Configuring Guided Decisions

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Guided Decisions

    The Guided Decisions Experience application in ServiceNow enables you to create structured troubleshooting processes for agents using decision tree flows. These flows guide agents through a series of questions based on a record context, helping them diagnose and resolve complex issues consistently and efficiently. This approach reduces resolution time and improves service quality.

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    Practical Use Cases

    • Troubleshooting faulty devices: Guide agents to identify and fix hardware problems like non-working laptops.
    • Reviewing refund requests: Determine customer eligibility by checking exceptions and creating related tasks.
    • Resetting passwords: Walk agents through identity verification and reset procedures.

    Key Features

    • Reusable Inputs: Link inputs across question and guidance nodes or between parent and child decision trees to streamline flow creation.
    • Linked Decision Trees: Incorporate existing activated decision trees as child trees to reduce duplicative work.
    • User Navigation: Allow users to edit prior responses and navigate between nodes, even across nested trees.
    • Two Editing Experiences: Use the Decision Tree Builder for graphical flow diagrams or the Core UI for form and list-based editing.

    Setup and Configuration

    Administrators should follow these steps to enable Guided Decisions:

    • Install the Guided Decisions Experience application.
    • Assign roles to control user access to decision tree features.
    • Install the Recommended Actions application to run decision trees as recommended actions.

    Creating and Using Decision Trees

    • Users with the decisiontreeauthor role create decision trees.
    • Decision trees are implemented by integrating them into recommended actions, playbooks, or the Service Portal.
    • Agents interact with decision trees within cases or other records, often as part of playbook stages or activities.
    • End-users and customers engage with decision trees via the Service Portal interface.

    Additional Resources

    ServiceNow customers can explore further documentation on creating, editing, and deploying decision trees as well as leveraging Guided Decisions in playbooks and recommended actions. The ServiceNow Store offers additional applications to enhance Guided Decisions capabilities.

    Create structured troubleshooting processes for your agents through the ServiceNow® Guided Decisions Experience application. Help your agents solve complex issues in a consistent way.

    The Guided Decisions Experience application is a tool for authoring and running decision tree flows. A decision tree walks an agent through a troubleshooting process based on a record context. The process asks a series of questions and the agent provides the answers. Based on those answers, the agent receives guidance on the next steps to take in the resolution process. Agents can resolve complex issues faster and more efficiently. For more information, see Decision trees in Guided decision.

    Scenarios for using decision trees

    Decision trees can help agents resolve the following types of customer issues:
    • Troubleshoot a faulty device, such as a laptop that doesn't work. Use a decision tree to find the cause and provide a fix for the customer.
    • Review a refund request. Use a decision tree to determine whether the customer is eligible for a refund, which can include checking for exceptions and creating tasks.
    • Reset a customer's password. Use a decision tree to walk the agent through the process, such as verifying the customer's identity, trying other options, and, if needed, resetting the password.

    For an example of end-to-end configuration of a decision tree for a specific scenario, see Example configuration of a decision tree.

    Guided Decisions features

    • Reuse values in a decision tree by linking inputs in question and guidance nodes. You can also link inputs of a child tree to a parent tree.
    • Link an activated decision tree to your current decision tree to reuse other decision trees and reduce effort in creating new ones. The linked decision tree acts as a child tree to the current decision tree.
    • Enable users to edit their responses in the previous question nodes or a guidance node.

      In a nested decision tree, users can navigate back to the previous node of a parent tree from a child tree.

    Guided Decisions experiences

    The Guided Decisions Experience application provides two different experiences for creating and editing decision trees: through the Decision Tree Builder or the Core UI.
    • Create a graphical diagrammatic representation of nodes and their paths in a troubleshooting process through the Decision Tree Builder. For more information, see Decision trees in Decision Tree Builder.
    • Use forms and lists and edit existing decision trees through the Core UI. For more information, see Decision trees in Core UI.

    Setting up the Guided Decisions Experience application

    As an admin, set up the Guided Decisions Experience application to enable users to create and run decision trees by completing the following setup tasks:

    Creating and using decision trees

    Flowchart displaying process of creating decision trees, implementing them, and then using them by different persona.

    Users with the decision tree author role (decision_tree_author) create decision trees. After creating a decision tree, the decision tree is implemented by adding it to a recommended action, playbook, or Service Portal. For more information, see the following topics:

    Agents interact with decision trees as part of a recommended action or as part of a playbook within a record, such as a case.

    Customers and end-users interact with decision trees on Service Portal.

    For guided decisions that are added to playbooks, agents can work through the decision trees and complete actions suggested in the guidance as part of a playbook stage or activity. How the agent interacts with the decision tree depends on the playbook configuration. For more information, see the following topics:

    Request apps from the ServiceNow Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.