Start with delay input properties

  • Release version: Washingtondc
  • Updated February 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Start with Delay Input Properties

    The "Start with delay" input property allows you to specify a waiting period before executing an activity or stage in a workflow, providing users the necessary time to respond or to wait for a specific date and time for actions to be completed. This feature is particularly useful in automated playbooks to enhance user interaction and timing precision.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Duration Type: Choose from various options for wait time:
      • Explicit Duration: Set a specific wait time (e.g., 5 minutes).
      • Relative Duration: Wait a specified time after a certain event (e.g., 5 minutes after the playbook starts).
      • Percentage Duration: Wait a percentage of time between the start and an end time (0-100%).
    • Wait for Template Value: Manually set or select a duration using data pills, with a maximum of 999 hours for explicit or relative durations.
    • During the Following Schedule: Use operational schedules to calculate end dates, ensuring alignment with business hours for better planning.

    Key Outcomes

    By using the "Start with delay" input property, ServiceNow customers can effectively manage the timing of workflows, ensuring that users have adequate time to engage with automated processes and that activities align with scheduled events. This feature enhances the overall efficiency of playbooks and can lead to improved user satisfaction and operational effectiveness.

    Specify a duration of time to wait before running an activity or a stage whose start rule and conditions have been met. Give users time to act during automated playbooks. Give users time to wait for a specific date and time to complete actions.

    Roles and availability

    • This input is available for all stages and common activities, except for the Placeholder activity. Users with the admin, pd_admin, pd_author, or pd_content_author can configure the properties of this input.

    Input properties

    Open the activity or stage properties panel, show additional options, and enable the Start with delay option to configure the following input properties.
    Input Type Description
    Duration Type Choice Option to specify how long of duration to wait. Options include
    • Explicit Duration: Wait for a specific time period, such as 5 minutes.
    • Relative Duration: Wait for a specific time period from a selected Duration data pill or date/time value, such as 5 minutes after the playbook starts.
    • Percentage Duration: Wait for a specific percentage of a time period between the start of the activity or stage and a specified end time, such as 50%.
      Note:
      The percentage value must be from 0 through 100 only.
    Wait for Template Value Option to set a duration value manually or to select a Duration data pill from the data pill picker (Data pill picker).
    • Explicit Duration: Wait duration in hours, minutes, and seconds.
    • Relative Duration: Wait duration in hours, minutes, and seconds before or after a specific time. Select Relative Duration to specify a wait duration from a specific date.
      Note:
      Past dates don't affect the wait duration.
    You can enter a wait value of up to 999 hours.
    Note:
    The actual wait duration can vary due to the instance processing time. The playbook always waits for the time that you specify for this field, but other work in the queue may add to the wait time.
    Wait for Percentage Integer Percentage of time to wait from a specified end date before running an activity or stage. You can manually enter an end date or select a date/time data pill from the data pill picker (Data pill picker). If you select an end date in the past, the wait duration is set to 0. This field is only available when you set the Duration Type to Percentage Duration.
    During the following schedule Reference.Schedule [cmn_schedule] Schedule used to calculate an end date that occurs during your hours of operation. For example, the calculated end date for a 10-hour duration that occurs during a 8-5 weekdays schedule will always be one or more business days in the future. If you leave this field blank, the calculated end date does not follow a schedule. For information on creating schedules, see Define a schedule.
    Note:

    Use qualifiers to restrict data that is available in the field.

    Supports reference qualifiers and advance qualifiers. For more information, see Reference qualifiers.

    Returns all matching results (no maximum).