Workflow vs Execution Plan

[Rincy]

Recently i went through execution plans, fulfillment groups and workflows and i got confused.
In the demo site https://demo02.service-now.com/ , For the catalog item "Executive Desktop" the execution plan associated is the "PC Delivery Plan". The same catalog item is associated to two workflows - "Service Catalog Request" and "Service Catalog Item Request".
Service Catalog Request sends to approval group if the price is >1000$ and then associates with "Service Catalog Request Item".
Could you please help with answer for my question - Why do we associate the catalog item with Execution Plans and also workflows. How can a catalog item have two workflows. How does it know which one to start first ?

[NeilH2]

Rincy

I went through the same confusion and the best advice i got was - Use workflows - execution plans are a hangover from a previous version and shouldn't be used.

I'm surprised ServiceNow haven't updated their demo versions to show only workflows.

The basic setup of catalog items is:
1 catalog item == 1 workflow == 1 Request Item

The parent request has a "Service workflow" that runs on every request

Unless the parent request has been approved the request item workflow will not generate any tasks.

Hope that helps

[Rincy]

Thanks Neil.

I still have to know more about workflow. If we are going to use only the Workflows then where do we set the time for each action. The workflows mainly designs the flow of the process and i could not see any time set for each of the actions for the workflows in the demo site. There can be approval process/stages that has to be proceeded after some time period. How can this be achieved ?

[NeilH2]

Rincy

There are 2 sets of time fields in a workflow:
1. The first are time/schedule fields which are contained within the workflow propeties (top right of window).

2. Then each task has the same fields.

Now i've not used these much yet but my understanding is this if you set the Expected time on the workflow propeties, to say 10 days the Request item target date will set to 10 days in the future depending on the schedule used.

The tasks work the same way but the expected number of days on the tasks shouldnt exceed the workflow expected number of days.
for example:

Workflow 1 - expected durationis 10 days
Task 1 - expected Duration is 2 Days
Task 2 - expected Duration is 2 Days
Task 3 - expected Duration is 5 Days
(1 day extra for leeway)

Neil

[Rincy]

Thank you for explaining but does it mean that once we set the expected time to 10 days, the time is divided between the different catalog tasks. If so on what basis it is divided ?