If you've ever coordinated a big ServiceNow deployment, you know the pain. Manual exports, preview reconciliations, spreadsheets tracking who needs to run which script and when. It works, but it also ages you.
ReleaseOps, which landed in Zurich (check out our Creator Toolbox episode from last year), automates the movement and quality control of your deployment payloads across instances. Think of it as a train yard: a release is your train, deployment requests are the train cars, and if one car isn't ready, the train leaves without it. No one team holds up the whole org.
The Australia release adds something the community has been asking for for a while: Runbook Tasks.
The Problem
Up until now, the manual parts of your release process still lived outside the system. Training sign-offs, SharePoint uploads, company-specific approval gates, fixed scripts, data loads. All tracked in spreadsheets, email, or someone's memory. ReleaseOps automated the technical side, but the human side was still duct-taped together.
What Runbook Tasks Do
Runbook Tasks bring all of that into your ReleaseOps playbooks. You define manual tasks per playbook stage, assign them to people, and the playbook pauses until they're done. Simple concept, big impact.
You can place them before test deployment, after test deployment, before marking ready for production, or even post-deployment for production checkout tasks. Task types cover app installs, XML imports, scripts, update set commits, data loads, and whatever else your org needs to sign off on.
Since the tasks vary between releases, you don't need to restructure your playbooks every time. Just attach the right tasks to the right stages for that release.
Watch the Full Session
I sat down with Robert Fedoruk (@Uncle Rob), ReleaseOps Product Manager, for a full walkthrough including a live demo of Runbook Tasks in action and a Q&A covering MIF limitations, rollbacks, post-production tasks, and what's on the roadmap.
Key moments:
- 04:24 What is ReleaseOps
- 08:40 What's New in the Australia Release (Runbook Tasks intro)
- 11:05 Live Demo: Deployment Request Assessment Playbook Overview
- 12:45 Live Demo: Playbook Pause Points Explained
- 14:55 Live Demo: Runbook Tasks in Action
- 21:29 Q&A
- 30:23 Recap
Keep Going
All Developer Passport Australia sessions, replays, and blogs are available at devlink.sn/australia.
Want the limited edition badge? Head over to the badge claim post, watch at least one stream, and answer two questions in the comments. You have until March 27th.
