Chapter 2, Developing Custom Applications, discussed how Business Rules validate data and automate functionality. But, as always in ServiceNow, there is another way. The Graphical Workflow editor provide a drag-and-drop interface to quickly and easily run a series of automated steps, much like an automated flowchart.
Workflows consist of blocks called activities. An activity has outputs, usually representing the result of the activity. The outputs then connect to the next activity. The connections are called transitions. More than one activity can be running at any instant, as a single activity may have multiple output transitions. The outputs may be conditional: you often want a different path for failure than what you want for success. You could then choose to retry or simply give up and send a notification.
A workflow uses stages to summarize progress. Each activity can be associated with a stage, and the value of the stage is copied into...