<h2>Workflow stages</h2><br/><div style="overflow-x:auto"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"><head><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><meta name="copyright" content="(C) Copyright 2024" /><meta name="DC.rights.owner" content="(C) Copyright 2024" /><meta name="generator" content="DITA-OT" /><meta name="DC.type" content="concept" /><meta name="DC.title" content="Workflow stages" /><meta name="abstract" content="Workflows can indicate workflow progress by updating any field designated as a stage field." /><meta name="description" content="Workflows can indicate workflow progress by updating any field designated as a stage field." /><meta name="DC.subject" content="Workflow Stages" /><meta name="keywords" content="Workflow Stages" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/workflow-administration/concept/managing-workflows.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/general/concept/capabilities-bundle-landingpage.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/general/concept/now-platform-legacy-capabilities.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/workflow/concept/c_WorkflowOverview.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/using-workflows/task/t_UsingWorkflowStages.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/using-workflows/task/add-translate-stages.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/using-workflows/concept/c_WorkflowStageSets.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/workflow-administration/task/t_CreateAWorkflowStageField.html" /><meta name="DC.relation" scheme="URI" content="../../../administer/workflow-administration/concept/c_WorkflowFieldsWithDeletedRecords.html" /><meta name="DC.creator" content="ServiceNow" /><meta name="DC.date.created" content="2023-02-02" /><meta name="DC.date.modified" content="2023-02-02" /><meta name="mini-toc" content="yes" /><meta name="DC.format" content="XHTML" /><meta name="DC.identifier" content="c_WorkflowStages" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../CSS/commonltr.css" /><title>Workflow stages</title></head><body id="c_WorkflowStages"> <div class="breadcrumb"><a class="link" href="../../../administer/general/concept/capabilities-bundle-landingpage.html" title="Extend the Now Platform with additional applications and features.">Extend Now Platform capabilities</a> > <a class="link" href="../../../administer/general/concept/now-platform-legacy-capabilities.html" title="Explore ServiceNow Legacy options for past releases and versions of the Now Platform.">Now Platform Legacy Capabilities</a> > <a class="link" href="../../../administer/workflow/concept/c_WorkflowOverview.html" title="Workflow provides a drag-and-drop interface for automating multi-step processes across the platform. Each workflow consists of a sequence of activities, such as generating records, notifying users of pending approvals, or running scripts. The graphical Workflow Editor represents workflows visually as a type of flowchart. It shows activities as boxes labeled with information about that activity and transitions from one activity to the next as lines connecting the boxes.">Classic Workflow</a> > </div> <h1 class="title topictitle1" id="ariaid-title1">Workflow stages</h1> <div class="body conbody"><p class="shortdesc">Workflows can indicate workflow progress by updating any field designated as a stage field.</p> <p class="p">For example, the Incident [incident] table has an <span class="ph uicontrol">Incident state</span> field that indicates progress, but the service catalog uses the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field.</p> <p class="p">To indicate the workflow's progress through the possible stage values, the interface updates the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage field</span> selected in the workflow properties. Available fields depend on the table used by the workflow. If the field provides a choice list, then the choices are available as stage values for the workflow. If the field is a workflow field, it displays an icon to indicate the workflow's progress, as with the Service Catalog's <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field.</p> <div class="p"><div class="fig fignone" id="c_WorkflowStages__fig_tp3_wj1_hr"><span class="figcap"><span class="fig--title-label">Figure 1. </span>Service Catalog Stage field with icons</span> <img class="image" id="c_WorkflowStages__image_h1p_yj1_hr" src="../image/WorkflowFieldIcons.png" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p class="p">After stages are added to the workflow, they can be assigned to each workflow activity. If an activity with an assigned stage is encountered when the workflow runs, the workflow engine assigns the stage to the record associated with the workflow context.</p> <div class="p">For workflows that use the Requested Item [sc_req_item] table, the stage field is automatically set to the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field of the table and cannot be changed. The stage state displayed for a workflow running on the Requested Item table is based on the state of the workflow activities. <ul class="ul" id="c_WorkflowStages__ul_iwf_v3w_4bb"><li class="li">If an activity is active, then the stage is shown with the state of <span class="ph uicontrol">In progress</span>.</li><li class="li">If an activity is in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Pending</span> or <span class="ph uicontrol">Completed</span> state, the stage reflects this state.</li><li class="li">If an activity is canceled, <span class="ph uicontrol">Request Cancelled</span> appears in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field. The "Cancelled" label set in the wf_stage table is a reserved word, and does not display in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field.</li></ul> </div> <div class="section" id="c_WorkflowStages__section_wcs_12x_ccb"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">How stage values are derived</h2> <p class="p">Stage values are derived from various sources in the interface.</p> <div class="p"><div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> An updated method for managing workflow stages as a set is also available. For information about grouping and reusing stages, see <a class="xref" href="c_WorkflowStageSets.html" title="Stage sets are named groups of workflow stages commonly used together. Create a stage set and assign it as a default set to any number of tables. You can import the choice list values of a workflow field as stages for a workflow, and export a stage set to create a new one.">Workflow stage sets</a>.</div> </div> <div class="p">Stage values are derived from the following sources:<ul class="ul" id="c_WorkflowStages__ul_pzl_vtb_gp"><li class="li"><span class="ph uicontrol">Choices for Stage column</span>: Choices defined for the column selected as the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> column for the workflow.</li><li class="li"><span class="ph uicontrol">Default stages for table</span>: Stages defined in the Stage Default [wf_stage_default] table for the table selected.</li><li class="li"><span class="ph uicontrol">Workflow-specific stages</span>: Applied only to the workflow for which they were defined in the Workflow Stage [wf_stage] table.</li><li class="li"><span class="ph uicontrol">Stage values in existing records</span>: Values from the designated <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> column in the table assigned to the workflow are inherited from existing records.</li></ul> </div> <p class="p">If the stage field for a workflow is the table column named <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span>, then the progress of the workflow appears in any list view containing the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> column.</p> <div class="p"><div class="fig fignone" id="c_WorkflowStages__fig_iwv_d5b_gp"><span class="figcap"><span class="fig--title-label">Figure 2. </span>Stages in a list</span> <img class="image" id="c_WorkflowStages__image_vt4_g5b_gp" src="../image/StagesInList.png" alt="" /> </div> </div> <p class="p">Stage values shown in the list views are accompanied by the state, based on the workflow activities being executed. If an activity has a stage specified for it, and the activity is currently active in the workflow, then the stage is shown with a state of <span class="ph uicontrol">In progress</span>. Similarly, if the activity is in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Pending</span> or <span class="ph uicontrol">Completed</span> state, the stage reflects this state.</p> </div> <div class="section" id="c_WorkflowStages__section_m2s_d2x_ccb"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">Example</h2> <div class="p">If the workflow table is Request Item [sc_req_item], then the stage field is automatically set to the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> column of that table and cannot be changed. The following stage values for the request item are displayed in a choice list from the Dictionary Entry [sys_dictionary] table:<ul class="ul" id="c_WorkflowStages__ul_ndw_q5b_gp"><li class="li">Waiting for Approval</li><li class="li">Fulfillment</li><li class="li">Delivery</li></ul> </div> <div class="p">In addition, the Request Item table has the following default stages:<ul class="ul" id="c_WorkflowStages__ul_um2_v5b_gp"><li class="li">Request Cancelled</li><li class="li">Completed</li></ul> </div> <div class="p"><div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If an activity is cancelled, Request Cancelled appears in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field. The "Cancelled" label set in the wf_stage table is a reserved word, and does not display in the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage</span> field.</div> </div> <div class="p">When you edit available activity stages in the Workflow Editor, the list displays the following stage values:<ul class="ul" id="c_WorkflowStages__ul_wwy_xjz_gr"><li class="li">Waiting for Approval</li><li class="li">Fulfillment</li><li class="li">Delivery</li><li class="li">Request Cancelled</li><li class="li">Completed</li></ul> </div> <div class="p">The following diagram depicts the process used to gather stage values from the Request Item table to populate the <span class="ph uicontrol">Stages</span> list in workflow activities.<div class="fig fignone" id="c_WorkflowStages__fig_mrd_bvb_gp"> <img class="image" id="c_WorkflowStages__image_sjf_dvb_gp" src="../image/ScReqStagesDiagram.png" alt="Gathering stage values for workflow activities" /> </div> </div> <div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you are creating a workflow with a table other than Request Item [sc_req_item], you must select a <span class="ph uicontrol">Stage field</span> in the workflow properties for the workflow to have stages.</div> </div> </div> <div class="related-links"> <ul class="ullinks"><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/using-workflows/task/t_UsingWorkflowStages.html">Use workflow stages</a></strong><br /> You can add or modify workflow stages.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/using-workflows/task/add-translate-stages.html">Add and translate stages</a></strong><br /> You can add default stages to use for a table, and stages to existing workflow</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/using-workflows/concept/c_WorkflowStageSets.html">Workflow stage sets</a></strong><br /> Stage sets are named groups of workflow stages commonly used together. Create a stage set and assign it as a default set to any number of tables. You can import the choice list values of a workflow field as stages for a workflow, and export a stage set to create a new one.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/workflow-administration/task/t_CreateAWorkflowStageField.html">Create a workflow stage field</a></strong><br /> Workflows can provide a summary of workflow progress by updating any field of the <span class="ph uicontrol">Workflow</span> type. If the field is a workflow field, it displays an icon to indicate the workflow stage progress.</li><li class="link ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../../../administer/workflow-administration/concept/c_WorkflowFieldsWithDeletedRecords.html">Workflow fields with deleted records</a></strong><br /> Workflow fields may indicate when a record required by the workflow is deleted.</li></ul> <div class="familylinks"> <div class="parentlink"><strong>Parent Topic:</strong> <a class="link" href="../../../administer/workflow-administration/concept/managing-workflows.html" title="Create, edit, validate, and publish workflows to automate multi-step processes across the platform. Understand workflow activities and variables and how to use them effectively. Take a deeper look at how workflows are constructed, validated, and used.">Workflow management</a></div> </div> </div></body></html></div>