When to use flows and playbooks

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of When to use flows and playbooks

    This guidance helps ServiceNow customers decide when to use flows versus playbooks for process automation, focusing on their practical applications, user interactions, and system performance considerations.

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    When to Use Flows

    • Automate processes with minimal or no manual user interaction: Flows run automatically once triggered and can pause until conditions are met, but they do not provide direct user interface elements for interaction.
    • Handle high-volume processing: Flows are optimized for running hundreds to thousands of instances per second with low system resource usage, making them suitable for large-scale automation.
    • Manage simpler sequences with few subflows: While flows can call subflows, extensive subflow use can complicate management; flows are better suited when few subflows are involved.
    • Create and update data automatically: Flows execute actions, logic, and subflows to drive data changes without requiring users to navigate or update records manually.

    When to Use Playbooks

    • Support processes requiring multiple manual user interactions: Playbooks provide built-in UI elements that guide users step-by-step, making them ideal for workflows involving checklists, feedback collection, or knowledge base consultations.
    • Operate at lower volumes: Due to the overhead of generating UI components and storing execution history, playbooks are better suited for less frequent automation needs.
    • Coordinate complex sequences with many subflows: Playbooks offer a superior user experience for managing and running multiple subflows in sequence.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Choose flows when your automation requires speed, scalability, and minimal user input. Opt for playbooks when your process involves guided user interactions and complex task sequences. Understanding these distinctions helps optimize system performance and user experience within your ServiceNow environment.

    Use these general guidelines to determine when to create a flow or a playbook.

    When to use flows

    Flows, subflows, and actions are the basic building blocks of process automation. Flows run when their trigger conditions are met, and each flow in turn runs a sequence of actions, flow logic, and subflows. The actions, flow logic, and subflows within a flow are what create and update data.

    A flow is a good fit for process automations that met these criteria.
    Expect few to no manual user interactions
    As long as a flow has the input data it needs, it can run to completion without any user interaction. Some flow logic and actions require users to make record changes, but a flow can automatically pause until its wait conditions are met. Process automations that depend on user interactions such as reading a knowledge base article, going through a checklist, and gathering feedback are harder to manage with flows. Flows don't directly provide any UI elements for users to interact with. Flows depend on users knowing how to find an existing UI and making any needed changes. For example, a record-based flow depends on a user making a change in a specific record such as a case or an incident.
    Expect to run at high volumes
    An instance can run hundreds to thousands of flows per second. With flow reporting being disabled by default, an instance can run a high volume of flows before it sees any performance impact. If you expect to run a process automation at high volumes, a flow is a good fit over a playbook because it requires less overhead and system resources.
    Expect to run few to no subflows
    The more subflows a flow calls, the more difficult it becomes to manage from the flows interface. While you can use conditional flow logic or a decision table to choose a subflow to run, playbooks offer a better user experience for running a sequence of subflows.

    When to use playbooks

    Playbooks are built on activities, which use prebuilt flows, subflows, and actions as their building blocks.

    A playbook is a good fit for process automations that met these criteria.
    Expect several manual user interactions
    Playbooks provide UI elements for users to interact with. The playbook experience guides users to make any changes required to advance the playbook.
    Expect to run at low volumes
    Playbooks require more system resources to run because they generate UI elements and store more execution details.
    Expect to run many subflows
    Playbooks offer a better user experience for running a sequence of subflows.