About Skipping a Release During Upgrade – Will Features from Skipped Versions Be Carried Forward?

[Shravan Gatty]

Hi all,
I have a question regarding ServiceNow upgrades.
Let’s say my organization is upgrading the instance directly from the Washington DC release to Yokohama, skipping the Xanadu release in between.
For example consider a scenario  that while i am  going through the Yokohama release notes, I noticed that there are no specific updates for Flow Designer. However, the Xanadu release introduced a new Flow Designer feature called Feature XY.
Since we’re skipping Xanadu and moving directly to Yokohama, I’d like to understand:

Will the Feature XY introduced in the Xanadu release still be available after upgrading to Yokohama?
>>If yes, could someone explain why it is included even though we’re skipping Xanadu?
>>If no, what is the reasoning behind it?
I'm asking this because while testing after the upgrade, I want to ensure I account for all new features, changes, or deprecations, including those introduced in skipped versions.
Thanks in advance for your time and insights!

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @Shravan Gatty 
There are OOTB (Out-of-the-Box) modules that get upgraded as part of the upgrade process. So, in your case, if you skip one release and go from Xanadu to Yokohama, you will receive all the updates related to OOTB modules. However, if you have installed any plugins, you will need to update them if a new release is available for those plugins. The same applies to Flow Designer as well. Flow Designer and any other products we use are coming from plugins, so in this case, you need to update the required plugins. Therefore, before you start testing a new release, make sure all the installed plugins are updated.

[Shravan Gatty]

Thank you @Dr Atul G- LNG 

[Ankur Bawiskar · Accepted solution]

@Shravan Gatty 

yes features available in Xanadu should be available in Yokohama as well unless ServiceNow has deprecated it and they have mentioned the same in Yokohama release notes.

So you need not worry on it.

Reasons

1) Cumulative Upgrades: ServiceNow upgrades are cumulative. This means that all features, enhancements, and fixes introduced in previous releases (including Xanadu) are included in the latest release (Yokohama). So, Feature XY introduced in Xanadu will be available after upgrading to Yokohama.

2) Backward Compatibility: ServiceNow ensures backward compatibility by incorporating all changes from previous releases into the latest one. This approach helps maintain consistency and ensures that no features are lost during the upgrade process

Also if your instance contains customizations that conflict with out-of-box updates (e.g., Feature XY), these updates might be marked as "skipped" during the upgrade process. You can review and resolve skipped updates using the Upgrade Monitor to ensure the feature is properly applied

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.

[Shravan Gatty]

Thank you @Ankur Bawiskar  really helpful✨