Playbook stages and activities

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  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Playbook stages and activities

    The Technology Product Support Case playbook guides agents through structured stages and activities to efficiently research and resolve technology support cases. When a technology product support case is created, the system prompts the agent to select a service, then launches the playbook to streamline case handling from intake through closure.

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    Intake stage

    Agents collect essential information about the customer, issue, and impacted instances.

    • Gather details: Capture account, contact, product info, and a short description.
    • Describe the problem: Specify issue type, case description, reproduction steps, add watchers and attachments.
    • Identify impacted instances: Select affected instances linked to the account before proceeding to triage.

    Triage stage

    Agents review and update case details, assign the case, and send an initial customer response.

    • Review the problem: Verify customer issue details, affected instances, and product components; update as needed. Agents can self-assign or accept the case.
    • Send initial response: Communicate with the customer using custom or templated messages; internal work notes can also be added. Agents can save drafts or send the response and proceed to troubleshooting.

    Troubleshoot stage

    Agents investigate the case, run diagnostics, update action plans, and collaborate when needed.

    • Diagnose: Utilize configurable decision tables and diagnostic tools to run tests on affected configuration items or services. Only one test runs at a time to avoid conflicts.
    • Test results: Review results, identify failed tests, and generate repair tasks for issues found. Agents can rerun tests or view details.
    • Update action plan: Document issue summary, actions taken, and next steps; updates are posted to the activity stream.
    • Related work: Manage case status indicators, create or view related records and repair tasks, and access recommended actions such as expert discussions via Sidebar.

    Resolve stage

    Agents propose a resolution by documenting root cause, resolution codes, and notes.

    • Resolution notes can be auto-generated if Now Assist for Customer Service Management is configured.
    • Completing this stage changes the case state to Solution Proposed.

    Close stage

    Cases are closed when the customer or agent accepts the solution, the agent closes it, or the system auto-closes after a set period.

    • Agents update issue summary, root cause, resolution notes, and add comments or work notes.
    • Case state transitions from Solution Proposed to Closed upon acceptance.
    • Agents can create a post-case review record after closure.

    Save and Continue actions

    The Continue action saves current progress and moves to the next activity or stage, while the Save action saves progress without advancing, allowing updates to completed stages.

    Recommended Actions in Playbook

    Recommended actions such as Talk to an expert appear contextually during troubleshooting to assist agents. These include options to start a Sidebar discussion or dismiss the recommendation, facilitating expert collaboration when needed.

    The Technology Product Support Case playbook includes stages and activities that assist agents in researching and resolving technology cases.

    When an agent creates a technology product support case, the system opens a service selector modal and displays the services defined for the Technology Product Support case type.

    The agent selects a service and then selects Create to create a case. The system creates the case and launches the Technology Product Support Case playbook. This playbook includes the stages and activities described in the following sections.

    Intake stage

    During the intake stage, an agent gathers information about the customer, the issue, and the impacted instances.Intake stage.

    Table 1. Intake stage activities
    Activity Description
    Gather details The agent gathers information about the account and contact and the product and adds a short description.

    Select Continue to save the information and move to the next activity.
    Describe the problem The agent describes the issue type and the details and adds a case description and steps to reproduce. The agent can also add users to the watch list and add attachments.

    Select Continue to save the information and move to the next activity.
    Identify impacted instances The agent adds the impacted instances from a list of instances that belong to the account.

    Select Continue to save the information and move to the first activity in the Triage stage.

    Triage stage

    During the triage stage, the agent reviews the case information, makes changes as needed, and sends an initial response to the customer.tech-product-case-resolveTriage stage.

    Table 2. Triage stage activities
    Activity Description
    Review the problem The agent can review information about the customer issue, including the affected instances selected in the Intake stage and the sold product or product component.

    In addition to reviewing information, the agent can update the list of affected instances and the attachments.

    The following actions are available:

    • Assign to me: The agent can select this action to self-assign the case.
    • Accept: The agent can select this action to accept the assigned case.

    Once the case is assigned, the agent can select Continue to save the information and move to the next activity.
    Send initial response The agent can send a response to the customer by entering text in the Initial response field. If desired, the agent can use a template from the Response Templates tab in the contextual side panel.

    The agent can also enter text in the Work notes field to capture internal information.

    After entering text in these fields, the agent can:
    • Select Save to save the information in the fields without sending it to the customer.
    • Select Send and Continue to send the initial response to the customer, post the work notes, and move to the Troubleshoot stage.

    Troubleshoot stage

    During the troubleshoot stage, the agent investigates the customer's issue and updates their findings in the action plan. The agent can leverage tools such as search or recommended actions as part of the investigation. If the agent needs assistance, they can create case tasks or other types of records or initiate a Sidebar discussion.Troubleshoot stage.

    Table 3. Troubleshoot stage activities
    Activity Description
    Diagnose

    The decision table is provided with the Technology Product Support Case application. You can modify the conditions that have been defined, and the results to suit your requirements.

    To enable the diagnostic activity in the troubleshoot stage, select the case category in the decision table as Issue, the diagnostic activity field is field is updated to True.

    The status can be changed to False by the agent. For more details on updating decision tables, see Decision Tables.

    The agent can view and do the following actions in these tabs:
      1. To generate the test results, select Run diagnostics from the contextual panel.
        Note:
        To avoid conflicts, the system allows only one test to run at a given time. This is true even if you have multiple client test runner windows open.
      2. In the run diagnostics panel, select CI/Service from the drop-down list.
      3. Expand the Available Test Suite.
      4. Select single/multiple test definitions.
      5. Select Configure.
      6. In the Configure tests dialog box, select test characteristics.
      7. In the test dialog box, select an option either to run the test now or to schedule it for later.
      8. Select Run test.
    • Test results
      1. Select the Test results tab and review the results of the tests conducted in the previous step, checking whether each test is passed or failed.

        The failed tests indicate that issues causing the service problem are identified and needing repair.

        A Repair task is created for all failed test cases related to the diagnosed service problem. For each unique service and test specification, only one repair task is created. The agent can then work on it and close this repair task.

      2. Select the View Details icon for a specific test result to review its details.
      3. Select the Rerun test icon for a specific test result to run it again.
    • Diagnostic tasks If needed, the agent can create the diagnostic tasks manually and view the diagnostic tasks.
    Update action plan The agent investigates the issue and adds information to the following fields:
    • Issue summary
    • Actions taken
    • Next steps
    Selecting the Update and continue action:
    • Saves the information in the action plan.
    • Posts the information to the activity stream.
    • Moves the agent to the Related work activity.
    Related work

    The agent can see the action status of the case, if available, and can update the Needs attention field.

    The Related work activity includes a Recommended Actions card, Talk to an expert, that agents can use if they need assistance.
    • Select Start discussion to initiate a Sidebar conversation.
    • Select Dismiss to close the card.

    The Related work activity shows lists of related case records. The agent can expand these related record lists and view the record cards or create records.

    • Update action plan: returns the agent to the Update action plan activity so they can update information.
    • Continue: completes the Troubleshoot stage and moves the agent to the Resolve stage.
    • Create repair tasks: Create a repair task and assign to the agent.

    The Related work activity includes Resolution Tasks, that agents can use If the test fails and manually create the resolution task to solve the issue. The agent can expand these Resolution Tasks lists and view the list of resolution tasks or create one.

    Resolve stage

    In the Resolve stage, the agent proposes a solution to the customer.Resolve stage.

    Table 4. Resolve stage activities
    Activity Description
    Propose resolution
    The agent updates the following fields:
    • Root cause code
    • Resolution code
    • Cause
    • Resolution notes
    The agent can also enable the Add resolution notes to comments check box to add the resolution information to the case activity stream.
    Note:
    If the Now Assist for Customer Service Management (CSM) application is installed and the resolution notes generation skill has been configured, the Resolution notes field is automatically populated. For more information, see Using Now Assist for CSM to generate resolution notes for a case.
    • Propose resolution: Completes the activity and moves to the Close stage. The case state changes to Solution Proposed.
    • Save: Saves the information in the activity.

    Close stage

    A case can be closed in the following ways:
    • The customer accepts the proposed solution.
    • The agent accepts the proposed solution on behalf of the customer.
    • The agent closes the case.
    • The system auto closes the case after it remains in the Solution Proposed state for a certain number of days.

    In the Close stage, the agent updates the case with a summary of the issue and provides any additional comments or work notes.

    The case record is read-only when the state is Closed.Close stage.

    Table 5. Close stage activities
    Activity Description
    Close case
    The agent updates the following fields:
    • Issue summary
    • Root cause code
    • Resolution notes
    • Add resolution notes to comments
    • Additional comments
    • Work notes
    • Accept Solution: Saves the changes and posts the content in the Additional comments and Work notes fields to the activity stream. The case state changes from Solution Proposed to Closed.
    • Reject Solution: Saves the changes and posts the content in the Additional comments and Work notes fields to the activity stream. The case state changes from Solution Proposed to Work in progress.
    • Save: Saves the changes to the activity.

    After the case is closed, the agent can select Create Post Case Review to open a post case review record in a sub-tab.

    Save and Continue actions

    When a stage is in progress, the Continue action saves the information in the stage and moves the agent to the next activity in the flow. This can be the next activity within a stage or the first activity in the next stage.

    When a stage is complete, the Save action is also available. This action saves the information in the stage but does not move the agent to the next stage. The Save action enables agents to update information in completed stages.

    Displaying Recommended Actions in playbook activities

    Recommended actions can be configured to appear inside playbook activities. By default, the Talk to an expert recommendation appears in the conceptual side panel.

    The Technology Product Case Troubleshoot recommended actions rule:
    • Provides the recommendation for an agent to discuss a case issue with an expert. This recommendation.
    • Includes the following actions:
      • Start discussion: starts a Sidebar discussion.
      • Dismiss: dismisses the recommendation card.

    For more information, see Recommended Actions.