ServiceNow Runbook Template: Best Practices for Reliable Deployments

Luis Estéfano · 2 hours ago

Creating High‑Quality Runbooks: Your Blueprint for Safe, Repeatable, Production‑Ready Deployments

In every complex implementation, no matter how skilled your team is or how mature your processes are, one truth remains: Deployments succeed or fail based on preparation.

And few artifacts drive more predictable, auditable, and scalable deployments than a well‑structured Runbook.

Yet in many projects, runbooks are either created too late, inconsistently, or without enough detail—introducing risk at the most critical moment of delivery.

To help the community accelerate quality, I’m sharing a ready‑to‑use Runbook Template along with guidance on what it is, why it matters, and how to use it effectively.

What Is a Runbook?

A Runbook is a structured operational guide that documents all steps required to promote configurations, customizations, and data changes across environments (Example: Dev → Test → Pre‑prod → Prod).

Think of it as your deployment flight plan:

What needs to be deployed
In what order
Who is responsible
How to handle errors
What validations or manual actions are required

A strong runbook removes ambiguity and ensures anyone performing the promotion understands exactly what to do and when, not just the developer who built it.

Why Runbooks Are So Important

1. Reduce Deployment Risk

Dependencies, plugins, update sets, and manual tasks can break deployments. A clear runbook eliminates surprises.

2. Improve Repeatability

Standardization leads to predictable and consistent outcomes across environments.

3. Enable Cross‑Team Collaboration

Runbooks coordinate architects, developers, operations, CAB, and QA in a single operational narrative.

4. Strengthen Auditability

They provide documented evidence of due diligence and governance.

5. Accelerate Delivery

Better preparation reduces rework, change window issues, and rollout delays.

Inside the Provided Runbook Template

Your template contains three functional areas, each supporting deployment quality.

1. Runbook Steps (Main Sheet)

This is the operational core. Each row documents:

Order
Update Type (Plugin, Update Set, Manual Step)
Story / Requirement ID
Plugin / Application / Update Set Name
Scope/Application
Manual Steps
Error Handling Instructions
Owner
Promotion Dates (Dev → Qualif → Pre‑prod → Prod)

Example items from the template include:

Plugin updates (e.g., Now Assist AI Agents)
Multiple sequential update sets
Manual job execution (e.g., Import data, execute fix scripts, trigger jobs, etc)

This structure ensures everything is deployed correctly and in the right order.

2. Team Overview (Team Sheet)

This defines who is involved in the release, including roles and contributors.

Use it to:

Assign ownership
Track responsibilities
Clarify who executes what during deployment

3. Best Practices (Best Practices Sheet)

This sheet standardizes the company name convention, the following ones are just examples that you can find in the template. To be defined or aligned with company conventions.

Update Set Naming

YYYYMMDD - CUSTOMER_NAME SN USER_TRIGRAM - STORY_NUMBER - Short Description

Variable Naming

Use lowercase names, no underscores.

Configuration Record Naming

CUSTOMER_NAME -

Documentation Pattern

Document all configuration & customization through a “Technical Documentation” Scrum Task including:

Business Rules
Client Scripts
Integration details
Table/record changes

Reference Guides

ServiceNow Technical Best Practices
Global Scope App recommendations

How to Use the Runbook Template

1. Start Early

Update the runbook as development progresses, not during the sprint end panic.

2. Document Every Artifact

Include all update sets, plugins, scripts, data loads, jobs, and manual tasks.

3. Sequence the Steps

Deploy components in the correct order to avoid dependency issues.

4. Add Clear Error Handling

Specify how to recover from failures/conflicts, not just what to deploy.

5. Use the Team Tab

Make responsibilities explicit to avoid confusion during the change window.

6. Follow Best Practices Consistently

Naming, documentation, and structure reduce long‑term maintenance cost.

Final Thoughts

Creating a runbook is ultimately about reducing risk and maximizing reliability.

A high‑quality runbook:

Minimizes surprises
Improves collaboration
Accelerates approvals
Makes deployments repeatable and consistent

With the provided template and this guidance, you now have a robust, enterprise‑grade foundation for your teams and your customers.

Any feedback to improve this article is more than welcome! 🙌

We hope this article has been useful. If it truly addressed your needs, please consider marking it as helpful. If not, we’d greatly appreciate your feedback so we can improve and better support our community. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Thank you!

#runbook #deployment #development #bestpractices #updatesets #nameconvention #servicenow

Kind regards,

Luis Estéfano