Workflow Studio: New in Washington DC!

At the time of this writing, the latest Washington DC release brings a ton of new features and functionality, but I want to shine a light on one specific feature that deserves some attention. Previously known as Flow Designer, Workflow Studio will be the go-to spot for all things automation. I’m super excited for this release as this specific experience was in dire need of updates, and ServiceNow both listened and delivered! See below for the changes made to the user interface.

Old UI:

New UI:

Low-code/no-code automation is the focus

If you haven’t witnessed it yet, ServiceNow has re-branded Flow Designer into the Process Automation side of the house – specifically into a new experience called Workflow Studio. The goal here is simple: unify the experience for low-code/no-code automation and provide you with a single location for building/executing automation while monitoring it. I’m a BIG fan of the styling updates and makes complete sense given the previous flow designer pill picker look-and-feel.

Subtle, yet powerful reporting

Flow execution metrics have been moved into a tab labeled “Operations” but have evolved into something more dynamic. Adaptive widgets feeding off of live report data! Whether you’re set to “Processes” or “Flows”, you’ll see relevant data in real-time which reveals current state operations.

IntegrationHub segmented configuration

IntegrationHub is an essential component for enabling third-party integrations/functionality seamlessly into your ServiceNow environment. It’s been re-located in a tab labeled “Integrations” where you can administer the connections, credentials, and even the configuration for that specific application within Workflow Studio. Pretty slick!

Review and refine system properties

Don’t be afraid to review the system property values and determine if they can be reduced to supercharge the performance of your flow engine experience! Something as simple as the “Rows per page” feature (keep this to a minimum) at the bottom-right of Workflow Studio will help speed up the interaction with the application. However, there are underlying properties that affect the engine which can be beneficial for your developers.

See below for a few system properties I recommend updating:

• The maximum number of records to return when fetching data [sn_flow_designer.action_picker_limit and sn_flow_designer.trigger_picker_limit]
  • If you have a keen eye, you’ll notice that there are two properties labeled like this. One is for the trigger picker, and one is for the action picker. In my opinion, unless you’re powering heavy-lifting integrations that support passing objects with large amounts of data — keep both of these set relatively low.
• The maximum amount of iterations that a loop will run in flow designer [sn_flow_designer.max_iterations]
  • This is an interesting one as this is likely being used in various spots throughout your business processes. Work with your developers to gauge how low/high this could be, but ideally keep this to a minimum so flow executions do not linger.
• Level of reporting data generated by flow engine [com.snc.process_flow.reporting.level]
  • Try setting this to “Runtime states and durations only” here when your processes are running smoothly and you’re actively monitoring.
  • There are a few other system properties related to log level within the flow log table – be sure to review these as well

See this document for additional context around system properties related to Flow Designer.

ServiceNow’s focus

The talk of the town lately has been AI, and for good reason. There are powerful opportunities there which can bring endless value to your business. What is shared between these technologies is a low-code/no-code engine which helps automation thrive with minimal input needed. It’s just easy to read and understand! That’s what the future holds and where ServiceNow’s flow automation engine comes into play.

Closing thoughts

ServiceNow wants their customers/partners/anyone using the platform to be efficient at what they do. Investing in this application only makes sense to further operationalize their customers/businesses and support it with ease. From modern UI enhancements like multiple tabs that blend in with the header to providing simple, eye-friendly reports within a dashboard – Flow Designer received an amazing makeover that was desperately needed. I can’t wait for future updates to this application to unleash our true development potential!

Want more content?

Keep an eye out for additional highlights around Washington DC features! There are plenty to pick from!