Decision Tables FAQ - Workflow Automation CoE

[Lisa Holenstein]

Workflow Automation CoE > Decision Tables > FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get Decision Tables?

With the Washington DC Release, Decision Builder is now integrated into Workflow Studio. Access Decision Builder alongside other powerful tools such as Flow Designer and Playbooks to seamlessly integrate decision tables with workflows.

Is a license required to use Decision Tables?

The short answer is no, Decision Tables are a platform product, included with any ServiceNow subscription.

Decision tables take advantage of an existing data model to store these records as metadata, and do not require table extensions or consume table subscription units.

Background Info:

Since the San Diego release, Decision Tables allow you to use a range of different result types, like String, Integer, Choice, and more (see Options in Docs).

Prior to the San Diego release, Decision Tables only supported the reference result type. Therefore, in order to use it, you’d have to either already have a table that houses options for your results (e.g., Assignment Group, Priority), or you needed to create a custom table to house possible result answers, which may count as (bundled) custom tables.

Who can use Decision Tables?

Decision Tables are available for all levels of developers, including no- and low-coders. Experienced low- and pro-code developers can benefit from their understanding of the ServiceNow table architecture and thus make use of reference tables. Low- and no-code developers can either use simple inputs, conditions, and outputs or even not interact with the decision on the Now Platform at all and instead edit and maintain the decision in Excel instead.

How can I add an otherwise option?

[Update for Utah Release]

We’ve released a native Default result option to Decision Builder in the Utah release.

For instances prior to Utah, you can use one of these workarounds:

• Make use of the “Include Otherwise” option in the “Make a Decision” flow logic (only available if you’re using branches)
• Add a condition row that is “not one of” the other options above (e.g., row 1: country = USA, row 2: country = UK, row 3: country is not USA or UK)
• Create a condition that will never apply (e.g., row 1: price between $0-$100, row 2: price more than $100, row 3: price is less than $0)

How can I delete a decision table draft that's no longer needed?

Navigate to sys_decision_delta.list and delete the draft from there.

How can I make decisions based on Catalog Variables?

You have 2 options:

1. More flexible: Create inputs for each variable of the corresponding type (string, date, integer, reference, etc.), then map the outputs of the Get Catalog Variables action to the Decision Table inputs.
2. Fewer inputs: Use a Reference Input for the Requested Item (sc_req_item) table, then add a condition column by selecting Field -> choose Variables (scroll all the way down) -> then search and scroll to find the exact variable for your catalog item for your condition.

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[Mariah Lea]

Hi Lisa,

Its very possible I dreamt this scenario 😀, but I thought the decision_result_editor role was intended for process managers so they could update the result of a condition as needed in production.

Our example is for Code of Ethics Approvals. The developer built the conditions and initial results, but we thought we could allow the COE folks to edit the approvers (results) as responsibilities change within their group.

If this was not the intent of the decision_result_editor role and the results should not be edited in production please let me know. I will be sad though as we were excited about allowing these changes without all the paperwork and processes of a production change.

Thank you so much!

Mariah Thomas / KeyBank

[Lisa Holenstein]

@Mariah Lea Can you please let me know which release your instance is on and check the Application Manager for updates to the Decision Builder and Decision Table Builder store apps.
If you're on a Vancouver instance, those should be v5.0.0 and v5.0.2, on a Washington DC instance (e.g. test on a PDI) those should be v6.1.0.

[Mariah Lea]

@Lisa Holenstein -  Hi Lisa, we are on Vancouver and I confirmed we are up to date on Decision Builder and Decision Table Builder.

[Lisa Holenstein]

@Mariah Lea Thank you for checking! Would you please be so kind and submit a case to support so our teams can investigate?

Thank you,

Lisa

[Mariah Lea]

@Lisa Holenstein - We have had a case open since October (CS6944796). It wasn't until recently that I thought maybe I was misunderstanding the intent when it came to process managers having the ability to update results in production. There are pretty detailed notes in the case from my tests late last week. Thank you so much! Mariah

[Robert Polickos]

@Lisa Holenstein  Do Decision Tables count against the Custom Table allotments?

[Lisa Holenstein]

@Robert Polickos 
Decision tables take advantage of an existing data model to store these records as metadata, and do not require table extensions or consume table subscription units.

[drelo]

@Lisa Holenstein Hi Lisa,

Thank you for all of the amazing content you share, it's always appreciated!

We've recently been leveraging decision tables in flows & have found them to be incredible useful/powerful. I've just started looking at using decision tables with CMDB reference lookups & have hit a bit of a road block. It don't seem to be able to utilise reference fields (input being CI sys_Id) like class when creating new condition columns in the standard view. The decision rule view seems to be a bit hit & miss too. Are their any limitations around using decision table with CMDB tables?

[Lisa Holenstein]

Hi @drelo!

Thank you for reaching out! I'm glad the content is useful to you 🙂

I've not tested Decisions with the CMDB much, this is an interesting use case! What kinds of decisions do you plan to make for the CMDB? Have you added the CMDB table as a reference input or just by the sys_id?

[drelo]

Hi @Lisa Holenstein

We currently have some complex decision logic coded into some our event management integrations, where we cannot get the outcomes we need using the standard event management priority engine. An example would be, if we receive an event for a monitored router, we need to look at values like class, support type, client tier, paired product, etc to decide what incident impact/urgency values to set in the create task sub flow action.  Decision tables would allow us to decouple this logic from code & empower non dev users to append as needed too.

I managed to get this to work. The only caveat was that I needed to use the advanced decision rule view to specify the CI class (from the cmdb_ci reference input) as the class cannot be selected natively in the standard conditional column view. I think the is just because the sys_class_name is a label, not a true choice field.  

[Sam Goode]

Hi @Lisa Holenstein 

This is really useful thankyou. 

Regarding this part: "Decision tables take advantage of an existing data model to store these records as metadata, and do not require table extensions or consume table subscription units.", would it be possible to update the ServiceNow Custom Table Guide to clarify this here please?