Clarification on OOTB Behavior for RITM and Catalog Task State Updates in ServiceNow

[abhijee]

Hello Team,

I am working on the following requirement:

When the “Backup Required” field is set to “Yes,” three catalog tasks should be created in parallel. If two tasks are closed as “Close Complete” and the third task is closed as “Close Incomplete,” then the parent RITM should also move to “Close Incomplete.” In short, if any one of the catalog tasks is updated to “Close Incomplete,” the parent RITM should also be marked as “Close Incomplete.”

I have implemented this requirement, and currently the RITM state is updating correctly to “Close Incomplete.” However, I am facing an issue where Catalog Task 1 and Catalog Task 2, which were already closed as “Close Complete,” are automatically getting updated to “Close Incomplete” after Catalog Task 3 is closed as “Close Incomplete.”

Could you please confirm whether this is expected OOTB behavior in ServiceNow, or if there might be an issue with my implementation?

Thanks.

[subhamsni92 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, this is expected OOTB behavior in ServiceNow.

When the parent RITM is moved to “Closed Incomplete,” ServiceNow triggers the OOTB Business Rule “Close Tasks Due to Cancellations” on the sc_req_item table. This Business Rule updates the associated active/related catalog tasks and can also change their state to “Closed Incomplete” or cancelled depending on the implementation and workflow behavior.

So in your scenario, when Catalog Task 3 is closed as “Closed Incomplete” and your logic updates the parent RITM to “Closed Incomplete,” the platform is then propagating that state back to the related catalog tasks through the OOTB closure/cancellation logic.

Therefore, Catalog Task 1 and 2 changing from “Closed Complete” to “Closed Incomplete” is generally tied to the standard request cancellation/closure behavior and not necessarily an issue with your implementation.

You can verify this by checking the following OOTB Business Rule:

• Name: Close Tasks Due to Cancellations

• Table: sc_req_item

You can also enable Business Rule debugging to confirm the execution flow.

Thanks.

[subhamsni92]

Hi,

Yes, this is expected OOTB behavior in ServiceNow.

There is an OOTB Business Rule named "Close Tasks Due to Cancellations" on the sc_req_item table. When the parent RITM moves to Closed Incomplete, this Business Rule updates the related catalog tasks as part of the standard closure/cancellation behavior.

So in your case, once Catalog Task 3 is closed as Closed Incomplete and your logic updates the parent RITM to Closed Incomplete, ServiceNow automatically propagates that state to the associated catalog tasks as well. Because of this, Catalog Task 1 and 2 may also move from Closed Complete to Closed Incomplete.

Therefore, this is generally expected platform behavior and not necessarily an issue with your implementation.

You can verify this by checking the Business Rule:
Close Tasks Due to Cancellations

Table:
sc_req_item

You can also enable Business Rule Debugging to trace the execution flow.

Thanks.

Please mark it helpful if it helped you.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @abhijee 

Are you using flow or legacy workflow?

[abhijee]

Hello @Tanushree Maiti ,I am using workflow.