stream for a task (also contains watch list, work notes,
and additional comments)
 Activity stream inline editor enables users to contribute to actual work within a record without
opening a form interface
 Open Connect – customize notifications when following a record or engage in real-time with record
viewers/stakeholders
Visual Task Boards *Exam
 Visual Tasks Boards allow you to:
o Manage your tasks through a visual, drag-and-drop interface
o Identify process bottlenecks at a glance
o Track Activity to view updates all in one place
 Filter to show the records you want to work with and then right click on the column context menu
for the field you want to use as the basis of your Taskboard
 Guided – Can be created from a list and use the values of a specific field as lanes. Tasks in the list are
updated when cards are edited or change lanes on the task board
 Flexible – Also created from a list, but lane changes do not update underlying task board
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Good for fields that are not reference or choice fields with predefined values like Numbers
or Descriptions
 Freeform – acts as your personal organizer to manage individual tasks of any kind. Lane changes do
not update underlying task data
o Navigate to Self Service -> Visual Task Boards -> Create
o Must submit incident, assign to yourself, choose “Add to Visual Task Board” from Form
Context Menu
Taskboard Interface
 Taskboard Tools – top menu items that allow you to:
o Filter Tasks, connect with board members, edit board info, add users, modify labels, view
activity stream, edit board configuration
 Quick Panel – allows you to filter cards by user or label
 Cards – records that can be dragged between lanes.
o Depending on the board, changes to card may update the records
o Compact cards allow you to see more information in the same screen real estate
 Lanes – Allow you to sort records by field values, such as States, or other user-defined criteria
Notifications Overview
Inbound Email Notifications from users
 Inbound email actions – actions the system takes in response to the content of the messages from
users
 System can take two actions:
o Record Action – setting a value for a field in the target table
o Email Reply – sending an email back to the source that triggered the action
o Predefined actions come with the base system – you can modify these or create new ones
o Parse emails, Create/Modify records
Notifications
 Notifications – Email, SMS, and meeting invitations the system sends to inform them of system
events *Exam
o Notification emails include the Title of knowledge article in addition to Article ID so you can
more easily decide whether the knowledge article is relevant
 Notifications are triggered by system events, such as changes to tables
 System Notifications -> Email ->Notifications to see notifications that are currently defined in the
NOW Platform
 When to send tab shows the conditions that trigger the notification
o Notifications can be sent when a record is Inserted or Updated in a specific table if the
specified conditions are met
 Who will receive tab shows who will get the notification?
o You can send to users and to groups
o The Users/Groups in fields option lets you send notifications to users or groups referenced
in the record that triggers the notification
o You can also make it subscribable – subscriptions allow users to manage which notifications
they receive about various activities occurring in the platform
 What it will contain tab shows the content of the notification
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o You can specify an email template to use a predefined message… or you can type a subject
line and message of your own
o Choose “Select variables” to choose field values from the record to include in Subject or
Message, override the message HTML
o Show Notification scripts show the available scripts available for customizing the content of
the message
 Subject section filled out in Notification will overrule a template when email is sent out
 Email Digest – single email that summarizes the activity for a selected notification and its target
record during a specified time interval
 If the individual performing the action that generated the notification is included in its recipients,
you can control if they receive the notification, or not
o Refer to “Send to event creator” in the “Create an email notification” product
 When we gather info from a series of tables by expanding the referenced fields, this is called Dot-
walking
 Users can set their notification subscription preferences in System Settings
o Apply a schedule to notification
o Enable/Disable notifications & Disable receipt of notifications
o Different channels, such as email, Push notifications, SMS, & voice can be created for
receiving notifications
o They are organized by category
 Preview notification allows you to see how the notification will appear – you can see the subject and
body field values substituted based on the preview record selected
Reporting
 Types of data visualization strategies: Reports, Dashboards, Charts, OnDemand Charts, & Percent
Complete
Dashboards
 Responsive Dashboards in the content frame let users share widgets like “Reports and Performance
Analytics” visualizations
 The dashboard is shared among users with the “itil” role. Access to Dashboards restricted by role
 In order to add/remove widgets in a dashboard you must be:
o User with edit access to dashboard, dashboard owner, or user with dashboard_admin role
 Can have as many widgets as needed
Generating Reports from Lists
 You can create reports right from a list. Right click on a column label to generate bar/pie charts
 Report data is grouped by the column you click. If the list was filtered, report only includes filtered
data
Creating Reports from Report Designer
 Can create a report from List Column Heading or View/Run Module *Exam
 To view reports, go to the Reports application and click View/Run
 You can see the following reports:
o My Reports, Group (shared by specified group/users), Global, and All
 Reports are automatically marked as favorites when you open it
 To create a new report, click the Create New module or click “Create a report”
o Role required: report_user or itil
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o You can also create a report from a widget in a dashboard

 You can create a report from a data source or table
o When using a table – you need to provide all the conditions to select report data from the
table, even if many of the conditions are the same from one report to another
o When using a data source – A report source defines a standard set of conditions for
querying a particular table which can be reused in other reports.
 Useful for using an existing set of conditions
 In Report Designer, the report sources are called Data Sources
Report Designer
 Four tabs are: Data, Type, Configure, and Style
o Data – Enter a report name, source type, and Table or Data source
o Type – Select the report visualization format
o Configure – Define the Group By attribute
o Style – Choose colors, title, and chart properties
 You can use Analytics Q&A to generate a report by entering a query instead of going through the
full Report Designer process
o Found on Data tab
 You can refresh report by clicking: Next, Run, or Refresh icon
 When sharing a report, options are: Share, Schedule, Add to Dashboard, Export to PDF, Publish
 Role required: report_admin, report_global, or report_group (Share, Schedule, Publish)
o Share – Recommended way to share a report. Ensures the report data is always up to date
when the report is run
 Reports need to be explicitly shared with Everyone or specific Groups/Users so they
can be viewed either in Reports application or on a dashboard
o Schedule requires report_scheduler – schedule the report to be run and shared with users
and groups by email
o Export to PDF – lose the benefit of sharing real-time information
o Publish requires report_publisher – Creates a URL for others to access the report including
people who are not ServiceNow users.
 Only share published reports with people who should have access to data
 You can unpublish the report at any time after publishing
 By default, a report is shared with the report creator only
 Pareto, Line, Donut, List, Pie, Bar are available as reports in ServiceNow
o List report requires access to the data to view it
o Reports that present aggregate data such as pie, donut, or bar charts do not require access
to underlying data
o Pie and Bar charts can also be created from a list
 A metric is used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of IT service management processes
*Exam
o Gather data as its updated
o Measure’s data over time to show past history
o Provides a declarative way of defining metrics
Knowledge Management
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Knowledge Management provides a centralized location for the creation, categorization, viewing,
and governance of information related to the flow of work through ServiceNow
o Information is stored in Knowledge Bases, or KBs – allowing users to explore, collaborate,
and share an open dialogue
 Can access Knowledge through Knowledge module or Knowledge Management Service Portal
homepage, sometimes called the knowledge portal.
o Type in Service Portal to navigate here
o “News” on homepage has access to Knowledge Base
 Knowledge Portal shows how many KB, articles, and Q&A the logged in user has access to
 We can sort KB search results by: Most Recent Update, Relevancy, & Number of Views *Exam
 When opening a Knowledge Base, DEFAULT sorting options available for knowledge articles are:
Views, Alphabetical, Newest
 Can also create article, if you have the required contribution permissions
 Featured articles are selected by the system admin or KB manager for special attention
 Most Useful item in the Knowledge Management Service Portal displays articles that have the
highest percentage of users marking them helpful
 Most Viewed shows the latest viewing trends
 Four workflows for available for ServiceNow base instance: Approval publish, Instant Publish, Retire
Knowledge, Instant Retire
Browsing and searching for articles
 We can filter by Knowledge Bases, Category, Author, Rating, Last Modified, and View Count
o Each KB has its own categories and categories can have subcategories
 Listed articles include:
o Title, KB and category, a short preview of the article, the author’s name, number of views,
last update, and rating
 Using a permalink is the best way to share a knowledge article with another user
 KB articles are referred in “News” module
Viewing articles and providing feedback
 Can mark the review as helpful, leave a rating, add comments
 Flagging an article is a good to suggest revisions to the knowledge manager.
o These suggestions aren’t displayed to other users, like comments are
o View feedback on a published article: Knowledge -> Articles -> My Feedback or Knowledge -
> Articles -> published
 A record is added to the Knowledge Use [kb_use] table each time a knowledge article is viewed
Posting questions
 Click “Ask a question” – these are posted in the Social Q&A KB – allows end users to post questions
and answer other users’ questions
 Tags, separated by commas, can be included as well
 When clicking into the Social Q&A KB, an orange thought bubble icon with a question mark means
the question has NOT received an answer
o An orange thought bubble with three lines means it has received an answer(s)
o A green thought bubble with a checkmark means the question has an accepted answer
 You can vote up questions that you want users to answer and answers you think are helpful
 You can vote down questions that you don’t find useful or answers you think are incorrect
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o You can vote for each question or answer only ONCE, but you can change your vote
o You can’t vote on your own question/answer
 Only the question owner or knowledge manager can accept an answer as correct.
Knowledge Article
 Knowledge Article is a record in a knowledge base that provides information to knowledge
consumers
o Examples are: Policies, self-help tips, troubleshooting, and resolution steps
o Article contains known errors, user solutions, troubleshooting tips
 Create Article – create articles using templates and/or Knowledge Blocks directly in ServiceNow
 Create Articles from cases or incidents – Allow agents & resolvers to quickly create and save
knowledge to share with other users from cases in Customer Service Management applications or
incidents in IT Service Management applications
o Centered around Knowledge-Centered Services (KCS)
 Import articles – import Microsoft Word files into a KB
o To trigger the publish workflow, click the “Publish” checkbox before importing
o Mandatory to select Knowledge Base when importing Word docs as knowledge articles
 Integrate – integrate to an existing, WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) compliant
knowledge source outside of ServiceNow, such as SharePoint docs to appear in search results
 Valid To section – after this date, the knowledge article will no longer appear in knowledge searches
or in the published KB
 Article type – currently the options are HTML or Wiki. This field is only available in the standard
template or view
 Source Task – the task this Knowledge article was created in response to. Field is set automatically
when you create the knowledge article from a task record
 Attachment Link – checkbox for downloading an attached file automatically when a user accesses
the article instead of opening the article view. 1 or more attaches must be added to use this option
 Add Blocks - Populates the content of the knowledge article into the Article body field.
o Only the knowledge blocks that were created for this specific knowledge base will appear
here
 When pasting directly into the article body, best practice to Remove Formatting
 User Criteria defines conditions that are evaluated against users to determine which users can
create, read, write, and retire knowledge articles, bases, and blocks
o canRead, cantRead, canContribute, cantContribute
 If no User Criteria is specified for “canContribute”, only the Knowledge Base Owner & Knowledge
Base Managers are able to contribute
 When submitting, the article is saved as draft and will move along the Workflow process
o Expand the workflow column icon for details on its current state.
o Process is: Draft -> Review -> Published -> Pending Retirement -> Retired
 By default, all Knowledge Base articles must go through a Review Process before they appear to
users.
 When creating articles manually or importing, selecting “Publish” will trigger the publish workflow
assigned to the KB. *Exam
o This may mean the article is automatically moved to a Published state, or it may first require
approval(s)
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Articles that populate a KB via Integrate do NOT follow the publish workflow assigned to the KB

Service Catalog Administration Overview

 Service Catalog application, you can create one or multiple catalogs of products and shared services
that your organization offers to its employees, customers, suppliers, and others *Exam
 Robust ordering system for users to request services/products offered by various departments
o One Stop shopping offered to users, Access to Service Desk, Help & Training Portal
 Order, Submit, & Request are the three different request methods in Service Catalog
 Service Catalog can contain almost anything:
o Products (equipment, software, furniture/office supplies) – “Order an Item”
o Services (Work Requests, Password Reset, new electrical drop, support to resolve issues
across different departments in the organization)
o Major components: Items, Record Producers, Variables, Variable Sets, Workflows
 From end user’s perspective, the products and services in the Service Catalog are organized by
Categories & subcategories
o End Users typically access the Service Catalog under “Request Something”
o Each Catalog Item, Order Guide, Record Producer, Content Item, and subcategory appears
as a single item within the category
 Items – Building blocks to the Service Catalog
 Order Guide – multiple related request items grouped together as one request *Exam
o Once you have a complete item with variables and a delivery workflow, you can offer it as
an individual item or add it to an order guide
 Views – can be defined for groups that use a Catalog, and Catalog items can be shared by multiple
catalogs. This results in the ability to dynamically control the ordering options from user to user
 Catalog page in Service Portal has the following:
o Picture of item, description, options/accessories, field for ordering
 For System Administrators, to see our list of catalog items, we navigate to Service Catalog > Catalog
Definitions > Maintain Items *Exam
 User Criteria defines conditions that are evaluated against users to determine which users can
access catalog items
Workflows
 You can also define a fulfillment process, or how the item is processed, via a flow or workflow
 Workflow – run behind scenes and communicate the stages of the approval process to the
requestor, as well as drive the request fulfillment
o Multiple versions of a workflow can exist at the same time
o Only one published version of a workflow exists in runtime for new contexts
o When a workflow is invoked, the current workflow definition is loaded into context
 Workflow models – represent the entire structure of the Workflow and definition of the processing
a workflow can accomplish
o Workflows DO NOT have connectors
 3 basic elements of a workflow: Approval, Notification, & Task
 To define a workflow: Define Workflow properties, activities, & then check it out (publish)
 Fulfillment process – defines what happens when someone orders an item or requests a service
from a catalog – Flow and Workflow are the two options for a Service Catalog item
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o (Waiting for approval, fulfillment, awaiting delivery, configuration, delivery, completed)

o When all catalog tasks are closed, the Parent requested item is set to Closed Complete
 Activities – Workflow block that organizes the individual actions the workflow performs as it runs
o Approval/Rollback – generate and manage approvals
o Conditions – Used to transition – to move from activity to activity
o Notifications – send emails or SMS messages to users/groups
 Notify manages calls and SMS messages in Notify
o Task – Create and modify workflow tasks
o Stages – Provides a summary of workflow progress
o Timers – Pause the workflow for a set period of time
o Utilities – Provide useful controls over the path of the workflow
 Variable_pool can be used in Workflow Activities
 Workflow Editor – Title bar, Canvas, Canvas tabs, Palette Tabs
 Workflow VERSION is the currently published MODEL that is available to the instance
o Version – Table association, conditions/permissions, workflow model
o Workflow versions captured in wf_workflow_vesion
 Workflow CONTEXT is the instantiation of the version that is executing for a given record, showing
the processing path executed
 States of workflow: Published, Unpublished, Checked-out
Service Requests
 Service Requests – Allows users to request services. Simplified versions of full request forms
o “Can We Help You” is where end users would create an incident form or HR case in Service
Portal *Exam
 These forms are caked record producers because they add a record to a system table, like the
Incident table, in turn producing a task record *Exam
o Service Catalog -> Catalog Definitions -> Record Producers is how you access this from
admin page
o Records are produced and stored on tables OUTSIDE of the Service Catalog space
 On the Generated Record Data tab, you can define a template to assign one or more static field
values for all records created by the record producer
 To approve a catalog request – right click request record in request list and click approve
Service Catalog management roles
 Admin – can manage all aspects of the Service Catalog applications (including Catalogs, categories,
catalog items, and scripting functions)
o Catalog Admins – can manage Catalog, Catalog Items, and Categories
 Catalog managers – assigned to a service catalog can edit and update it, including its categories and
catalog items. They can also assign catalog editors and assign the catalog to a different manager
o Catalog editors – assigned to a service catalog can perform the same functions as catalog
manager, including assigning other editors to the catalog, but CAN NOT reassign the catalog
manager
Variables & Variable Sets
 Variable – Questions that help the requester specify item/service options
o Global by default, display in all the tasks of a Requested item, and provide options to tailor
a catalog item to the customer’s needs
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Common types: Multiple choice/lookup choice list, select box, single line/multi line text,
reference, checkbox
 Variable Set – Collection of Variables that can be reused across multiple Catalog Items and Order
Guides
o Container, so it only has two fields: Name and Description
o Navigate to Service Catalog -> Catalog Variables -> Variable Sets and create a new set. After
it is saved, you will get a Related List at the bottom of the form where you can add as many
variables as you need
o Order field establishes the sequence for displaying info in ascending order (100 would be
first before 200) *Exam
Catalog Records
 For Catalog items, a request record, a request item record, and catalog tasks are all created when
an order is placed, each on a corresponding table: *Exam
 Request [sc_request] – Records on this table being with REQ and behave like containers (shopping
cart as it can contain one or MANY items or RITMs)
o Organize the order from the top level regardless of how many items are requested
 Requested Item [sc_req_item] – Records on this table begin with RITM and manage the delivery of
each individual item in the request
 Catalog Task [sc_task] – Records on this table begin with SCTASK and are the assigned tasks needed
to complete the delivery of each Request item from start to finish
o Important fields are: Assignment group, Due Date, Work start and Work End dates
 Users can track a request from Self Service -> My Requests
 To apply user criteria, open the respective catalog item/category record and navigate to Available
For or Not Available For Related List.
o These lists are not on the form by default, and must be added by configuring the form
o Not Available For settings will override the Available For settings
SLA
 SLA components: Definition, Task, Workflow, Automation, Condition & Script Include
o Definition – record which defines the conditions that trigger SLA
o Task – individual instances of the SLAs associated with particular tasks
o Workflow – workflow powers events/actions based on the definition
o Automation – Business rule and scheduled job that automates SLA
o Condition/Script Include – can be used to customize transitions between SLAs
 Table SLA stores each of the individual SLAs attached to particular tasks
 SLA – allows an IT service desk to track if their representatives are providing a specific level of
service & run reports on the success rates of the SLA actions
o Default SLA workflow is designed to be used with multiple SLAs of any types
 OLA defines how departments are working together
 UC – defines and monitors the guarantees established with an outside supplier, tool for supplier
management
 Conditions for SLA: Start, Pause, Stop, Cancel, Resume, Reset
o Start, Stop, Pause will trigger an SLA condition
 Retroactive Start – attaching SLA from a particular created date/time without attaching SLA on the
opened time. When activated, works with “Set Start To” field and calculates SLA Start time
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Evaluations:
o Attach – start condition matches & both stop and cancel don’t match
o Complete – stop condition matches
o Pause – pause condition matches (can be put on any desired field) [awaiting]
o Resume – pause condition does not match or resume condition matches
o Reattach – Reset and Start both match
o Cancel – Start condition doesn’t match or Cancel matches
Flow Designer
 Flow Designer is a non-technical interface for building and enabling process automation, known as
flows
 Flows automate business logic for a particular application or process such as: approvals, tasks,
notifications, and record operations – Saves time
 Launch Flow Designer by navigating to Process Automation -> Flow Designer
 Roles required: flow_designer, flow_operator, action_designer
 Tabs for Flow Designer: Flows, Subflows, Actions, Executions, Help & (+ New)
 You can find help for building flows and actions, using flow logic, & working with data directly in the
Flow Designer Help Panel
 When an incident is created with a Priority of 1-Critical, the flow creates a new freeform Visual Task
Board and adds the incident as a card within the To-Do lane
 Integrations – expand the Flow Designer solution to integrate with external instances and 3 rd party
apps with a separate subscription to IntegrationHub. Available integrations are Spokes *Exam
o They add a powerful new set of actions to Flow Designer without the need to write a script
Benefits of Flow Designer
 Centralized – single environment to build and visualize business processes
 Robust – provides configuration and runtime information to create, operate, and troubleshoot flows
from a single interface
 User-friendly – provides natural-language-descriptions of flow logic
 Repeatable – promotes process automation by enabling SMEs to develop and share reusable actions
 Scalable – allows extending flow content by subscribing to IntegrationHub or installing spokes
Reasons to use
 Orchestrate business processes across services with little technical user knowledge
 Reduce technical debt – meaning to reduce scripting to simplify upgrades & deployments
 Integrate with 3rd party systems
o Do Not Use if existing logic already developed using the ServiceNow workflow editor OR if
the ServiceNow Instance is running Jakarta or prior
 Use Cases:
o Project Manager has tasks automatically created and added to a Visual Task Board when a
specific record is created
o Customer Service develops a flow to communicate incident resolution through end-user
support channel
o Change Manager creates an outage record and links it to an incident when the primary
email server goes offline
Triggers
 A Flow consists of a Trigger & specified conditions must be met for the flow to be triggered *Exam
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Record-Based – run a flow after a record has been created, updated, or deleted. When using this,
the triggering record can be used later in the flow as input for actions
o Table can be specified as a condition
o Required to look up a record, update a field value, and request approval
 Schedule-based – run a flow at the specified date and time: daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Execution
time can be used as an input for actions in the flow
o Date can be specified as a condition
 Application-based – added when the associated application spoke is activated
o (e.g, allow you to trigger a flow when an item is requested from the Service Catalog)
o Application field can be specified as a condition
o Sometimes, a plug-in might need to be activated as well (Flow Designer Support for Service
Catalog)
o A Spoke contains Flow Designer triggers and actions dedicated to a particular application
and are activated when their parent application is activated (such as Inbound email action)
 You can also specify the type of session and which users can start a flow & specify if the flow will run
in the background or in the current session
Actions
 Actions – executed when the trigger conditions are met by Flow Designer, such as looking up a
record, updating a field value, requesting approval, or logging a value. *Exam
o Reusable operations that enable process analysts to automate features w/o writing code
 You can build your own custom actions & Actions can be contained in a spoke
o Check installed spokes first before building your own custom actions
 Action titles convey the operation the action does. Actions are very broad and generic in nature
o Specific actions in a generic action are defined in the options of the action
 Action Description gives you more information than the spoke and action title will give you
 Frequently used actions:
o Ask for approval – approve, reject
o Create, Delete, Look Up Record, Look Up Records
o Wait for Condition – Pause the flow until the record conditions are met
Flow Designer Data
 You can access local flow variables as data pills directly in the Data Panel
 Each time you add an action to a flow, Flow Designer adds a data pill to store its output results
 Data section of the Flow Designer contains data pills that can be used in subsequent actions
 To reference the data stored in the data pill, drag and drop the pill to the appropriate field
o You can also use the Data Pill Picker icon to manually select the data by dot-walking the
fields
 When a data pill is dragged to a field, the flow will indicate if the data pill can be used or not
o This instance feedback helps you pick on valid data
 Related fields, like Table will be automatically populated
 Data Pill Name indicates its sequence in the flow and its data type
 Records shown in the Data Panel can be expanded to show or select their corresponding fields
 When a flow runs an action, it generates the data pill runtime value, which remains the same for the
duration of the flow
Virtual Agent
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Virtual Agent is a conversational bot platform that provides IMMEDIATE assistance to help users
obtain information, make decisions, and perform common work tasks *Exam
o Includes info stored in: Knowledge Bases, Service Catalog, System records
 Personalized customer experience by automating typical Tier 1 support tasks, such as
o Answering FAQs, Providing tutorial “how-to” information
o Querying or updating records, gathering data, performing diagnostics, resolving multi-step
problems
 Users have the option to switch to speak with a human agent for assistance
 Topic Blocks – creates reusable components to run common tasks in Virtual Agent conversations
 Web-based interface available for Service Portal, iOS, and Android mobile environments
o Also supports 3rd party messaging applications through ServiceNow adapters for Slack,
Workplace, and Microsoft Teams
 Use Default Content for a notification that doesn’t have a content provider or if some of the
information in the content created for a provider is not available
Data Schema Overview
Tables & Fields
 Everything in ServiceNow is built on MySQL database, containing tables you access through GUI
 Database -> Table -> Records -> Fields
 Tables – data structure or database component which contains records. Collection of records
o Access and CREATE new tables using the following modules within the System Definition
application
 Tables – contains a record for each table in the database
 Tables & Columns – lists existing tables in the database. Selecting a table displays its
contents (can also view field settings and attributes for a table) VIEW ONLY
o An Application menu with the same name as the table LABEL & a module with the plural of
the table LABEL are created by default when you create a new table
 Example – New Table Label is Infinity so App name would be Infinity and new
module would be Infinities
o Data is stored in Tables
o Any record that a Customer has changed will have an updated record in the Customer
Update table [sys_Update_xml]
 Records – data stored in tables, which contain fields. Corresponds to a row in a table
o Identified by a sys_id - a 32-character, globally unique ID *Exam
o Record numbers are automatically incremented and number format per table can be
changed by going to Number Maintenance application
o [sys_db_object] is the master table that contains a record for each table in the database
 Fields – individual pieces of data within a record that correspond to a column on that table
o Field Label – user friendly term for the field (User ID, Name, Location) – column header
o Field Name – unique term that the system uses to identify the field in scripts and automated
business processes
 Field Name of Location on the User table = sys_user.location, whereas its Field Label
is Location
 Anything that comes after the [.] is the Field Name (unique identifier)
o Value – actual data stored in the field, such as the User’s name or location
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 System Definition -> Dictionary – contains the definition for each and every table & field in the
database *Exam
o Data Dictionary stores Database structures
 Reference field – stores a unique system identifier, sys_id, of a record on another table which is
what establishes the reference relationship
o Identified with Reference Lookup icon and a reference field can refer only to records from
one other table
o To add a field that can refer to records on any table in the platform, regardless of a shared
reference, use the Document ID element type
Table Relationships
 One to Many types: within a table, a field can hold a reference to a record on another table
o Reference Fields – Caller field on incident table allows a user to select any record on User
table
o Glide List – Allows a user to select MULTIPLE records on a table defined by the glide list
o Document ID – Allows a user to select a record on ANY table in the instance, regardless of
shared reference
 Many to Many – two or more tables can be related in a bi-directional relationship, so that the
related records are visible from both tables in a related list
o Users/groups related this way
 Database Views – two tables can be joined virtually to allow for reporting on data that might be
stored in more than one table. (READ-ONLY)
o Certain views are included in the base system with the Database Views and Database Views
for Service Management plugins
o System Definition -> Database Views
 Database Views limitations:
o In a clone request, database view tables CANNOT be added as a data preserver
o Database views CANNOT be created on tables that participate in data rotation
o It is NOT possible to edit data within a database view
 Incident Database Views for Service Management Plugin in base system are:
o Incident_time_worked / incident_metric / incident_sla
 Extensions – A table can extend another table. The extended table includes unique fields plus all of
the fields and properties from the parent table
o Example – Task Table is the Parent table and Incident Table is the extended table
Extended Tables
 Tables that stand alone, only the global default fields are automatically created
 Extending a table incorporates all of the fields of the original table and allows for unique fields to be
created on the new table
o Can ONLY extend a table when creating a new table. Also, not all tables are extensible
 Table that is extending another table is called child class
o Table that is extended the parent class
 A different label can be defined for each extended table, such as Task -> Incident, Problem, Change
Request
 A table’s extensible field is used to control whether table can be extended
o If set to True (Selected/checked), it can be extended
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Using the Dictionary overrides feature provides the ability to define a field on a child table
differently from the field on the parent table
o Examples – overriding the default values, field dependencies, or read-only status of a field
 Base Table – a table that is extended by a child class, but not extending any other table *Exam
o Every child table is a specialization of its base table or a previous child table
o Examples are task & CMDB
 Core tables are created by ServiceNow and provided with the base system
 Custom tables are created by you
o When creating a new custom table, the table name is automatically populated based on the
table label and a prefix
o If the table is created in a scoped application, the name is prefixed with a namespace
identifier, “x_”, indicating it is a part of the application
o If the table is created in the global application, the name is prefixed with “u_” *Exam
Schema map
 Provides a graphical representation of other tables related to a specific table *Exam
 Relationships can be filtered by extension or reference classes by checking the appropriate boxes
at the top of the map
 Focus of the table is highlighted in yellow
 Tables with blue bars are tables that extend the task table. Can then use the schema map to:
o Identify which fields originate on the problem table & which are inherited from task
o Look up field types
 Tables with red bars are tables that are referenced by the Task table
 Series of filters at the top of the schema map allow you to show/hide tables based on criteria such
as:
o Referenced by task table, reference the task table, extend the task table, extended by task
 Tables window on the far right of the screen to provide a summary of all the tables presented and
their relationships
 To generate a schema map: Navigate to System Definition -> Tables & Columns
o In the Table Names pane, select a table and then click Schema map
Access Control Overview
User Permissions
 ServiceNow provides several layers of security before an end user has the capability to perform
CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on a table:
o User Authentication/Logins: Users, Groups, and Roles
o Application and Module Access: Controlled by roles configured at the App/Module level
o Database Access: Access to tables, records, & fields are controlled via globally defined
system properties; as well as table and field level Access Controls (Deny access is default
behavior)
 Three security modules on the Application Navigator typically used by System Admin:
o System Properties -> Security
o System Security -> Access Control (ACL)
o System Security -> High Security Settings
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Access Control – security rule defined to restrict the permissions of a user from viewing and
interacting with data. They are executed when attempting to access any ServiceNow table and may
be set at the row or column level *Exam
o Rules restrict CRUD operations & ServiceNow-specific operations on tables & fields like:
 Execute, create, read, write, delete
 edit_ci_relations, edit_task_relations, save_as_template, report_on,
personalize_choices
 Access Control List contains a list of the instance’s access control rules
o Contextual Security
o Defined to a specific role or user & generic to specific
 To view the access controls associated with a table: type <table name>.config & click Access
Controls tab
 In order for a user to create or update access control roles, they must have the elevated
security_admin role
 Each access control rule specifies:
o Name - Object being secured (table, field, etc)
o Definition-Permissions required to access the object (Roles, conditional expressions,
scripts)
 Conditions, roles, and a script that sets the ‘answer’ variable to true/false can be
configured in an access control
o Operation – a valid action the system can take (CRUD)
 By default, Create, Delete, Read, Write (CDRW) control rules are created by the system when a
CUSTOM table is created
o A role is also created by default and associated with these access control rules
Access Control Evaluation
 When a session requests data, the system looks for matching access control rules
 Record ACL rules are processed in the following order:
o Match the object against Table ACL rules – most specific to most general
 Table name, Parent Table Name, any table name (wildcard) *Exam
o Match the object against Field ACL rules – most specific to most general
 A user must pass both table and field ACL rules to access a record object *Exam
 If a user passes a table ACL rule, but fails a field ACL rule, the user cannot access the field described
by the field ACL rule
 Each access control specifies the table or type of record (including fields), operation being secured,
and unique object identifier
o They are defined for and applied to a specific table so that the rule is within the context of
the table and the type of data stored.
o table.None – no specific field selected –this rule applies to the whole table including all
records
 The entire house
o table.field (caller) – this rule applies to only one field on a record and in this case, the caller
field on an incident record
 Specific room in the house
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o table.* - wildcard, this rule applies to every field on a record WITHOUT a specific rule (a
table.field rule in this case)
 ALL other rooms in the house
 Wildcard ACL rules reduce the amount of rules required to control access, which also results in less
required maintenance
o Change_request.None can be seen by itil_admin and itil
o Change_request.type can be seen by itil
o Change_request.* - grants access to all fields except those with a specific rule
(change_request.type) for itil_admin
Importing Data Overview
Import Sets
 An import set is used to import data from various data sources and then map that data into
ServiceNow tables. You can import data from the following data sources: *Exam
o Local source (XML, CSV, Excel, JSON)
o Network Server by providing a path and authentication info
o External (LDAP, JDBC, OIDC, REST (Integration Hub), Custom (Load by Script)
 To load data from a spreadsheet: Load Data, Create transform map, transform data *Exam
 You must have admin or import_admin role to manage all aspects of import sets
o System Import Sets -> Load Data to start an import set
 Import set table – staging area for records imported from a data source. Fields on these tables are
generating automatically based on imported data and should NOT be modified manually
o Imported file label is used to name the import set table the data will be loaded into
o Once created, it’s possible to choose an existing import set table to use for loading data
from the same source, or data that has the same field/column designations.
o When an existing import set table is chosen, the table fields are added when the incoming
source of data contains fields/columns that do NOT exist
 Transform map – Provides a guide for moving data from import set tables to “Target” tables.
o EVERY IMPORT MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE TRANSFORM MAP
 Determines the relationships between fields in an import set table and fields in an existing
ServiceNow table
o Any table is a potential destination for transformation of an Import Set. However, you can
only select tables within the currently selected application scope, global scope, or tables
that grant write access to other applications
o Any field within a table can serve as a potential destination for transformation from a field
within an import set
o Automatic Mapping Utility – simplest mapping method where all of the field names of the
import set match the name of the fields on the target table where the data will be
transformed
o Mapping assist utility – provides a visually intuitive environment for specifying mapping
between import set fields and target table fields. It is possible to map a single sourced field
(field on an import set table) to multiple destination fields (fields on a target table)
 Once defined, a transform map can be reused *Exam
 Transformation – conversion of data from an import set table to its target table according to the
rules defined in the transform map
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Target table – existing table in the platform where the data will be placed, post-transformation
 Import Sets CANNOT add data to encrypted fields
 Good practice to verify/clean your data before importing it. Obsolete info (bad data) will complicate
things later in the import and transform process
o Data should not be imported in extremely large chunks as it can cause extensive delays
 Before importing: Understand the data you plan to import, determine which source data maps to
which target fields, & decide what to do with incomplete/erroneous data
 Easy Import steps:
o Download Excel Template, Compute Excel Template, Upload Import Data, Preview Import
Data, Finalize Import
Coalesce fields
 Allows you to update existing Target Table records when importing data from an import set
 Options are to overwrite record in target table OR keep the record already in target table
 If the field map Coalesce checkbox is selected when the import set row is transformed, the instance
checks for an existing record in the target table with the same value in the Target field as the import
set row Source field
 Important – Choose fields in the Target table to coalesce on only if those fields have unique values
o If more than one record in the target table matches, only the FIRST matching record in the
target table is updated
 You can coalesce on single and multiple fields as well as conditional coalesce
o Most conditional coalesce scripts are defined in the source script field of a field map for the
sys_id field
o The script must return the sys_id of the target table record to update a target record
 No coalesce means all imported rows are treated as new records & existing records are NOT
updated
CMDB
 Configuration Management Database – database used to store configuration records (CIs)
throughout their lifecycle, controlled by your organization, as well as their attributes and
relationships to other CIs
 Provides a logical model of your company infrastructure by identifying, controlling, maintaining, and
verifying the Cis that exist
 Authoritative source of: Owner, Contact, and Support Group
 Scores found on CMDB health dashboard: Correctness, Compliance, Completeness
 IT challenges that can be solved with CMDB:
o Regularly maintain complex data for accuracy
o Make sense of data to drive decisions and services
o Consolidate disparate CI data into a single CMDB
 Key questions to ask when considering CMDB:
o How is data entered/imported then managed?
o Where is data stored?
o What data is necessary?
o When should imports or refreshes of CI data happen?
 Access to the CMDB tables and underlying data requires permissions, such as the following roles:
o Asset, itil, itil_admin, cmdb_read
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Ways to create CMDB data: Import Set, Discovery, Manual, Help the Help Desk
 Populating CMDB = Import sets, integration with existing CMDBs, manual input
 CIs – configuration item - can be tangible (hardware, software, servers) or intangible (business
services, email) devices or apps in the CMDB that need to be mapped in order to deliver services
o Also typically include business services and their underlying components
o Business Service Management map graphically displays the CIs that support a business
service & indicates the status of those configuration items
 Can create Configuration Items by the following:
o Direct manual creation via Configuration application modules
o Via Service Catalog fulfillment, asset management, and change management processes
o Import from external source, integrated with 3rd party systems, Discovery tools
 Configuration application – provides core functionality for the CMDB, including modules for
hardware and other Cis. This is part of the CMDB plugin, which is activated in a base install
 Key tables are:
o Base Configuration Item [cmdb] – base CMDB table for non-IT CIs
o Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] – stores the basic attributes of all the CIs
o CI Relationship [cmdb_rel_ci] – contains CI relationship data
 Any change to CI relationships here is automatically reflected in dynamic application
services
 When a non-dependent relationship is deleted from this table, all cascading
corresponding records in this table are deleted
o Relationship sources [sys_rel_source] – source information for non-dependent
relationships, like source name and last scanned time
 Configuration Item form – contains info about the relationship between items. Search for config
items, add new relationships, view the CI map, or adjust the relationship view settings using the
options in the Related Items Toolbar
 You can create a new relationship rule in Configuration -> Relationships -> Suggested Relationships
 Discovery – finds devices and apps on your network and updates the CMDB with the info it finds
o Separate subscription from the rest of the NOW platform
o Used MID (Management, Instrumentation, and Discovery) server to gather info about
devices and apps and return results back to the instance for processing. Horizontal method
 MID Server can also be communicated through a proxy server
 Stakeholder’s job to determine the specific CI information required to support these capabilities and
build organizational buy-in
 Configuration Management Systems – A set of tools/databases used to manage an organization’s
configuration data
 Service Mapping uses a “top-down” approach to overlay service maps onto existing configuration
data to connect CIs underlying a given service, making the CMDB service aware
 CI Class Switch - the CI class is in a different branch in the class hierarchy and has a different set of
attributes than the current class
o Reclassified from Linux Server Class to Windows Server Class
o Reclassification restriction rules prevent the IRE from downgrading or switching between
specific CI classes during payload processing
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 CI Class Manager – Contains the Managed By group – when this field is changed, the change is
automatically applied to all CI of a specific class
o Configuration Item field look-up has been enhanced to display only CIs whose class is set as
the Principal Class in the CI Class Manager
 Technical Service offering – contains Support Group, Change group, and Managed by group fields –
when these fields are changed, the values are automatically synchronized with the Dynamic CI group
and the underlying CIs associated with the technical service offering
 You can organize CIs by user group and automatically synchronize values on a collection of CIs in
two ways: CI Class Manager & Technical Service Offering
 From an APM perspective, Application Services represents Installed Instances
 CSDM – Standard terms and definitions. Best practice for CMDB Data Modeling and Data
Management. Out of the box CMDB core tables. Guidance on service modeling & recommended
mappings
o Business capability resides in the Design Domain of the CSDM
o Standard fields/values for tracking lifecycle stages and stage statuses for CIs
Using the CMDB
 Benefits of having an accurate & up to date CMDB include locating failed changes and associated
incidents + facilitating quick analysis of impact, helping reduce or eliminate downtime
 CI relationship editor uses a concept of suggested relationships to help users see reasonable
relationships between Cis *Exam
o Use this to create configuration item relationships. It is accessed from the Related items
toolbar on the Configuration Item FORM
o The CI record where the editor was launched is designate as the base CI. You can then select
one or more items to include in the relationship.
 Depending on the selected relationship type, the base CI can become the parent CI
or the child CI in a new relationship
 Dependency Views – graphically display an infrastructure view for a CI, the Business Service it is part
of, and that it supports *Exam
o Icons indicate the status of CIs and allow access to the CI’s related alerts, incidents,
problems, and changes
o Dependency View mapping interface is powered by D3 and Angular
 Use the Dependency View to view other configuration items:
o “upstream” that feed data into an email service, for example
o “downstream” where you can view all of the other CIs that the email service is dependent
on
 Triangle icon with ! = Active Incident / Wrench icon = Active problems / Block icon = Affected CIs for
a task
Platform Scripting Overview
Plugins
 Plugins are software components that provide additional optional features and functionalities
within a ServiceNow instance.
o Data inconsistency correction is automated through plugins
 System Administrators have full control over when to activate plugins. If the plugins depends on
other plugins, these plugins and their activation status are listed
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Before adding a script to ServiceNow, check the list of available plugins first
 Some plugins include demo data – sample records that are designed to illustrate plugin features for
common use cases
o Loading demo data is good policy when first installing the plugin on a dev or test instance
 Most plugins are published, but some are available only by request due to operational
considerations making the plugin only appropriate for certain deployments
o Submit Service Catalog request using the Request Plugin Activation form at Now Support
(HI)
 Data Archiving, Database Rotations, and Many to Many Task Relations are Data Management
Plugins
 To provide added security, no user can have both explicit roles (i.e., snc_internal & snc_external)
 Localization Framework Plugin is needed to translate the content of a catalog item to multiple
languages
Scripting
 Scripting in ServiceNow or Platform Scripting is the customization of an instance and/or
applications using JavaScript
 It is easier to debug and fix configuration changes vs a script after an upgrade. Therefore, it is
considered good practice to customize your instance WITHOUT scripting. Use a Condition Builder
wherever possible to configure straightforward conditions and actions
 Script Includes – scripts that are used again & again so that it can be called at any time
 API – Application Programming Interface – provides classes and methods that you can use in scripts
to define and customize functionality
o REST API Explorer is the ServiceNow application used to construct & test API requests to a
ServiceNow Instance
 Process flow for script execution is:
o Web Browser (client) Request/Response <-> Internet <-> Application Server <-> ServiceNow
Database
 Client-side – scripts that run in a web browser
 Server-side – scripts that run on the server (where the database resides)
 Client to server roundtrips take time and make the end-user wait for the round-trip to complete.
Request + Response = Roundtrip
 Jelly Scripting – UI Macros & Content Management System
Client-side
 Client scripts make “real-time” changes to appearance of the user interface, especially forms
themselves. They can do the following:
o Update the location field to reflect the value entered in the caller field
o Disable the attachment link of a closed record when the form is loaded so a user is unable to
add or modify attachments
o Displays notice at the top of the page to confirm a catalog request was submitted
 Allow for browser/form manipulation and verification such as making fields visible on a condition
o (Example – alert appearing when a user changes the priority of an incident)
 Even though they run on the browser, you can also run a Client script when a database lookup is
needed.
 Know the following four options: *Exam
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 onLoad() – runs when a form is first drawn and before control is given to the user to begin typing.
o Typically used to perform some client-side manipulation of the document on the screen
 onChange() – runs when a particular field changes value
 onSubmit() – runs when a form is saved/submitted/updated. Typically used to validate things on the
form to make sure the submission makes sense
o Can potentially cancel a submission by returning false
 onCellEdit() – runs when a cell on a list changes value through the use of the list editor
 UI Policies – A rule that is applied to a form or list to dynamically change information or the form
itself (alternative to Client Scripts) – Read only
o To immediately implement updates and changes to forms and list, you these to add
sophisticated controls w/o having to write scripts and define custom process flows for tasks
o Only enforced on DATA ENTERED INTO A FORM OR LIST (passing through the UI)
 Once a UI policy is initially configured, UI Policy actions instruct the fields how to behave on a form
when a UI Policy is triggered, including:
o Setting a field as mandatory – requiring a value in order to save the record
o Setting a field as hidden – no longer displaying a field on the form
o Setting a field as read-only – preventing a user from updating its value
 In order to set UI policy to all views, must set Global to True
 Both Client scripts and UI policies run client-side
 Important to note, that although a data policy executes server-side, it can also run as a UI policy
client-side by setting the value of “Use as UI Policy on client” attribute to true *Exam
Data Policy
 Data policy is a rule that enforces data consistency by settings fields as MANDATORY and/or
READ-ONLY.
o Can make fields mandatory at DB level, before updating or inserting
o Purpose is to standardize data across ServiceNow applications
o Executes Server-Side script free
 Data policies can apply to ALL data entered into the system, including data brought in through
import sets, web services, and data entered through Mobile UI
o It can be opted out for Web services and Import sets
 Have a condition as part of the trigger
o Can take different actions when the conditions field evaluates to True or False
 Applies to the list view to make a field READ-ONLY; field will appear editable, but the update will fail
Server-side
 UI Actions – Focus on ACTIONS. add buttons, links, and context menu items on forms & lists, making
the UI more interactive, customizable, and specific to user activities. UI actions include:
o Form buttons, Form context menu items (right click the header), Form links (related links in
a form)
o List buttons, List context menu items (right click a record), List choices (bottom of a list), List
links (related links at the bottom of a list)
o Insert UI action on the form creates a new record & redirects to previous viewed page
 When the UI Actions Active box is checked, the UI action is visible and can be interacted with by a
user
 When order 100, UI actions with Order numbers GREATER than 100 will display after this UI action
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Order numbers less than 100 will display before this UI action, in the user interface
 UI actions can execute both client-side and server-side depending on the “client” check box
selection.
o If it is NOT selected, it will execute server-side only
 UI actions conditions and actions can be scripted to define complex custom functionality
 A business rule is a server-side “JavaScript” script that is configured to run when a record is
displayed, inserted, updated, deleted, or when a table is queried *Exam
o They can be set to run before or after the database action has occurred
 Business rules are consistently applied to records through forms, list, or web services, whereas
client scripts are modified on the form itself
 Every business rule includes what table to run against and timing (before or after insert and more),
what conditions to evaluate, what actions to take or script to run based on the evaluation, and if its
client-callable
o If there is no value in the Condition field, the field returns TRUE
 They are NOT real-time – Do not monitor fields on a form, they monitor as they are inserted or
updated
 You can use low-code configuration fields to develop simple When to run conditions and
corresponding actions
 When setting determines when the business rule executes and has the following choices:
o Before a record is saved to the database
o After a record is saved to the database
o Async (queued) – client and server work independently so the client is not waiting on server
o Display before the record is displayed
 Primary objective here is to use a shared scratchpad object, “g_scratchpad”, which
is also sent to the client as part of the form. Useful when you need to build client
scripts that require server data that is NOT part of the record being displayed
 To develop more complex conditions and reactions, select the Advanced to display:
o Condition field – used for JavaScript conditional statement to specify when the business rule
should run
o Script field – used for creating a script that runs when the defined conditions is true
 JavaScript used for the following:
o UI Policies and Actions
o Data Policies
o Business Rules (server-side) *Exam
o Client Scripts (client-side)
Migration & Integration Overview
Update Sets
 Update set – group of one or more changes that can be moved from one instance to another all
together. Tracks changes to applications and platform features. Allows system administrators &
developers to create changes in a non-prod instance and promote changes to another instance as
one unit
o Essentially a “point in time” XML snapshot of process records and is used to apply changes
that have been checked and verified in another instance
o Can move workflows between instances
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Update set must have its state set to Complete in order to transfer it to another instance
 Each Update set is stored in[sys_update_set]
 Customizations/configuration changes of an Update set result in a record being added/updated to
the Customer Update table [sys_update_xml]
o Avoid using the Default Update Set as an Update Set for moving customizations from
instance to instance *Exam
o These work by writing changes from tracked tables to the Customer Update
[sys_update_xml] table
 Newest changes overwrite older changes in an Update set
o When merging multiple update sets, if more than one update sets have modified the same
object, the most RECENT change will be the one moved to the merged updated set
 Every instance of ServiceNow has a DEFAULT update set
 Customizations and configuration changes are captured in an update set
o Can view a series of customizations within Update set
o Any process rule (Tables, Fields, Forms/Form Sections, Client Scripts, Business rules, reports,
published workflows, Views, Roles) are captured *Exam
o Field creation & Table creation are captured
 Capture workflow in Update Sets with Publish
 The update_synch attribute identifies what should be captured in an update set
 By Default, Data, Content Pages & Homepages are NOT captured in an update set
o Data such as New Data Records, Modified Data Records, Tasks, Modified CIs, new
Users/groups, schedules, schedules jobs are NOT captured
o Dashboards/Homepages are not captured, but can be manually added by using Unload
Dashboard function
 Best practice to enable “update set picker” before creating a new update set by going to Settings
(gear icon) and toggling the “Show Update set picker in header” in the Developer tab
o Navigate to System Update Sets -> Local Update Sets
 The steps to commit an update set to an instance are retrieve, preview, and commit *Exam
 To export an update set, open an Update Set record, change the state to “Complete” and click SAVE
(not update) and then Select “Export to XML”
 To upload, navigate to System Update Sets -> Retrieved Update Sets
o Click the link to Import Update Set from XML and follow instructions
o Select the “Preview Update Set” button. If errors present themselves, they must be
processed before you can continue
o Select the “Commit Update Set” button
 To retrieve an update set from a remote instance, in the Prod instance, navigate to System Update
Sets -> Update Sources and select the sub-production/dev instance with the completes update set
you want to commit
o With remote instances, update sets are already previewed during the retrieval
o An update set marked as complete is transferred from the source (sub-production) instance
to the target (production) instance
o First time you connect to a remote instance, you will need to specify the connection settings
as described on the form (Name, Type, Active, URL, Username, Password, & Short
description).
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

 Select “Test Connection” to ensure a successful retrieval and save the new remote
instance record
 After merging & validating, it is good practice to delete/empty the original Update Set
 Both instances must be on the same version as customizations may not work if they rely on code
that has changed between versions
 ServiceNow recommends limiting Update Sets to a maximum of 100 records to reduce the number
of potential conflicts & to make it easier to identify/review changes
 Ensure all platform records have matching sys_id fields
Integrations
 Standard integrations for ServiceNow include:
o Login (SSO), LDAP, Communications, Monitoring, System Management
 Most common processes required for integration are:
o CMDB, (Incident/Problem/Change) Management, User Administration, & SSO
 A variety of techniques can be used, most notably – Web Services, LDAP, Excel, CSV, and Email
 IntegrationHub – provides a single solution to quickly integrate with 3rd party services to build and
share content without scripting
o Ensures discoverability and reuse & also features scale and control mechanisms that are
designed to never fail, including an extensibility framework which enables Applications to
easily plug and play providers
o Starter Spokes are included with the subscriptions. Standard, Professional, and Enterprise
require subscription
Custom Application Development Overview
Application Scope
 Every application has a scope when it is first created and cannot be changed. Scope:
o Determines which of the application’s resources are available to other apps in the instance
o Protects apps by identifying and restricting access to available files and data *Exam
o Prevents naming conflicts and allows the contextual dev env to determine what changes, if
any, are permitted
 System automatically prepends the unique namespace identifier to the front of applications
artifacts such as tables, scripts, and configuration records when they are created
 Global scope is a special application scope that identifies applications developed prior to application
scoping or applications intended to be accessible to all Global applications
Application Developments
 By default, the Now Platform offers a suite of standard applications to provide service management
and service automation. If you have additional business needs, application developers can:
o Install applications from an application repository or the ServiceNow Store
 These are installed to instance, not loaded for development
o Updated/extend existing applications
o Create new applications
 Guided Application Creator – begin the development of a new application using this is the first step
of the process and it involves:
o Creating an application record, defining user roles, designating data tables, designing the
application for different user experiences
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

o Once initially created, you can then further develop the application using additional
platforms such as Studio and Flow Designer
 ServiceNow Studio – provides an integrated development environment (IDE) like interface for
creating custom applications (Use this to import an application from source control)
o See exactly what files comprise their application in the App Explorer
o Add new files to the app using a Create Application File Interface
o Navigate to files using familiar search-by-name or by-type behavior with the Go To dialog
o Find code within and outside an app using Code Search
o Operate on multiple files at once using the tabbed interface and multiple apps at once using
multiple studio windows
o Publish the app to company instances or the ServiceNow store
o View information about the current application from the Status bar
 Automated Test Framework (ATF) – create and run automated tests to confirm your instance after
making a change. Tests provide enough flexibility to help confirm the instance still works as
designed, including:
o Mimicking user actions with no scripting, such as opening a form, setting field values, etc
o Searching for a Catalog item, adding an item to a shopping cart, etc
o Testing Business rules, script includes, etc
o Using REST request to create, retrieve, update, or delete records
 Once run, the ATF creates a Test Results record, which is available through a Related List on the test
record
 All test records are defined with test steps – individual steps and the order in which the test should
execute them
o Test step includes an action to take, and the data needed to take that action
o If a test includes steps that involve a form or other user-interface element, it’ll run the steps
in a browser tab or window on-demand, or scheduled at a set time
Delegated Development
 Delegated Developers are non-administrator users and groups that are assigned one or more
permissions to develop applications
o System Admin or application Admin can set permissions that grant one or more delegated-
development-specific roles to retain control over the system without having admin role
o Navigate to System Applications -> My Company Applications
o Locate and open application of choice. Select Manage Developers Related Link
o Select the type of Developer you wish to assign (developers or groups)
o In developer name or group name – enter the name of the user/group you want to grant
developer or deployment permissions
o Select specific developer and deployment permissions for the app. Hit save
 Following roles CANNOT be delegated: role_delegator, admin, public, nobody
o User with role_delegator cannot delegate this role to other group members
 Developer Permissions – All File Types, Allow Scripting, Integrations, Reporting, Workflow, Service
Catalog, Service Portal, Flow Designer, Forms, Manage ACLs and Roles
 Deployment Permissions – Upgrade App, Manage Update Set, Publish to Update Set, Publish to
App Store, Publish to App Repo
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

ServiceNow Developer Program – great resource for developers, but also for anyone interested in
developing applications within ServiceNow
Events Overview
 Events are special log records the system generates when something notable has happened or
certain conditions occur *Exam
o Example – when a user logs in, someone approves a request, new KB article submitted
 System uses business rules to monitor for system conditions
 Fields on (When to run, Actions, and Advanced) tabs are used to configure and script trigger
conditions & responding actions
 The GlideSystem eventQueue() method is used to insert event records, which means you can
generate an event wherever you can script. Including flows and workflows
 When a condition is met, its responding action generates an event record in the Event [sysevent]
table
 By convention, events are named using the syntax <table name>.<unique event name>
o For example – incident.updated or problem.closed
 To see a log of every generated event, navigate to System Policy -> Events -> Event Log
 Scheduled jobs read the event queue and forward them to the appropriate handler for processing.
The handler uses information passed in from Event records to take some kind of action such as:
o Send a notification, Run a script action, Trigger a flow
 An event must be registered before it can be used
o Registration documents event definitions and lets other parts of the system, such as email
notifications and script actions, see the event in their list of available events and react to the
event when it occurs *Exam
o Navigate to System Policy -> Events -> Registry module to create a new record
 First-page results column in Search Event Table contains Table Names & sys_ids
Instance Stats Overview
 To aid in performance evaluation, Stats module provides statistics for system activities that affect
performance such as execution of queries, scripts, and transactions
 Module is also commonly used to lookup which version, patch, and hotfix instance is running.
Navigate to System Diagnostics -> Stats -> Stats or stats.do in the Filter Navigator.
 Four components that make up Performance of a ServiceNow Instance:
o Application Server response – Time for app server to process a request & render resultants
page
o Network Latency & Throughput – time for network to pass request to server and the
response back
o Browser Rendering & Parsing – time for browser to render the HTML & parse/execute
JavaScript
o Instant Cache – amount of platform resources available for processing
 When performance of an instance is slow, look to change these three things:
o Inefficiencies, slow scripts, bottlenecks
 Transaction log stores a record of all browser activity for an instance & shows info regarding:
o Created, Created By, Response Time
o Good for finding slow running background jobs & determining if a job ran or not
 KPI signals issues Anti-signals to indicate long-term stability in Performance analytics
ServiceNow CSA Notes Notes

Release
 A ServiceNow release cycle uses the concept of a family for a given set of features
 Types of Releases:
o Feature – Applied automatically during the current rollout period
 Complete solution that customers can implement to add value to their org
 Available during feature release and are supported with patches & hotfixes
o Patch – Applied as needed on a per customer basis. Provided for the current & previous two
feature releases.
 Includes all previously issues hotfixes for a given release
o Hotfix – applied as needed. Does not include new features. Supports a specific problem
 QPP (Quarterly Patching Program) – patches that generally do not break an instance & don’t require
extensive testing
 Upgrade – act of moving from one release family to another
o Upgrade History module tracks every upgrade made to the platform
 Exemptions to Upgrades:
o Customizations & Any record that has been altered from the base by the consumer
 Patching – moving up versions WITHIN a release family
Data Classification
 Data Classification enables support for:
o Visualize the current sensitivity of data types hosted on a Now Platform instance
o Compliance with privacy laws, security and meeting regulation requirements
 Encryption – protect sensitive data by scrambling data
 Auditing – tracking the creation, update, & deletion of all records in a table
Additional Resources
 ServiceNow Website
o Product Documentation link at bottom
 Customer Support Portal (HI Portal)
 Community – interactive space
 Social Media & Developer Portal
 NOW Creators – Get Skills -> Earn badges -> Share your success
 Super badges are awarded as you build expertise in a specific role:
o Star – learn fundamentals / Pro – Demonstrate expertise / Legend – Stand out from crowd
 NOW Profile – Acts as Universal ID across ServiceNow resources, showcases expertise, displays
super badges by role, displays badges across multiple resources, & allows you to consolidate
ServiceNow accounts
o Basis for managing ServiceNow accomplishments (achievements, certifications/course
completions, community expert levels acquired)
 NOW Learning – Single source for all ServiceNow content, wide breadth of course topics/delivery
types, integrated profile, personalized learning plans, & hands-on activities