Low-Code Apps For Dummies®, ServiceNow Special Edition (Chuck Tomasi Brad Tilton) (Z-Library)

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These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

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These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Low-Code Apps ServiceNow Special Edition by Chuck Tomasi and Brad Tilton

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These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Low-Code Apps For Dummies®, ServiceNow Special Edition Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, The Dummies Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. ServiceNow and the ServiceNow logo are registered trademarks of ServiceNow. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, or how to create a custom For Dummies book for your business or organization, please contact our Business Development Department in the U.S. at 877-409-4177, contact info@dummies.biz, or visit www.wiley.com/go/ custompub. For information about licensing the For Dummies brand for products or services, contact BrandedRights&Licenses@Wiley.com. ISBN: 978-1-119-82038-3 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-119-82039-0 (ebk). Some blank pages in the print version may not be included in the ePDF version. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Publisher’s Acknowledgments Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Project Manager and Development Editor: Carrie Burchfield-Leighton Sr. Managing Editor: Rev Mengle Acquisitions Editor: Ashley Coffey Business Development Representative: Cynthia Tweed Special Help: Donna Tomasi, Todd Zambrovitz

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Table of Contents iii These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 About This Book ................................................................................... 1 Foolish Assumptions ............................................................................ 2 Icons Used in This Book ....................................................................... 2 Beyond the Book .................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 1: Beginning with a Plan .............................................................. 5 Before You Build: Asking the Right Questions .................................. 5 Making Permanent Decisions ............................................................. 8 Deciding where to build your app ................................................ 8 Naming your tables and fields ...................................................... 9 Identifying the Prerequisites for Building an App ............................ 9 CHAPTER 2: Storing Your Information .................................................... 11 Getting to Know Your Toolbox .......................................................... 11 Making Choices about Your Tables .................................................. 12 Extending a table .......................................................................... 13 Uploading a spreadsheet ............................................................. 15 Creating a table from scratch ...................................................... 16 Creating Fields .................................................................................... 17 Choice fields versus reference fields .......................................... 19 Field attributes .............................................................................. 20 Putting the Finishing Touches on Your Tables ................................ 21 Choosing a table label .................................................................. 21 Picking a table name .................................................................... 21 Making your table extensible ...................................................... 22 Auto-numbering your records .................................................... 22 Managing Access ................................................................................ 23 CHAPTER 3: Creating Amazing Experiences ....................................... 25 Using Forms and Lists ........................................................................ 25 Taking It Mobile .................................................................................. 28 Working with Workspaces ................................................................. 29 Building a Portal Experience ............................................................. 30 Using Reports and Dashboards ........................................................ 30 Low-Code Apps

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iv Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. CHAPTER 4: Logic and Workflow ................................................................. 33 Building Dynamic Form Logic ........................................................... 33 Validating and Simplifying Updates with Business Rules .............. 34 Controlling Your App with Flow Designer ....................................... 36 Connecting to Third-Party Systems with IntegrationHub .............. 38 Using Notifications to Communicate ............................................... 39 CHAPTER 5: More Low-Code Capabilities ............................................. 41 Building a Chatbot .............................................................................. 41 Components of Virtual Agent ...................................................... 42 Benefits of Virtual Agent .............................................................. 43 Testing Your App ................................................................................ 44 Components of ATF ...................................................................... 45 Benefits of ATF .............................................................................. 45 Sending Surveys ................................................................................. 46 Offering Self-Paced, Onscreen Training .......................................... 47 Adding Intelligence ............................................................................. 48 Requesting help ............................................................................ 49 Requesting information ............................................................... 49 Performance Analytics ................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 6: Ten Tips for Low-Code App Development ............. 51 Make a Plan ......................................................................................... 51 Name Tables and Fields .................................................................... 51 Consider Common Personas and Roles .......................................... 52 Use Good Form and List Layout ....................................................... 52 Take Advantage of Different Field Types ......................................... 52 Avoid Deleting Records ...................................................................... 52 Test Your App ...................................................................................... 53 Get Familiar with the Commonly Used Tables ............................... 53 Limit the Number of Records Retrieved in a Report ...................... 53 Work with Your Developers .............................................................. 53

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Introduction 1 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Introduction When it comes to digital transformation, many organiza- tions need to move faster to meet changing business requirements  — and it takes a lot of software in the form of applications (apps) to accelerate and improve how work gets done. In the past, IT was the go-to group for getting those apps built and delivered. These days, IT teams are pretty maxed out, and project backlogs are commonplace. The good news is that you can increase your app delivery capacity by empowering more people to build applications with less complexity. And that’s exactly the premise behind low-code development. About This Book This book explains how anyone can automate, extend, and build digital workflow apps across their organizations by using the low-code capabilities of ServiceNow Creator Workflows. Powered by the Now Platform, ServiceNow Creator Workflows combines the capabilities of App Engine and IntegrationHub so your organi- zation can tap into the benefits of low-code application delivery. Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition, consists of six chapters that explore the following: » Creating a plan for your app (Chapter 1) » Basic data setup techniques (Chapter 2) » Creating an amazing experience for your app’s users (Chapter 3) » Building logic to unlock productivity (Chapter 4) » Additional low-code capabilities to add to your app (Chapter 5) » Low-code tips and tricks from the experts (Chapter 6)

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2 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Foolish Assumptions We made some assumptions about you, our reader, when we wrote this book. Mainly, we assume the following: » You’re a subject matter expert in your role. You may be a business analyst, specialist, or senior member of a team. Whether you’re in the accounting, legal, marketing, or safety department, you know your stuff. » You’re in an organization that’s changing. Business requirements evolve. Either you’re fortunate enough to have to scale quickly, or you’re being asked “to do more with less.” Either way, yesterday’s techniques and technologies just aren’t effective today. » You don’t create applications for a living. You didn’t go to school for a computer science degree, and you’ve likely never written any code. » You recognize that you have ad hoc processes. These processes may use email, spreadsheets, or perhaps even paper (gasp!). You also recognize that these processes could be improved with digital transformation. Icons Used in This Book Throughout this book, we use icons in the margins to draw your attention to certain kinds of information. Here’s what the icons mean: This book is a reference, which means you don’t have to memo- rize it, and there won’t be a test on Friday. But when we tell you something so important that you should commit it to memory, we use the Remember icon. Whenever you see the Tip icon, you can be sure to find some use- ful nuggets of information that save you time or money or just make your life a little easier — at least when it comes to develop- ing apps.

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Introduction 3 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. The Warning icon alerts you to things that could cause you big headaches. Think of these as orange cones in the road, warning you about an open manhole cover. Sure, you could ignore them, but you may take a nasty fall. Beyond the Book This book focuses on the conceptual steps to building an app and points out many low-code capabilities within ServiceNow Creator Workflows that enable you to build those apps, but we don’t have room for detailed “how-to” information. If you want even more information, check out the following resources: » servicenow.com/workflows/creator-workflows.html: Visit the ServiceNow Creator Workflows page to discover more about building connected digital workflow apps with a low-code platform. » developer.servicenow.com/builder: The Service Now Builder Page has plenty of beneficial links to help you get started fast. Get a free personal developer instance, helpful videos, online learning plans, and more. » devlink.sn/builder-videos: This video series takes you through the “how-to” steps of building an example app by using the concepts and capabilities presented in this book. » knowledge.servicenow.com: This link takes you to ServiceNow’s annual Knowledge Conference page. The CreatorCon event at Knowledge contains many hands-on labs tailored to you, the builder. Sign up to stay informed about Knowledge keynotes, speakers, and events. » docs.servicenow.com: The ServiceNow product documen- tation site has full documentation to the various platform capabilities mentioned in this book. » community.servicenow.com: If you find yourself in need of help, the thousands of subject matter experts in the ServiceNow community are eager to offer help on a variety of topics.

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4 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. ServiceNow invites you to have a discussion with your ServiceNow account team for other opportunities like hands-on workshops, webinars, and more. If you don’t have an account representative yet, no problem. To connect with a rep, visit www.servicenow. com/contact-us.html.

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CHAPTER 1 Beginning with a Plan 5 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Chapter 1 IN THIS CHAPTER » Asking the right questions before building an app » Knowing what goes into good app design » Identifying what you need to get started building an app Beginning with a Plan You probably wouldn’t head out on a road trip without at least a general idea of how to get where you’re going — at least not if you want to get there anytime soon. Planning is essential in life, as well as in app development. In this chapter, you discover the importance of planning and the key questions to ask yourself before you start building your app. You also find topics to consider to ensure you achieve the best possible outcome for your app. Before You Build: Asking the Right Questions To help you determine how to best utilize the features in Creator Workflows to build an app that maximizes business value for your organization, take a look at the following questions and consider your answers: » What are the goals, objectives, and outputs of your app? In other words, what business problem are you trying to solve? Without a specific business objective, you’ll have difficulty measuring the success of your app or justifying its continued use within the organization.

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6 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Before you start building, begin with the end in mind. Understanding and visualizing (virtually or on a whiteboard) your desired solution helps determine the remaining steps in building your app. Often, the outputs are the drivers for the inputs. If you’re trying to speed up a process, for example, knowing your output metrics can help make clear what to measure. If you’re managing assets, perhaps cost and location are more important than the minute details of each item. Identifying your goals and objectives ensures you can manage conversations with key stakeholders so your app is specifically addressing your desired business outcomes. Here’s an example of a clear objective: Reduce the time it takes to route and approve time-off requests from five days to less than one day. » Are you taking a spreadsheet and turning it into an app in ServiceNow, or does the app exist somewhere else? This question impacts your approach for building the app because there are different tools within the platform to support your efforts. Take this opportunity to review and revise your process. Too many times, processes are dictated by limitations of legacy tools. Don’t cripple your new app by trying to make it work like the old one did. After all, if the old app worked perfectly, you wouldn’t be building a new one, right? » Who will be using your app? Identifying your target audience has a direct impact on the features your app will provide, the data it will capture, and the interface you’ll need to provide for your app. » Do you want everyone to have the same ability to see and edit fields, or will some people need more or less access than others? Security is a significant and ever- growing concern in most organizations, so identifying who has access to what during the planning stage is a critical step in app development. » What will the users do with the app? Will they be provid- ing information, collecting information, routing information, requesting information, looking up information, and/or collaborating on information? Identifying these actions establishes the features and functions you need to build into your app.

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CHAPTER 1 Beginning with a Plan 7 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. » Where is the data coming from? One of the most common assumptions is that data will be entered by people. Some data (like users, departments, and locations) may already be available within your ServiceNow instance (your very own installation of ServiceNow software in the cloud). You may also find that you require data from an external data source that you need to import. When necessary, leverage existing data sources to avoid data entry duplication and make sure your app has the data it needs to meet its business objectives. » How will people interact with your app? Will they use desktop computers, mobile devices, or both? Understanding how people access your app impacts how your app will function. Will they take action with a swipe of a finger or click of a mouse? » Can you walk through one or more example use cases or scenarios? Walking through an example use case, or “day in the life of,” is a great way to discover an app’s requirements. » Is there an existing app or template in ServiceNow that already does (most of) what you need? Why reinvent the wheel? If there is an app or app template that does what you need, or close to it, look at the possibility of using or extending that existing app. Many organizations think that their processes are unique when they’re actually pretty similar to what other organiza- tions have done before. Take advantage of that similarity. » How will you measure the success of your app? If your app is meeting a business purpose, you may want to provide reports showing usage, adoption, and key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with the app to show outcomes achieved. » Is this a good fit? Not every app idea makes for a good fit for a Creator Workflow. In general, your app is a good fit if it involves • Simple forms • Task management • Repeatable processes • Excel-driven processes • Request fulfillment

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8 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. • Third-party integration • Orchestrating multiple systems If your app involves the following, then ServiceNow probably isn’t what you need: » Unstructured data » Graphics processing or streaming video or audio » Unrepeatable processes Make sure your app is a good fit for ServiceNow before you start building. Making Permanent Decisions When you’re building an app, you’ll inevitably take some steps that are irreversible. You need to be aware of what these irre- versible steps are so you can plan in advance and make the right moves. Deciding where to build your app Proof of concept (PoC) app builds can be built in a personal developer instance that you get from the developer portal (developer.servicenow.com/builder). These instances are named something like dev12345.service-now.com. You can rebuild PoC apps, but don’t import them from your per- sonal developer instance into your organization’s instance. There is information included with your app that indicates where it was built. If you bring the app over from your personal developer instance, life will be a lot harder when you try to get your app in to production. Apps that your organization will actually use (for example, pro- duction apps) should be created in your organization’s developer instance so the app can follow your organization’s testing and deployment process. See your ServiceNow System Administra- tor for more details about which instance to use for an app that will eventually be deployed to your organization’s production instance.

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CHAPTER 1 Beginning with a Plan 9 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Naming your tables and fields After your app is created, you’ll most likely be creating new tables and fields for it. Tables and fields have both labels (displayed in your browser and mobile user interface, or UI) as well as internal database names. Labels can be edited and even translated later, but internal database names can only be edited at creation time. For tables, a label like “Safety issues” may produce a name of x_snc_safety_safety_issues. For consistency, use singu- lar table names. ServiceNow automatically produces plural labels where needed. Also, avoid redundancy in the table name; x_snc_safety_issue proves a lot less troublesome than x_snc_safety_safety_issue when you’re maintaining your app down the road. Similarly, you may be tempted to build fields with verbose labels, such as “How many widgets do you require?” This translates into a field named how_many_widgets_do_you_ require_ (because spaces and symbols become underscores in the database). This field label is troublesome for users because it may not be displayed as expected and developers will have to deal with an awful field name in their scripts. Instead, consider just labeling the field “Widgets” to create a field called widgets. You can always relabel, but you can’t rename. If you want to pro- vide a longer description, ServiceNow offers hover-over tips and clickable links. Identifying the Prerequisites for Building an App Before building your app, you need the following: » A ServiceNow instance: You can get one for free at the ServiceNow developer portal (developer.servicenow. com/builder). » An admin or the sn_app_eng_studio.user role in that ServiceNow instance: The latter is a role with fewer privileges than the admin role, but it still allows for app development.

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10 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. The ServiceNow developer portal has something to offer all skill levels when it comes to solving real business problems using Cre- ator Workflows, so don’t let the name developer throw you off. Take a look at the low-code builder content. There you can find the following free perks: » A personal developer instance (PDI): You can use your own instance running the supported ServiceNow release of your choice. Use your admin-level access to configure the instance and make amazing apps. » Early access: Developer program members get access to the latest ServiceNow releases before they’re generally available to the public. » Training: Gain access to free learning plans, best practices, videos, and training modules. » Online and in-person events: As part of the developer program, you’re invited to ServiceNow developer events such as CreatorCon at the company’s annual Knowledge Conference, as well as virtual and local events like hack- athons, hands-on workshops, labs, meetups, and much more. » Community: Get access to developer-oriented forums designed to help you build better apps. You can connect with and get guidance from other ServiceNow developers through online forums and in-person meetups.

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CHAPTER 2 Storing Your Information 11 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Chapter 2 IN THIS CHAPTER » Seeing what tools you have at your disposal » Working with tables » Making the most of fields » Paying attention to other table creation details Storing Your Information After you’ve planned your app (see Chapter 1), you’re ready to build your tables to store your data. In addition, you’ll create fields in tables, possibly loading the table(s) with data and making sure the right people can access that data. Getting to Know Your Toolbox When it comes to storing your information, you have a few tools at your disposal: » App Engine Studio (AES): AES provides you with a guided experience to create everything you need for your low-code app. You can begin with a template or start from scratch. Building the tables; importing spreadsheets, workflows, and user experiences; and managing security are fast and easy with AES. » Studio: If you want to dig in deeper to some of the additional capabilities, Studio keeps track of your app’s components (or files). Among developers, this is known as an integrated development environment (IDE).

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12 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. » Now Experience UI Builder: UI Builder allows you to create workspace and portal experiences using a drag-and-drop interface. From simple page layout to advanced component configuration, UI Builder offers a lot. » Flow Designer: Flow Designer enables process owners to use natural language to automate approvals, tasks, notifica- tions, and record operations without having to code. Be sure to work with your account team when considering build- ing apps. Some capabilities may require additional licensing. Making Choices about Your Tables For creating tables, ServiceNow offers three methods: » Upload a spreadsheet: Use the spreadsheet columns to define your new fields and, if you want, import the data. » Create from an existing table: Also known as extending a table, you can leverage an existing table to instantly create fields, logic, and more. This is a great way to accelerate your app creation. » Create a table from scratch: You can build a new table and fields from the ground up. This method gives you total control over what information you want to store, but it may require a bit more work than the other two methods. The ServiceNow app screen with your choices of methods is illus- trated in Figure 2-1. Uploading a spreadsheet is available only through AES or when creating a new application in Studio. When you create a table from scratch, you can’t go back and make it an extended table. Likewise, when you create an extended table, you can’t “unextend” it later. If you made a mistake when you started out and you want to change it now, you need to create a new table and migrate your data.

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CHAPTER 2 Storing Your Information 13 These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. If you have doubts about whether to create from scratch or extend, it’s generally better to extend a table and not need the available fields and functionality than it is to realize down the road that you need them and you don’t have them. Consider your options care- fully before creating the tables and fields that make up your data model, and remember, not every table should be extended from another table. We cover each of these table creation methods in more detail in this section. Extending a table When you extend a table, your new table inherits all the fields and functionality from the table you’re extending, saving you time. By far the most common table to extend in ServiceNow is the task table. To determine if you want to extend a table, use the decision tree in Figure 2-2. An additional, yet important benefit of extending a table is roll- up reports. ServiceNow provides several tables already extended from the task table. Viewing data that all shares the same base (task) table is a no-brainer. A common example is when an employee wants to see all the work assigned to her. She only needs to look at the task table and filter on the Assigned To field to see tasks across multiple processes. Now you come along with a killer expense report app and choose to extend the task table. Auto- matically the expense reports assigned to an employee are added FIGURE 2-1: Creating a table in the ServiceNow app.

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14 Low-Code Apps For Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition These materials are © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. to the list of tasks without any additional work on your part. If you didn’t choose to extend the task table, employees would have to look at multiple lists from different tables to see all the work assigned to them. If you determine from Figure 2-2 that extending an existing table is a good option for you, simply identify which table to extend and proceed to the next screen. From there, you can get familiar with which fields you inherited and add any fields you need to your new table. When you extend a table, you have a number of fields to choose from (instead of creating new fields). Before creating a new field, check to see if there’s an existing field that may meet your pur- poses simply by changing the field’s label. Note that the purpose of the field should be similar to the purpose of the field in the base table. You may want to extend a table in the following circumstances: » You have work that needs to be assigned to someone. This would be a good time to look at extending the task table because it already includes fields to assign to a group and user. » You have an asset that has similar, yet specific proper- ties to something you already own. Let’s say you want to track tablets. They share many of the same fields as FIGURE 2-2: Extending a table can accelerate your app build process.