question Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK? in CWM forum

ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Marlon Dale — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:46:30 GMT

Exploring CWM I was wondering if there was any official documentation on use cases of when it is appropriate to create a story vs create a cwmtask when creating work items in CWM.

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Sunil B N — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 01:04:52 GMT

Hi Marlon,

That’s a great question! If there is a work which needs visibility across organisation or is tied to epic which in turn is associated with feature or program then story will be a better choice.

If the granular work doesn’t need visibility outside your “Space” with whom you’ve shared, then CWM task is more suitable option.

Nevertheless both can be executed within in a sprint but you can connect CWM to Enterprise agile planning and the same stories will be visible at ART(Agile release train) and higher levels.

Please let me know if this helps you understand the types. We will happy to answer further questions if you may have.

Best regards, Sunil B N

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Marlon Dale — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 04:32:51 GMT

So if trying to move people away from the now deprecated SAFe backlog and sprint planning how would ServiceNow like users to use stories in CWM when at the moment you can't add scrum tasks in CWM as children to stories?

How does ServiceNow want users who create Stories tied to Projects which are further broken down into smaller Scrum Tasks in the SAFe module replicate this workflow still using Stories in Sprint Planning in CWM?

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Sunil B N — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:10:11 GMT

Hi Marlon,

Currently there is no direct way to add scrum tasks (This is in our roadmap for H1 2026).
Nevertheless you can navigate to full view of story from form and add scrum tasks.
Similarly you can try to attach stories to project agile phase through forms.

In the future version, you will be able to create and manage scrum tasks within CWM.
Please let me know if you have further questions.
Thanks and regards, Sunil B N

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Alpa82 — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:13:28 GMT

Hello @Sunil B N
I would like to ask additional questions related to planning stories in CWM.

If I add a story to the sprint using the Sprint planning feature in CWM, I see the story being allocated to the sprint only in the board but I cannot see on the story [rm_story] form, in the field Sprint, any information.

Where is the information about the sprint created in the CWM stored,is there any sprint table where I can see what are all the sprints that are created in CWM and what and the connected stories?

Thank you

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Sunil B N — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:20:04 GMT

Hi @Alpa82 ,

Its stored in sn_cwm_task which references the respective story. We understand that there is no direct field on story as of now.
sn_cwm_sprint stores all the sprints which you can filter by Board.
Thanks and regards,
Sunil B N

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Alpa82 — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:59:17 GMT

Thank you @Sunil B N .

As you can understand, the user experience might be confusing.
As if I view story in CWM and it has field Sprint populated then when the same record is opened in the full view directly from CWM, the Sprint field is empty and references to different table..

Is this something that will be improved in any upcoming version, as the user experience is inconsistent in CWM?

When story opened in full view directly from CWM

Additionally, is the sn_cwm_task, with type=Story created for each rm_story record, that is added or planned in the CWM? What is the connection between the rm_story and at the sn_cwm_task, type=story?

If there is a need to build the report on stories, the report be built on the sn_cwm_task or rm_stories?
Is there some data model, that you could share which would show the connection between the different tables involved in the CWM process ?

Thank you very much

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Sunil B N — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 08:39:23 GMT

Hi @Alpa82 ,

I completely agree with you that if both Agile 2.0 and CWM sprints are in use for the same story it can be confusing to the end user.
a. Is this something that will be improved in any upcoming version, as the user experience is inconsistent in CWM?
We will definitely have more guidance on this in the future.

b. Additionally, is the sn_cwm_task, with type=Story created for each rm_story record, that is added or planned in the CWM? What is the connection between the rm_story and at the sn_cwm_task, type=story?

Yes, we create a rm_story record and create a shadow task to bind it the board through sn_cwm_task. We reference rm_stroy through task field on the sn_cwm_task.

Each CWM Board(sn_cwm_board) can have TASKs(sn_cwm_task). Each TASK(sn_cwm_task) can exist as stand alone or refer to existing task(or task extensions like story/incident/so on) record in ServiceNow.

c. If there is a need to build the report on stories, the report be built on the sn_cwm_task or rm_stories?
Ideally it would depend upon the business use case. Everything potentially can be built on sn_cwm_task table for OOTB common fields. for other task types you can dot walk on task reference. We have plans to build OOTB reporting in 2026

d. Is there some data model, that you could share which would show the connection between the different tables involved in the CWM process ?

We have multiple tables, and the model may evolve as new features are introduced

I have attached the model for reference only.

Thank you for raising these important questions. Please keep them coming—we’re happy to help.

Best Regards,
Sunil B N

Re: ServiceNow Best Practices on When to Create a Story vs CWMTASK?

Sunil B N — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 09:20:01 GMT

Hi @Alpa82
CWM Sprint info is store on sn_cwm_task as Sprints are encapsulated at Board level.
Sprint table for CWM - sn_cwm_sprint.
sn_cwm_task will have all stories reference and sprint to which they are tied to within CWM.

Please let me know if you have further questions.
Best Regards,
Sunil B N