Automate the recovery task generation in BCM module within plans

[Ranjeet Singh]

Hi Community,

I am currently working on the BCM (Business Continuity Management) module in ServiceNow and exploring ways to automate the generation of Recovery Tasks within Recovery Plans / BCP plans.

Current requirement:
- Whenever a new Recovery Plan is created or moved to an active/published state, recovery tasks should automatically get generated based on predefined templates or plan configurations.
- The tasks should be associated with the relevant business service, application, CI, or recovery team.
- We also want to avoid duplicate recovery task creation if the plan is updated multiple times.

I am looking for guidance on the best-practice approach for implementing this automation.

Specific questions:
1. Is Flow Designer the recommended approach for automating recovery task creation in BCM, or should this be handled through Business Rules / Workflows / Script Includes?
2. Are there any out-of-box capabilities in BCM for task template-based recovery task generation?
3. Which tables are generally involved in recovery plans and recovery tasks within BCM?
4. What is the recommended way to:
- map task templates to plans,
- assign tasks dynamically,
- and maintain scalability for large numbers of plans/tasks?
5. Has anyone implemented asynchronous processing/event-driven architecture for bulk recovery task generation to avoid performance issues?
6. How can duplicate task generation be prevented effectively?
7. Are there any best practices around:
- task sequencing/dependencies,
- SLA/RTO alignment,
- approvals,
- or notification automation?

Additionally, if anyone has implemented this using:
- Flow Designer,
- Scheduled Jobs,
- Events,
- Subflows,
- or custom scripting,

please share your approach or architecture recommendations.

Any guidance, sample design ideas, or implementation experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Ranjeet Singh 

Refer Servicenow Documentation:  Automate recovery tasks 

Role required: admin for the Workflow Studio, sn_bcm.admin, sn_bcm.program_manager, or sn_bcm.planner

Procedure

1. Navigate to Workspaces > Business Continuity Workspace and select a plan record.
2. On the Recovery tasks tab, select a manual recovery task that you want to automate.

   You can automate a manual recovery task in the business continuity plan.

3. Open Workflow Studio and select Create new subflow.
4. On the form, fill in the fields.

   For more information on creating a customized subflow for automating the tasks in the BCM application, see Create a subflow form.

   For more information on creating a subflow, see Create a subflow in Workflow Studio.

   The properties for the subflow are filled in.
5. Select Submit.
   The subflow is designed to automate the task. Within the Actions section of the subflow, the Action, Flow Logic, and Subflow tabs are displayed.
6. Create the subflow inputs to specify the data available to the subflow when it starts running.

   To establish a reference to the record linked to the task, you can specify the name and type for the input in the Inputs & Outputs section of the subflow. By defining the inputs, you can create a reference to the task responsible for executing the automation.

   
   1. Select the label for the input in the Label field.
      Within the subflow, there is a special variable known as the Current variable. When the Current variable is chosen in the Inputs section, it is automatically substituted with the task that triggered the automation. This allows for dynamic referencing and processing of the specific task within the subflow.
   2. Select the name for the input in the Name field.
      The Name field is where you must define the variable name to be current (all lower case). The Type must always be Document ID.Event task.
   3. Select the type for the input in the Type field.
      For example, you can select Document ID.Event task as the type of the input.
   4. To mark the input as mandatory, select the Mandatory option.
      For information on creating subflow inputs and outputs, see Create a subflow in Workflow Studio.
   5. Select + to add a new input.

   Once you create the flow variables, you can access them on Workflow Studio. For information on creating subflow inputs and outputs, see Create a subflow in Workflow Studio.

7. In the Actions section, select Send Email.
   Expanding the Send Email section displays the fields as shown in the example. The fields on the form are described in the table. Send Email fields   

   Action	Name of the action for the subflow. Default: Send Email
   Target Record	Associated task record that is used for the subflow.
   Table	Name of the table where the task resides. For example, event task [sn_recovery_event_task].
   Include Watermark	Option to add a watermark in the file that is associated with the task.
   To	Email addresses of the recipients that should be addressed directly.
   CC	Email addresses of the copied recipients. They can view the list of the recipients that are directly addressed in the email.
   BCC	Email addresses of the copied recipients whose names are not displayed in the email.
   Subject	Subject of the email that describes the issue and reason for sending the email.
   Body	Description and action steps about the issue.

8. Select Done.
   Once the automation is triggered, the task is considered complete. In this particular scenario, the email is automatically sent to the user that has been selected.
9. Select Update record in the Actions section of the subflow.
   You can update the original plan task to be completed by updating the record section of the subflow. 
   1. In the Action field, select Update record.
   2. In the Record field, select Current.
   3. In the State field, select closed complete.
   4. Select Done.
      The state of the record moves to Completed.
10. To publish the workflow, select Publish.
    The changes are applied to all instances where the subflow is used. Similarly, you can define new flows in the subflow that can be run as an automation.
11. Navigate to the Recovery tasks tab in the plan with the sn_bcm.program_manager role and open the manual recovery task that was being edited.
    The recovery task form is displayed.
12. In the Task classification field, select Automated to change the manual task to an automated task and select Save.
    After saving the form, the flow variables are displayed.
    When you select and save the task, the variables associated with the automated flow are displayed in the Variables field of the recovery task.
13. In the Assignment details, confirm that the Backup assignee field is filled in.

    When converting a manual task to an automated task, the Backup assignee field is displayed on the form. In the event of an error causing the automation flow to fail, an email notification is sent to the backup assignee. This email informs them about the failure of the automated flow and the need for manual intervention to resolve the task. The backup assignee can then take the necessary action to complete the task and confirm its resolution.

14. Select Save.
    The Recovery task form now includes a Task classification column where the automated tasks are displayed. These automated tasks are executed automatically by the system as part of the plan.