5 Steps to Map Business Processes to ServiceNow Flows

Mapping business processes to ServiceNow flows is a cornerstone of aligning technology with strategic objectives – e.g. enhancing efficiency, ensuring compliance, and driving measurable business outcomes. A strategic approach not only ensures technical success but also demonstrates clear ROI and strengthens the alignment between business goals and IT capabilities.

Having made process optimization my niche specialty for the last 10+ years, here are the five steps I’ve found to be most useful in guiding ServiceNow customers through this process.

Step 1: Understand the current business process

Every successful business transformation starts with a deep understanding of the current processes:

• Engage stakeholders: Conduct workshops or interviews with process owners and end-users to identify steps, inputs, outputs and challenges.
• Document workflows: Leverage tools like Visio to create detailed process diagrams, as these tools simplify the visualization of complex workflows and ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the current process.
• Pinpoint challenges: Identify bottlenecks, repetitive tasks, and areas prone to error or inefficiency (e.g., frequent delays in ticket resolution or unnecessary approvals from C-level managers).

Aligning these findings with organizational goals fosters stakeholder buy-in and sets the foundation for impactful changes.

Step 2: Define the desired future state

Once the current state is captured, envision the ideal process:

• Set clear objectives: Define KPIs that will measure success, such as reducing ticket resolution by 20% or improving SLA compliance.
• Simplify and streamline: Identify redundant steps or manual tasks that can be eliminated. For example, manual notifications that can be automatized or even removed.
• Incorporate standards: Ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements.

Defining a practical future state in a collaborative way with stakeholders creates a shared vision and a clear blueprint that propels initiatives forward.

Step 3: Break down the process into flow components

ServiceNow’s Flow Designer empowers low-code automation, enabling users to create workflows with minimal coding knowledge. However, success lies in preparation:

• Determine triggers: Identify events that initiate the process, such as incident creation or user action.
• Specify actions: Break down each step into tasks—for instance, assigning incidents or generating approvals.
• Define conditions: Use branching logic to address variations in the process, like prioritization or assignment of incidents based on business service criticality.

Incident management use case example:

• Trigger: Incident creation.
• Actions: Assign the ticket, generate approvals, update the status.
• Conditions: Priority and assignment rules based on business service criticality.

Step 4: Build and test the flow in ServiceNow

With a well-defined blueprint, it’s time to construct the flow:

• Use Flow Designer: Drag-and-drop actions and conditions to create your process flow.
• Leverage reusable components: Build subflows for frequently used steps to save time and maintain consistency.
• Test thoroughly: Validate every aspect in a sandbox environment. Invite stakeholders to participate in user acceptance testing.

Iterative testing is critical to catching edge cases and ensuring the solution meets real-world demands. In fact, testing error scenarios is more crucial than testing the expected path to ensure comprehensive coverage. Therefore, testing should account for scenarios such as approval delays due to unavailable managers or system errors during peak usage periods.

Step 5: Deploy and monitor the flow

Deployment is just the beginning. Continuous improvement ensures long-term success:

• Track KPIs: Use ServiceNow’s Performance Analytics to monitor results against defined metrics.
• Gather feedback: Regularly survey users to identify opportunities for refinement.
• Optimize continuously: As business needs evolve, revisit and enhance the flow to maintain alignment.

Scheduling regular reviews helps adapt flows to dynamic business priorities and leverage new ServiceNow capabilities.

Evolve your processes

Mapping business processes to ServiceNow flows requires a blend of technical expertise and business insight. To achieve it, a strategic approach should be implemented. By following the five steps above, you can create solutions that deliver measurable value, foster adoption, and drive meaningful transformation. For more information on how to optimize your business processes, connect with one of our ServiceNow experts.