Demand workflow

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Demand workflow

The demand workflow in ServiceNow outlines the complete life cycle of a demand request, from initial intake through assessment, approval, and onward to execution. This structured process ensures consistent evaluation and alignment with business objectives before committing resources. The workflow supports refinement, validation, and strategic alignment of demands, helping organizations manage requests efficiently and transparently.

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Key Features

Demand Creation: Demands can be submitted by business users via the Service Catalog or Idea Portal, or directly by demand managers and users through the Next Experience for Demand Management.
Detail Completion: Demand managers or users add necessary information, moving demands from draft to submitted status.
Refinement and Finalization: Demand managers complete comprehensive details including size, impact, business case, timeline, and alignment with strategy, and can assign tasks or request SME support.
Screening and Assessment: Demands enter screening where stakeholders score and assess the requests; this process can be automated or manually adjusted by demand managers.
Qualification and Review: Demands advance to qualified status after assessments, followed by stakeholder review for approval or deferral.
Approval and Conversion: Approved demands proceed to execution by converting into strategic or operational entities such as projects, enhancements, or Enterprise Agile Planning items, with data migration based on the demand’s category and type.
Completion: Demands are completed either automatically upon fulfillment of the converted entity or manually by the demand manager at any stage.

Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

Provides a clear, repeatable process to manage demands ensuring they align with business goals before resource allocation.
Facilitates collaboration among business users, demand managers, and stakeholders through defined roles and states.
Supports customization of the workflow through custom playbooks to fit organizational needs.
Enables efficient transition from demand approval to execution by automatically creating appropriate operational entities.
Improves demand visibility and control, helping prioritize requests and optimize portfolio management.

The demand workflow defines the life-cycle of a request, from initial intake through assessment and approval to downstream execution. This structured approach ensures that each request is evaluated consistently, aligned with business objectives, and supported by the right processes before any resources are committed.

Workflow overview

The following table lists the end-to-end life cycle for managing demands. This workflow provides a process for demands so they are progressively refined, validated, and aligned with business and strategic objectives.

Note:

This workflow describes the traditional demand management process. You can customize the states and activities by defining a custom playbook.

Table 1. Demand workflow overview
Task	Description	Demand states involved	Roles involved
Create a demand	Demands enter the system via Service Catalog or Idea Portal, or being submitted directly by demand managers: Business users can submit an idea via the Service Catalog or Idea Portal. The idea is then evaluated by demand managers after which they can promote it to a demand. Business users can bypass the ideation process and submit a demand directly from the Service Catalog. Demand managers or demand users can directly submit demands from the Next Experience for Demand Management.	Draft	Business user, demand manager, demand user
Complete demand details	The demand manager or demand user reviews and adds required details. The demand moves from the draft to the submitted state after the basic demand details are added.	Draft → Submitted	Demand manager, demand user
Refine and finalize demand	The demand manager completes all required information (size, impact, business case, timeline, resources, costs/benefits, stakeholder registry, strategy alignment). The demand manager can assign tasks or request SME (subject matter expert) support.	Submitted	Demand manager
Move demand to screening	The demand manager moves the demand to screening. Assessments are sent to the stakeholders to score the demand after it reaches the screening state.	Submitted → Screening	Demand manager
Complete assessments	Stakeholders complete and submit assessments for scoring.	Screening	Stakeholder
Move demand to qualified	The demand moves to the qualified state after the required assessments are submitted. Next Experience for Demand Management updates the state automatically. The demand manager manually sets the demand to qualified while it is in screening, for example, when assessments are delayed or not required.	Screening → Qualified	Demand manager, Next Experience for Demand Management
Review demand	Stakeholders review the demand for approval or deferral.	Qualified	Stakeholder
Approve or defer a demand	The demand manager sets the demand to approved (moves forward for execution) or deferred (moves to the Deferred state).	Qualified → Approved or Deferred	Demand manager, demand approver
Convert demand to strategic/operational entity	After the demand is approved, the demand manager creates the selected entity such as project, enhancement, or Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) entities. The created entity is based on the values in the Category and Type fields of the Demand record. Depending on the type of record created, the demand data is migrated to the created entity.	Approved	Demand manager
Complete demands	Based on the selection in the Close Demand field, a demand is completed automatically when the converted entity is completed, or manually by the demand manager at any state.	Approved → Completed	Demand manager, Next Experience for Demand Management