Questionnaire activity

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Questionnaire Activity

    The Questionnaire activity in ServiceNow Playbooks enables you to collect user inputs during a playbook run without needing to create a dedicated data table. It replaces the older Collect User Data activity and is suitable when you do not require data reporting or usage outside the playbook. If data persistence or reporting is necessary, the User Form activity should be used instead.

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    Key Features

    • Roles and Access: This activity is available to users with admin, playbook.admin, or pdauthor roles and is accessible as a common activity in playbooks.
    • Flexible Input Collection: Allows adding and editing questions directly in the questionnaire tab, enabling dynamic data collection, such as addresses or yes/no questions, which can influence playbook flow.
    • Common Activity Properties: Configure labels, descriptions, run conditions, and scheduling rules to control when and how the activity or its stage runs within the playbook.
    • Assignment Controls: Limit who can perform or edit the activity using Assignment Group and Assigned To inputs, which by default map to the trigger record’s assignment fields to control data access effectively.
    • Outputs: The collected data is referenced as a record accessible to subsequent activities through the pill-picker for easy data use and dot-walking within the playbook.

    Practical Application

    Use the Questionnaire activity when you need to gather user inputs temporarily during a playbook run without creating new tables or requiring data for reporting. This activity is ideal for interactive decision-making steps, such as verifying information or collecting simple user responses that influence the playbook’s next steps.

    By configuring assignment groups and users, you can control access to the questionnaire, ensuring appropriate users can view and edit the data. Scheduling and run conditions allow you to precisely time the questionnaire’s execution within the broader playbook workflow.

    Next Steps

    • Create or edit questionnaires to suit your data collection needs during playbook runs.
    • Configure activity properties, including assignment and scheduling, to align with your process requirements.
    • Leverage outputs to pass collected data to other activities for dynamic, data-driven automation within the playbook.

    Collects inputs from a user during a playbook run to use later in the playbook.

    The questionnaire activity replaces the Collect User Data activity, but does not require you to create a data definition. Use the questionnaire activity if:
    • You don't have a table already,
    • You don't need to run reports on the collected data,
    • And you don't need to use the data outside of the playbook.
    If you already have a table to store the collected data, use the User Form activity.

    Roles and availability

    This activity is available as a common activity. Users with the admin, playbook.admin, or pd_author can add this activity to a playbook.

    During a playbook run, you can use data definitions to potentially:
    • Collect a shipping address, then reference the address when generating a shipping label.
    • Ask the user "yes" or "no" questions, and determine subsequent activities based on the user's responses.

    Common properties

    These properties are common to all to activities in Playbooks.

    Open the activity properties panel and configure your activity to add values for the following inputs. If the input value varies, use the pill-picker to show where to get the value. To learn more about the pill-picker, see .
    Input Type Description
    Label String Title to display as activity and playbook card.
    Description String Information to display about activity usage or outcome.
    Run condition Condition Builder Conditions that must be met to run an activity or stage. You can use data from prior activities to build conditions.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.
    Start Rule Choice Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your stage should start running:
    • When process starts: Your stage starts running as soon as the playbook starts.
    • After specific stages: Your stage starts running after specified stage(s) have finished running.
    Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your activity should start running:
    • When stage starts: Your activity starts running as soon as its stage starts running. Your stage starts running when your playbook is triggered.
    • After specific activities: Your activity starts running after specified activities have finished running.
    Start with delay True/False Option to wait for a duration of time before running an activity or stage. When enabled, this input displays the Start with delay input properties.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.

    Questionnaire

    In the Questionnaire tab, you can:
    • Add questions for agents to respond to,
    • Edit existing questionnaires.
    To learn more about adding or configuring questions, see Create a new questionnaire.

    Inputs

    Many of these inputs are common to activities in Playbooks.

    After configuring the required inputs for your activity, you can also choose to configure additional inputs. In the side panel, select Show additional options to display these advanced inputs. For more information, see Activity experience.
    Input Type Description
    Assignment Group for this Process Step Reference.Group [sys_user_group] Assignment group allowed to perform this playbook activity. If you don't set any values for Assignment Group or Assigned To, any user can read and edit the collected data. The Assignment group and Assigned to fields limit who has access to do so. To specify only individual users, use the Assigned To field. The same users do not need to be specified in both fields.
    Note:
    By default, these fields are mapped to the Assignment Group and Assigned To fields of the trigger record. This means that users assigned to work on the parent record have access to submit, view and edit the collected data by default.
    Assigned to this Process Step Reference.User [sys_user] User allowed to perform this playbook activity. If you don't set any values for Assignment Group or Assigned To, any user can read and edit the collected data. The Assignment group and Assigned to fields limit who has access to do so. To specify only individual users, use the Assigned To field. The same users do not need to be specified in both fields.
    Note:
    By default, these fields are mapped to the Assignment Group and Assigned To fields of the trigger record. This means that users assigned to work on the parent record have access to submit, view and edit the collected data by default.

    Outputs

    These outputs can provide data to other activities in your playbook. You can access this data as activity inputs when you configure your activity:
    Output Type Description
    Record Reference.Flow Data Reference to record containing collected data. Use the pill-picker to dot-walk to Outputs > Record > Vars to see all collected data. To learn more about the pill-picker, see .