Reducing Skipped Records in ServiceNow Upgrades

[Mohit_Gupta]

Skipped records are a common issue in ServiceNow upgrades, often resulting from modifications made to Out-of-the-Box (OOB) records. When records are skipped, it can complicate the upgrade process and increase manual efforts. This article covers strategies for reducing skipped records in ServiceNow upgrades, ensuring smoother future upgrades.

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Overview: Skipped records are a common issue in ServiceNow upgrades, often resulting from modifications made to Out-of-the-Box (OOB) records. When records are skipped, it can complicate the upgrade process and increase manual efforts. This article covers strategies for reducing skipped records in ServiceNow upgrades, ensuring smoother future upgrades.

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Why Skipped Records Happen

Skipped records typically occur when customized OOB items, like forms, client scripts, business rules, or workflows, conflict with updates introduced during an upgrade. ServiceNow “skips” these records to preserve customizations, but managing and reducing these skips helps streamline the upgrade process and maintain a stable platform.

Steps to Reduce Skipped Records

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1. Follow Customization Best Practices

Separate Custom Records from OOB Records:

• Instead of modifying OOB forms or scripts directly, create custom versions whenever possible.
• This keeps OOB records intact, minimizing conflicts during upgrades.

Example: Rather than altering the default Incident form layout, create a Custom Incident view and apply changes there. This isolates customizations, preventing future skips on the default view.

Use Scoped Applications: For new applications or significant functionality changes, use a scoped application. Scoped applications protect customizations by isolating them from the global scope, reducing skipped records.

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2. Use Update Sets and Source Control

Track All Changes in Update Sets:

• Capture all customizations in Update Sets, naming each set clearly with details about the changes.
• This helps track modifications, making it easier to identify conflicts when upgrading.

Example: Create an Update Set for any changes to a specific module, such as Incident Management, and label it with the date and purpose (e.g., "Incident UI Changes - April 2023"). This makes it easy to revisit these changes during upgrades.

Use Source Control:

• Integrate ServiceNow with Git for customizations. Source control allows easy tracking, versioning, and comparisons for future upgrades.

Example: When modifying a business rule, save a baseline version in Git before applying changes. This way, if ServiceNow updates the rule, you can compare the baseline with the latest version.

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3. Regularly Review and Retire Customizations

Identify and Remove Outdated Customizations:

• Regularly audit customizations to ensure that only relevant configurations remain.
• Retiring outdated customizations helps reduce skipped records and keep the instance upgrade-friendly.

Example: If a custom business rule added years ago is no longer required, consider removing it or disabling it. This ensures that only active, necessary customizations remain, which reduces conflicts in future upgrades.

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4. Leverage the Upgrade Center

Use the Upgrade Center Tools:

• The Upgrade Center in ServiceNow provides tools to manage skipped records. Use it to preview potential skips and address them before production upgrades.

Preview Upgrade: Run a preview of the upgrade to identify conflicts early.

Resolve Conflicts: Use the comparison feature to assess each skipped record and decide to keep, replace, or merge changes.

Example: When the Upgrade Center flags a modified client script, compare the custom version to the OOB update and decide whether to retain, adopt, or merge changes based on current business needs.

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5. Avoid Direct Modifications of OOB Scripts

Extend or Override OOB Scripts:

• Instead of modifying ServiceNow’s core scripts or configurations directly, extend or override them through custom scripts or alternative configurations.
• This practice minimizes skipped records during upgrades by preserving original OOB scripts.

Example: If you need additional functionality in the IncidentUtils Script Include, create a new Script Include (e.g., CustomIncidentUtils) that extends IncidentUtils rather than modifying it directly.

Add New UI Policies or Rules:

• Add new policies rather than altering existing OOB ones. This ensures that any changes ServiceNow makes to the original policies don’t conflict with customizations.

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6. Document All Customizations

Maintain Detailed Documentation:

• Document the purpose and details of each customization, including the business justification, fields affected, and any dependencies.

Create a Customization Inventory:

• Track customizations in a central document or database. Include who made each change, the purpose, and dependencies to make future upgrades smoother.

Example: If a business rule was created to validate custom data fields, document the reason, the associated fields, and any scenarios where it’s applied. This makes it easier to understand and resolve conflicts in future upgrades.

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Conclusion

Reducing skipped records in ServiceNow upgrades requires a proactive approach to customization management. By following these best practices—such as using custom versions instead of modifying OOB records, leveraging the Upgrade Center, regularly auditing customizations, and documenting changes—you’ll build a more upgrade-friendly instance. Implementing these practices helps minimize skipped records, making future upgrades faster and more efficient.

Following these steps will empower your team to focus on value-added activities instead of manual conflict resolution, enhancing the reliability and efficiency of your ServiceNow platform.