ReleaseOps: The Control Tower for Your ServiceNow Deployments

[Laszlo Balla]

If you’ve ever chased down missing update sets, guessed which version of a script include made it to production, or been asked “what’s going live this weekend?” with no real answer, you’re not alone.

ServiceNow developers and admins have lived with the reality of manual, opaque release management for far too long. ReleaseOps, a new app on the ServiceNow platform, is here to fix that.

ReleaseOps: A Developer’s Lifeline

ReleaseOps brings visibility, automation, and governance to the release process without asking you to change how you develop. It gives you a structured, centralized way to:

• See what’s planned for a release across all teams

• Centralize and automate your quality controls like Instance Scan and ATF

• Avoid last-minute chaos through freeze dates, automated deployment flows, and per-release readiness

• Assign accountability with tasks automatically created for issues like failed tests or preview problems

• Govern what gets released with a flexible Deployment Analyzer that applies rules to what should go on-demand or be deferred

All of this is done inside the platform using the tools and data developers already know. No extra licensing, no external CI/CD required.

Say Goodbye to the Spreadsheet Releases

With ReleaseOps, the days of managing releases through spreadsheets, emails, and tribal knowledge are over. It introduces key concepts that instantly resonate:

• Releases as Containers: Think of a release as a train. Each deployment request is a car on that train, holding one or more update sets. You can load and unload cars before the train leaves, but once it does, that’s the release. No partial rides.

• Pipelines: Define your path to production once - including test, staging, or custom environments - and the automation flows handle the rest.

• On-Demand Deployments: hotfixes or trivial catalog changes? Build rules to allow lower risk changes to flow directly to prod after meeting quality control, without waiting for a release date.

Quality Control, Built In

ReleaseOps delivers automation that is intentional, governed, and smart. Every step includes real-time checks:

• ATF: Run automated tests per deployment request

• Instance Scan: Detect platform-level risks or misconfigurations using your existing scan rules

• Preview Errors: Identify collisions or instance drift before it’s too late

• Deployment Analyzer: Build rules for scope, content, or team to determine if something’s safe to push

If something breaks, ReleaseOps assigns a task to the right team; no more mystery bugs or finger-pointing.

Built for Flexibility

ReleaseOps is ready to go out of the box, but it’s also built to be customized. You can:

• Integrate lightly or deeply with Change Management

• Define your own release process with Playbooks

• Extend to CI/CD tools via APIs or future integrations with GitHub, Azure DevOps, etc.

Rather than forcing a process, ReleaseOps helps you apply it consistently.

TL;DR: You Can Stop Fighting the Platform Now

ReleaseOps gives developers and admins a real foundation for modern, confident, and fast deployments, without sacrificing governance or breaking your process.

If you’ve ever struggled with chaotic releases or lacked confidence in what’s going to prod, it’s time to take a serious look at ReleaseOps.

Watch the full episode of Creator Toolbox for a live walkthrough and start planning your journey out of update set mayhem.