How to extend ReleaseOps pipelines with manual deployment steps

[Daniel Draes]

How to extend ReleaseOps pipelines with manual deployment steps

The sample release configuration covers a three-instance pipeline (Dev → Test → Prod) fully automated, many organizations need to add additional manual tasks to their deployment process.

This tutorial will show you how to extend your existing ReleaseOps pipeline to include these manual steps before or after deploying changes to Test and Production environments.

Prerequisites: This guide assumes you have already configured the standard Dev → Test → Prod sample pipeline and it's working successfully. If you need help with the initial setup, please refer to the ReleaseOps configuration documentation.

Overview: What We're Building

In this tutorial, we will copy the existing sample setup of ReleaseOps and add manual deployment steps pre- and post--deployment to test as well as to production instance.

Part 1: Updating ReleaseOps to support manual steps

To model manual activities (data loads, fix scripts, enabling scheduled jobs, etc.) alongside automated deployments, we first need to enhance ReleaseOps:

1. Extend the Deployment Request Task type field to differentiate automated vs. manual work.

Extend the Deployment Request Task type field

The goal is to be able to classify tasks as pre‑deployment or post‑deployment manual tasks, in addition to the existing Scan Issue, Preview Issue and Test Issue.

Steps

1. Open ServiceNow Studio
2. Create a new Update Set in scope ReleaseOps
3. Switch to File Categories
4. Navigate to Data > Table and find Deployment Request Task
5. Find column Type and configure choices
6. Add the new choice values
   
7. Save

 

Part 2: Adding manual steps to the ReleaseOps pipeline

With ReleaseOps prepared for manual task types and cross‑scope playbooks, the next step is to wire everything into the pipeline. In this part, we will:

1. Create a dedicated customization scope.
2. Build two new subflows to handle manual tasks.
3. Build two new playbooks that use those subflows around the deployment steps.

The end result: your ReleaseOps pipeline will automatically pause for manual work and then recreate manual tasks when promoting from DEV to TEST and from TEST to PROD.

Create a new customization scope

To keep your changes upgrade‑safe, create a separate application scope for your ReleaseOps extensions. Steps

1. Open ServiceNow Studio
2. Click Create Application
3. Create a new application, for example: My Company ReleaseOps Extensions

Build new subflows

We will create two subflows:

• Wait for Deployment Request Tasks – checks for non‑completed manual tasks and waits until they are done.
• Clone/Copy Completed Deployment Request Tasks – recreates completed manual tasks when promoting the release (e.g., from TEST to PROD).

Subflow: Wait for Deployment Request Tasks

This subflow will be added before and after a deployment step to ensure all required manual tasks are completed. Concept

• Input: a reference to the deployment request and type selector for Pre-/Post Deployment Tasks
• Logic: Find all related Deployment Request Tasks of type Pre-Deployment Task / Post-Deployment Task that are not in a completed state. If there is at least one, wait until completed and loop again until there are no more Deployment Request Tasks
• Output: proceeds only when there are no remaining manual tasks.

Subflow: Clone/Copy Completed Deployment Request Tasks

This subflow will be used after a successful deployment to TEST to ensure the same manual steps are created again for the release to PROD. Concept

• Input: a reference to the deployment request
• Logic: Find all completed manual deployment request tasks for the source deployment (TEST). Create equivalent tasks for the target deployment (PROD), copying key fields like type, short description, and any attachments.

Build new playbooks

Instead of creating playbooks from scratch, start by duplicating the sample playbooks that ship with ReleaseOps. This way you inherit the baseline behavior and only add the steps needed for manual tasks.

You will duplicate and extend two playbooks:

1. Deployment Request Assessment – used during assessment / TEST deployment.
2. Release Deployment – used for the actual deployment to PROD.

 

Duplicate and extend the Deployment Request Assessment playbook

Steps

1. Open ServiceNow Studio
2. Switch to File Categories
3. Navigate to Automation > Playbook
4. Find Deployment Request Assessment and open it
5. In the context menu (three dots) click Duplicate
6. Make sure you duplicate to your new application scope and name the playbook like Deployment Request Assessment w/ manual tasks
7. Add the following activities to add the wait steps just before and after the Integrate Deployment Request action
   

   These actions are simply calling the subflow created earlier and set the type filter to Pre-Deployment / Post-Deployment.

8. Add the copy tasks subflow towards the end of the playbook
   
9. Activate the new playbook

Duplicate and extend the Release Deployment playbook

Steps:

1. In the playbook list on the left panel, find Release Deployment and open it
2. In the context menu (three dots) click Duplicate
3. Make sure you duplicate to your new application scope and name the playbook like Release Deployment w/ manual tasks
4. Add the following activities to add the wait steps just before and after the Release Deployment action
   
5. Activate the new playbook

Part 3: Configure ReleaseOps to use the new pipeline

Configuration of the pipeline happens on the controller instance, so make sure all changes from Parts 1 and 2 have been deployed through your stack and are available on the controller (typically your production instance).

Once that is done, configure ReleaseOps to use the new playbooks.

Create the pipeline

Steps:

1. Navigate to ReleaseOps > Pipelines on the controller instance.
2. Click New to create a new pipeline.
3. Fill in the fields, for example:
   Name: Release Pipeline w/ manual tasks
   State: Active
   Assessment Playbook: Deployment Request Assessment w/ manual tasks (or the name you used in Part 2)
   Release Playbook: Release Deployment w/ manual tasks (or the name you used in Part 2)
   Description: something like A sample 3-stage pipeline with manual steps pre/post deployment
4. Click Save.

 

Configure pipeline instances

With the pipeline record saved, configure the instances that will participate in this pipeline.

Steps:

1. On the pipeline record, scroll down to the Pipeline Instances related list.
2. Click New.
3. Fill in the fields:
   Pipeline: prefilled with the pipeline you just created.
   Deployment Instance: select your TEST instance.
   Label: Test
4. Click Submit.

If you use ATF or Instance Scan with ReleaseOps, attach any required ATF test suites or Instance Scan suites to the relevant pipeline instances according to your standards.

Bringing it all together

With these three parts in place, ReleaseOps can coordinate both automated deployments and the manual work that surrounds them. In Part 1, you updated the Deployment Request Task type and adjusted the business rules so that assessment and release playbooks can be resolved across scopes. In Part 2, you built subflows to wait for and clone manual tasks, then duplicated the out‑of‑the‑box ReleaseOps playbooks and extended them to pause around deployments and to recreate the same manual steps when promoting from TEST to PROD. In Part 3, you configured a new pipeline on the controller instance that uses these extended playbooks and the appropriate pipeline instances, so when you define your next release you can simply select this pipeline and get a consistent, three‑stage flow with manual steps before and after each deployment.

As with all custom implementations and configurations, you will own the newly created objects - like the playbooks. If at any point in the future we at ServiceNow bring updates to the samples provided, your clones will not automatically update. So it is a good idea to check our release notes for changes which could be relevant for you.