With the Vancouver release ServiceNow introduced Upgrade Skipped Record Rules. An awesome feature that can help customers in going through their Skipped Records every Upgrade / Patch / Hot Fix. With the introduction of Skipped Record Rules, five (5) example Upgrade Skipped Record Rules were provided (as active=false). With the Xanadu release, ServiceNow added ten (10) new Upgrade Skipped Record Rules.
Let's have a closer look! And... why you should consider disabling these new out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Record Rules.
Upgrade Skipped Record Rules (Vancouver)
In case you are not fully up-to-speed concerning Upgrade Skipped Record Rules, do catch up by reading an earlier article I published on this topic (Exploring Upgrade Center Skipped Record Rules). In short:
"After a Hot fix/Patch/Release Skipped Record Rules are automatically executed. If there are any Skipped Records matching the conditions of one of the Skipped Record Rules, those Skipped Records will be handled according to the conditions defined on the Skipped Record Rules. Skipped Record Rules can automatically update the Action and add a Comment."
New out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Record Rules (Xanadu)
Not mentioned in the Xanadu Release Notes, though turning an upgraded instance upside down, I stumbled across ten (10) newly added out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Record Rules. Nine (9) of them with active=true, and one (1) with active=false. The new Upgrade Skipped Record Rules mainly concern Skipped Records that would be classified as Priority 5. The Upgrade Skipped Record Rules added handling:
- Choices;
- Choice Sets;
- Dashboards (PA);
- Form Sections;
- Lists;
- Notifications (Email);
- Related Lists;
- Reports;
- Workflow Versions.
Usually a good chunk of all Skipped Records during Upgrades / Patches / Hot Fixes concern records for the above classes, and often will be addressed as "Reviewed and Retained". Seemingly adding out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Records does make sense looking at it from this point of view. The number of Skipped Records to review with Upgrades / Patches / Hot Fixes could be reduced heavily due to these new Upgrade Skipped Record Rules.
Consider customizing or deactivating Upgrade Skipped Record Rules
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of adding such generic out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Record Rules as active=false. Let's be honest, the majority of customers won't look in depth at these Upgrade Skipped Record Rules and will just accept these being added. The consequence will be that fewer Skipped Records are in sight and being reviewed with Upgrades / Patches / Hot Fixes. Potentially leading to not handling Skipped Records, which should have been handled. Okay, that's also a risk without Skipped Record Rules 😀, I've seen that at multiple customers due to a lack of resources and/or knowledge. When customers do not see these Skipped Records anymore, definitely more would get ignored during Upgrades / Patches / Hot Fixes. Causing customers not to stay up-to-date, not using the newest functionality, sticking with unnecessary scripting, etcetera.
Just a few examples I saw with recent customers, coincidently all in the Service Catalog area. Examples regarding Priority 5 Skipped Records, which would not be visible based on the newly added Upgrade Skipped Record Rules.
- Clear the Variable value. This feature was changed with Xanadu, adding multiple new fields, and hiding the existing field on the form lay-out. When the out-of-the-box form lay-out was touched at some moment in time, this would cause a Skipped Record. Not knowing of such a Skipped Record, most developers won't have a clue about this changed feature, and in this case even miss it since the original field is getting hidden! What ends up happening, developers visually don't see this functionality, they don't know this, and will seek workarounds like Catalog Client Scripting or worse... not clearing values at all.
- Auto-populate. A new section that got added with the Utah release on the Catalog Item form lay-out. Providing a new feature that reduced the need for Catalog Client Scripting. When the out-of-the-box form lay-out and its sections were touched at some moment in time, this would cause a Skipped Record. What ends up happening, visually don't see this functionality, they don't know this, and will stick to (complicated) Catalog Client Scripting.
- Flow, Mandatory Attachment, Hide 'Save as Draft'. All fields that got added in recent releases on the Catalog Item form lay-out. When the out-of-the-box form lay-out was touched at some moment in time, this would cause a Skipped Record. Not knowing of such a Skipped Record, most developers won't have a clue about these new fields and it's features. What ends up happening, developers visually don't see this functionality, they don't know this, and will stick to Catalog Client Scripting and in case of the Flow field... they will stick to using legacy Workflows!
Okay, more experienced developers or highly motivated developers would know of such changes when keeping up-to-date with Release Notes or like me turning instances upside down when upgrading. Though that's not how it works for the majority of developers at customers (and implementation partners!).
I would strongly suggest every customer to discuss deactivating the newly added out-of-the-box Upgrade Skipped Record Rules.
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That's it. Hope you like it. If any questions or remarks, let me know!
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Kind regards,
Mark Roethof
Independent ServiceNow Consultant
9x ServiceNow MVP
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