Flow Designer replacing Workflow Editor - Knowledge Bases and Service Catalog?

[Community Alums]

During our most recent SNUG we were told that the current Workflow Editor capability would be deprecated in the near future with Flow Designer replacing the functionality. It was advised that when possible to leverage Flow Designer now when possible in lieu of the 'legacy' Workflow Editor. At the time someone asked if there was any specific use-cases where Workflow Editor should still be used instead of Flow Designer. No clear answer was given. The main questions I have are:

1. With Knowledge Bases and Catalog Items having direct reference fields to the legacy workflows, is there a plan to migrate those over to Flow Designer, and if so, when that may be?

2. Is it possible to have these items run off of Flow Designer now instead of legacy workflows? (We are currently on Madrid with a plan to upgrade to Orlando next spring/summer)

3. Are there any clear examples of functionality that does not exist with Flow Designer but does exist with Workflow Editor that are documented to keep in mind, or at the very least some sort of best practices of when to use one over the other?

[Michael Ritchie]

I am not sure why it was mentioned that workflow would be deprecated "in the near future".  I am not aware of any concrete timelines on when this would happen given your examples above.  There are many many places where direct references to workflow exist that would would need to be updated across the entire platform from Knowledge to Change to Service Catalog to HRSD.  Given the magnitude of this change, ServiceNow will be very clear on the upgrade path and give customers several releases to adjust - like they did with CMS to Service Portal.

So at this point I don't believe there are any good answers to your questions on planning.  I would definitely spend time learning Flow Designer and start leveraging it where possible but continue operating as you have until more information is available.

[Jeff Currier]

I totally agree with Michael.  Retiring the legacy Workflow editor in the near future doesn't seem likely.  Yes, Flow Designer is the way to go for new stuff, but as the out of the box ServiceNow solution heavily leverage Workflow I don't see it going away soon.   If you wake up one day and don't see any Workflow used in the out of the box applications, then I would worry about using only Flow Designer yourself.  In the mean time, just start leaning towards Flow Designer and continue configuring Workflows to meet your business requirements.

[Brad Tilton · Accepted solution]

I agree with Michael and Jeff here. You didn't ask this exactly, but I wouldn't look at converting your existing workflows to flow designer unless there is a compelling reason like taking advantage of IntegrationHub or some other flow designer capability.

I would try to use Flow Designer over workflow for any new process automation, if possible.

This subject is also addressed here: https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/document/content/app_store_doc_pro_dev_guide_page5_newyork...

[Community Alums]

Thanks, I agree with all the comments here. I think the way that it was presented lead to a lot of confusion so I wanted to make sure there wasn't something we weren't aware of. I can't imagine that workflow editor would go away entirely but they did state that it wouldn't be receiving much more in the way of enhancements as the focus is shifting to flow designer. Appreciate the feedback.