Is Workflow Editor being replaced by Flow Designer?

[Adam2]

Hello,

Around 3 weeks ago on ServiceNow Scripting classes trainer said that Workflow Editor will be replaced by Flow Designer. Actually he mentioned that it won't be decommissioned just no new features will be added and we can expect only security updates (if any), overall recommendation is to use Flow Designer for all new WF.

Do you know where I can find any official information, doc or KB? I only saw info on community pages, but I would like to find something official.

Thank you,
Adam

[Ashutosh Munot1]

Hi,

I dont think we have a official document for that yet. But servicenow will always mail the clients if they are going to stop supporting the product or module.

Workflow will remain but no future updates to it. Flow designer is a way to go ahead and is in demand now.

Thanks,
Ashutosh

[Pradeep Sharma · Accepted solution]

Hi Adam - Unfortunately nothing is documented as of now. 

As of this writing, there are no plans to remove workflows. You  can still use workflows. With respect to Flow Designer, the strategic position is to make the next workflow engine for the masses. The current graphical workflow has been in place since 2008 and isn't "citizen developer friendly". Flow Designer, and accompanying IntegrationHub are intended to be available to the "drag-n-drop" users in your organizations. Right now Flow Designer can replace many business rules scheduled jobs, and workflows. To me, it's on a different level than the graphical workflow engine. In my experience, admins have tended to build out fairly monolithic workflows using the legacy engine. These were challenging to build, debug, and maintain. Flow Designer breaks this down, much like business rules to be more discrete and thus easier to build and manage.

Reference : https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=e93e47eddb9cdbc01dcaf3231f96...

- Pradeep Sharma

[Michael Jones -]

Flow Designer has been the recommended solution for while, but as mentioned there is nothing documented to that effect exactly, just some articles and snippets extolling the virtues of flow vs workflow. Basically the approach I've been taking is "if you can use flow designer, then do so" - this helps keep everything in line with future upgrades and enhancements where possible. 

That being said, flow designer is not - entirely - a 1 to 1 replacement for workflow and in some ways has a much greater ability (closer to a business rule) but in some ways much less flexibility (harder to utilize custom code) than workflow. 

So, the best advice I can offer is: use Flow if you are able, but if the functionality in flow impedes or over complicates your solution, use workflow when necessary! It will be around and supported for a long time to come due to its legacy nature as the go-to for so many scenarios!

Hope this helps!

 If this was helpful or correct, please be kind and click appropriately!

Michael Jones - Proud member of the CloudPires Team!

[Adam2]

Thank you fro quick answer!