ServiceNow Automation and Advanced Features – Flow Designer, Notifications, and SLAs

Learn ServiceNow automation and advanced features. Master Flow Designer, approvals, email notifications, SLA configuration, and escalations with hands-on practice for real-world ITSM use cases

Flow Designer

Flow Designer vs Workflows

Workflows

  1. Legacy automation tool
  2. Uses graphical workflow editor
  3. Still supported but not recommended for new development

Flow Designer

  1. Modern, low-code automation platform
  2. Replaces traditional workflows
  3. Easier to maintain and extend
  4. Integrates with REST, integrations, and scripts

Best practice is to use Flow Designer for all new automation.

Triggers and Actions

Triggers

Triggers define when a flow starts.

Examples:

  1. Record created
  2. Record updated
  3. Scheduled trigger

Actions

Actions define what the flow does.

Examples:

  1. Create record
  2. Update record
  3. Send notification
  4. Request approval
  5. Run script

Approval Flows

Approval actions allow:

  1. Manager approvals
  2. Group approvals
  3. Multi-level approvals
  4. Conditional approvals

Approvals are commonly used in:

  1. Change Management
  2. Service Catalog requests
  3. Access requests

Hands-On: Build Automated Request Approvals

  1. Navigate to Flow Designer
  2. Create a new flow
  3. Select trigger as Requested Item Created
  4. Add approval action (for example: Manager approval)
  5. Define approval conditions
  6. Add post-approval actions
  7. Save and test by submitting a catalog request

Notifications and SLAs

Email Notifications

Notifications are used to inform users and groups.

Common notification triggers:

  1. Incident creation
  2. Assignment changes
  3. Approval requests
  4. SLA breaches

Notifications can be sent via:

  1. Email
  2. SMS (with integrations)
  3. Push notifications

SLA Definitions

SLAs define service commitments.

Types of SLAs:

  1. Response SLA
  2. Resolution SLA

SLAs are based on:

  1. Priority
  2. Category
  3. Assignment group

Escalations

Escalations occur when SLA thresholds are reached.

Examples:

  1. Notify manager before breach
  2. Reassign ticket
  3. Increase priority

Escalations ensure critical issues are addressed on time.

Hands-On: Configure SLA Alerts

  1. Navigate to Service Level Management → SLAs
  2. Open an existing SLA or create a new one
  3. Define start, stop, and pause conditions
  4. Configure breach actions
  5. Link notification to SLA breach
  6. Create a test record and monitor SLA behavior

Completion Outcome

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

  1. Use Flow Designer for automation
  2. Differentiate between workflows and flows
  3. Create approval-based automations
  4. Configure email notifications
  5. Define and manage SLAs
  6. Implement escalation rules
  7. Automate real-world ITSM processes