Example Build Agent use cases
Summarize
Summary of Example Build Agent use cases
Build Agent in ServiceNow Zurich release is a versatile tool that supports a broad spectrum of development activities beyond basic application creation. It assists with app analysis, modernization, documentation, governance, and learning, enabling customers to enhance productivity, improve quality, and support strategic transformation across their development workflows.
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Key Features
- Documentation Creation: Automates generation of customized knowledge base articles and readme files for source code repositories, helping users understand installation, usage, and onboarding efficiently.
- Learning Assistance: Provides explanations on development practices, APIs, and platform functionality, summarizing documentation and offering examples to facilitate continuous learning.
- Brainstorming Sessions: Captures and structures application development ideas and requirements to support a documented and iterative build process.
- App Gap Analysis: Reviews existing applications to identify missing security controls, test coverage gaps, and automation opportunities.
- Security Posture Review: Audits ACLs, roles, and data filters, identifies security weaknesses, and suggests corrections to enhance compliance.
- Test Coverage Bootstrapping: Analyzes metadata for test gaps, generates Automated Test Framework (ATF) tests, executes them, and triages failures.
- Architecture Diagrams: Creates Mermaid.js diagrams illustrating table relationships and integrations for better visualization.
- Common Workflow Patterns: Scaffolds typical business processes such as intake, approval, escalation, and SLA monitoring including associated tables, flows, and notifications.
- Migration Acceleration: Converts source system definitions (SQL, CSV, text) into equivalent ServiceNow tables and automation.
- App Modernization: Transforms legacy elements like classic workflows and Jelly UI into modern flows, React pages, and structured security.
- Data-model Scaffolding: Generates tables and relationships from CSVs, spreadsheet screenshots, or plain text descriptions.
- Cross-scope Workflows: Enables building apps that interact with global tables such as Incident, enabling scenarios like automatic incident creation.
- Build from User Stories: Uses acceptance criteria from user stories to create tables, logic, and tests aligned with requirements.
- SQL to Table: Translates SQL CREATE TABLE definitions into ServiceNow table structures.
- Post-build Summaries: Produces release notes and summary documents after development completion.
- Instance Governance Setup: Creates instance scan checks to enforce naming, security, and code quality standards as part of governance.
Development Goals and Use Cases
Build Agent supports multiple development stages and goals:
- Immediate Productivity: Explains concepts, documents apps, generates diagrams, runs and triages ATF tests, and audits security posture in a zero-risk, read-only manner.
- Process and Quality Improvement: Adds fields, scripts, notifications, APIs, and test suites; automates manual processes; and enforces governance through instance scan checks.
- Strategic Transformation: Prototypes apps from descriptions, builds full applications including UI and intelligent automation, and develops from design mockups or product requirements with automated test coverage from the start.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
By leveraging Build Agent, customers can accelerate development cycles, improve documentation clarity, ensure better security and test coverage, streamline app modernization and migration, and enforce governance policies automatically. This results in higher quality applications, reduced manual effort, and enhanced developer learning and collaboration within their ServiceNow environment.
Use Build Agent for a wide range of development scenarios beyond application creation, including app analysis, modernization, documentation, governance, and learning assistance. Reference these scenarios to identify ways to apply Build Agent across your development workflow.
Documentation creation
Use Build Agent to create customized knowledge base articles and knowledge articles, so users can access information and learn the application more easily.
Build Agent can automate the creation of readme files for source code repositories. Generated readme files provide clear, structured documentation that outlines installation procedures, usage guidelines, and example snippets, which streamlines the onboarding process for new developers.
Learning assistance
Use Build Agent as a resource for learning ServiceNow application development practices. You can ask about a wide range of topics, including development techniques, available APIs, and the overall functionality of the ServiceNow AI Platform.
Build Agent supports continuous learning by summarizing relevant documentation, highlighting key points, and providing concrete examples that illustrate complex concepts. All of this helps developers grasp and apply general guidelines in their work.
Brainstorming sessions
Use Build Agent to refine application development ideas and capture structured requirements for later build steps during brainstorming sessions. Requirements are captured in detail during these sessions, supporting a structured process for developing application features. All ideas are documented so your team can reference previous discussions and integrate feedback during the development lifecycle.
Additional use cases
Use the following scenarios to identify specific ways to apply Build Agent in your development workflow.
- App gap analysis
- Summarize an existing app, identify gaps in coverage, and propose targeted enhancements. For example, Build Agent flags tables without ACLs, business rules with no test coverage, and manual steps that could be automated with flows.
- Security posture review
- Open an existing app and audit its ACLs, roles, and data filters. Build Agent identifies gaps such as tables with no ACLs, overly permissive rules, and missing role hierarchy, then generates fixes.
- Test coverage bootstrapping
- Analyze an app's metadata, identify what has zero test coverage, generate Automated Test Framework (ATF) tests for the gaps, run them, and triage failures.
- Architecture diagrams
- Generate Mermaid.js diagrams by querying and collating data from the platform.
- Common workflow patterns
- Describe a common business process, such as intake and approval, escalation routing, or SLA monitoring with dashboards. Build Agent then scaffolds the full workflow, including tables, flows, catalog items, notifications, and reporting.
- Migration acceleration
- Provide your source system's table definitions, business logic, or data model pasted as SQL, text, CSV, or screenshots. Build Agent then recreates the equivalent tables, fields, relationships, and automation on the ServiceNow AI Platform.
- App modernization
- Analyze legacy customizations such as classic workflows, Jelly UI, and script-heavy logic, then rebuild them using modern patterns: flows instead of workflows, React UI pages instead of Jelly, and structured security instead of script-based checks.
- Data-model scaffolding
- Paste a CSV file, drop a spreadsheet screenshot into the chat, or describe your data model in plain text. Build Agent generates the matching ServiceNow tables, columns, and relationships. For Excel or PDF input, convert to CSV or paste a screenshot first.
- Cross-scope workflows
- Build custom apps that write to global tables such as Incident. For example, auto-generate incidents when assets become overdue.
- Build from user stories
- Point Build Agent at a user story from the
rm_storytable or paste one from another tool. The acceptance criteria drive development, creating the tables, logic, and tests that satisfy each criterion.Note:Queryingrm_storydirectly requires the Agile Development 2.0 plugin. - SQL to table
- Paste a SQL
CREATE TABLEdefinition into the chat and Build Agent translates it into a ServiceNow table with matching column types and relationships. - Post-build summaries
- Generate release notes and summary documents after the build foundation is complete.
- Instance governance setup
- Create instance scan checks that enforce your organization's standards, including naming conventions, security requirements, and code quality. Checks run as part of your existing instance scan infrastructure.
Use cases by development goal
Use the following table to identify Build Agent use cases based on your development stage and goal.
| Use case | Immediate productivity | Process and quality improvement | Strategic transformation |
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| Explore (zero risk, read-only) |
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| Enhance (modifications, reviewable before promotion) |
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| Build (new development on non-production) |
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