Our Playbook for the ServiceNow Zurich Upgrade

Kevin Chung
Aug 20
7 min read

As a ServiceNow partner, we're in the thick of preparing one of our customers for the move to the upcoming Zurich release. While staying compliant with ServiceNow's N-1 support policy is important, our real focus is on helping them take advantage of new features, clean up technical debt, and ensure a rock-solid platform for the future.

Zurich isn't out just yet, but the early access program has given us a head start. If your organization is also looking ahead to Zurich, here’s a look at our game plan.

1. Why Upgrade Now? 🚀

Three main things are driving this project:

N-1 Compliance: The client is currently on Xanadu, so upgrading keeps them fully supported by ServiceNow.
Generative AI: The new Now Assist features in Zurich are a big draw, especially for intelligent summaries and better search. Preparing for Zurich now makes more sense than patching an older version for partial features.
Technical Debt: Like many long-running instances, this one has its share of customizations. The upgrade is the perfect opportunity to review what’s still needed, what can be retired, and what should be rebuilt to align with best practices.

2. What’s New in Zurich (That Users Will Actually Notice)

We're focused on the updates that improve the day-to-day experience for employees and agents. Here are the top five:

1. Smarter Self-Service with Now Assist

Conversational AI available in Employee Center, CSM, HR, and Hiring portals.
End users get instant, context-aware answers.
Agents save time with AI handling repetitive tasks like case creation or job requisitions.

2. Seamless Omnichannel Support

Unified Agent Chat with 3rd-party chat apps, plus improved call handling.
Agents can leave a chat without ending it, and even make outbound calls directly from workspace.
Customers enjoy smoother transitions between chat, email, and phone.

3. Upgraded Agent Workspace for CSM

New chat interface puts conversations front and center.
Agents can view all past customer activity and search/filter quickly.
Faster resolutions and more personalized support for customers.

4. Better Mobile Experience

Enhanced Mobile App Builder and Card Builder.
Improved input forms, error handling, and upload workflows.
Field agents and employees on the go get a more reliable, user-friendly mobile app.

5. Collaborative Workspaces

Pop-out Compose editor lets agents draft emails, notes, and comments without losing their place.
Real-time presence indicators show who else is active in a record.
Agents work more efficiently, and customers benefit from quicker responses.

Disclosure: The information summarized here is based on the preliminary ServiceNow Zurich release notes published by ServiceNow. Features, capabilities, and availability are subject to change and may differ in the final generally available release.

3. Our Upgrade Prep Checklist 📝

Here’s our checklist for getting the environment ready:

Review Release Notes: We start with the Zurich release notes to flag new features, deprecations, and API changes that could impact the instance.
Assess Customizations & Integrations: We’re auditing all major client scripts, business rules, and UI policies, knowing they’ll likely be skipped during the upgrade. From experience, we know to check our integrations first. They are often the first things to break, so we’re getting test scripts and owners lined up now.
Instance Backup & Clone: We're cloning production to a sub-prod environment to create a safe sandbox for a full upgrade rehearsal. This is where we’ll find and evaluate skipped records without any risk.
Stakeholder Communication: We’re meeting with IT owners and business leads early to set expectations on timing and scope and to get the eventual change window pre-approved by the CAB.
Downtime & Code Freeze: We’re planning a brief maintenance window during off-peak hours and will enforce a code freeze in the days leading up to it to ensure stability.
Team Roles & Training: We’ve outlined clear roles for our internal and client-side teams:
1. Admin: Coordinates the upgrade steps
2. Developer: Reviews and remediates skipped items
3. QA Tester: Executes test plans post-upgrade
4. Platform Owner: Signs off after validation
Use ServiceNow's Tools: The Upgrade Center’s Upgrade Preview tool is invaluable. We're using it in our test instance to get an early look at potential skipped records and estimate the upgrade duration.
Upgrade Preview (example only)

We’re pulling insights from:

The ServiceNow Upgrade Planning Checklist
Community forum discussions on Zurich previews
Internal documentation from prior upgrades

This research has already helped us flag minor risks, like ACL changes on syslog tables seen in earlier releases and reminds us to validate permissions and logging settings as part of the test plan.

4. The Execution Plan 🛠️

Our execution plan first involves a full deployment rehearsal in a test environment, followed by the production upgrade.

Stage 1: Sub-Prod Upgrade

Our execution plan first involves a full deployment rehearsal in a test environment, followed by the production upgrade.

1. Initiate Upgrade on Sub-Prod: We schedule the sub-prod upgrade via the ServiceNow HI Portal (Now Support) and use the Upgrade Monitor to watch its progress.

2. Review Skipped Updates: Using the comparison tool, we’ll review every skipped record and decide whether to keep our customization, accept the new version, or merge the changes. We’ll bundle all decisions into an update set.

3. Test Everything: We'll run smoke tests on core ITSM processes, check custom apps, validate integrations, and execute ATF regression tests.

Stage 2: Production Upgrade

With a successful rehearsal done, we move to production.

1. Final Prep:

We’ll confirm no P1s are open, send a final downtime notice, and enable “Technical Maintenance Mode”

2. Upgrade Execution: The upgrade will execute as scheduled via the ServiceNow Hi portal (Now Support).

3. Post-Upgrade Validation: Immediately after, we'll run a smoke test checklist on core modules and check system logs and dashboards for any errors.

4. Apply Skipped Record Resolutions via Update Set: We will not manually re-review skipped records in production. Instead, we’ll:

Export the reviewed skipped-item resolutions from sub-prod
Apply them to production using update sets

This ensures all changes are intentional, consistent, and no time is wasted repeating manual comparisons. It also drastically reduces the risk of missing critical custom logic.

5. Time and Effort: The upgrade window itself will last under 2 hours, but the total effort spans several weeks. During execution, we’ll have a small task force:

Admin watching upgrade status
Developer validating and fixing skipped objects
QA running post-upgrade tests
One person communicating status and updates to stakeholders

By the end of the upgrade execution, we expect our customer’s instance to be running Zurich, all critical processes verified, and the business able to resume work confidently. If all goes as planned, we’ll give the final green light: upgrade successful 🎉

5. Practical Tips

Here are some lessons from past upgrades we always keep in mind:

Don’t Skip the Dress Rehearsal Test twice, upgrade once.
Leverage the Upgrade Center Tools We plan to fully utilize ServiceNow’s built-in upgrade capabilities:
- Upgrade Preview to detect potential conflicts and skipped records in advance
- Upgrade Monitor to watch real-time progress during execution
- Skipped Record Review to assess custom-vs-OOTB differences. We’re also reviewing the Skipped Record Automation feature added in Xanadu, which may resolve common skips automatically. If applicable, this could save us hours of manual merge decisions.
Design Customizations for Upgrade Readiness: When a record is skipped, you need to know why it was customized in the first place to make an informed decision.
Data Preservation on Clone: When cloning production into test, we’ll use clone preserve rules and exclusions to avoid disasters like emails going out from the test instance or breaking SSO, or inadvertently copying sensitive data to non-production instances. A clean clone sets the foundation for a clean test upgrade.
Useful tip: Clone results based on Exclusion and Preserver configuration - Support and Troubleshooting
Have a Rollback Plan: While ServiceNow upgrades are hard to roll back, have a contingency plan. We rely on ServiceNow's native backups but are also aware of third-party tools as a fallback.
Common “Gotchas” to Watch: Here are a few things that can easily be overlooked: - Scheduled Jobs: Remember to re-enable any jobs you paused.
- Browser Cache: Tell users to do a hard refresh to avoid weird UI behavior.
- High-Security Functions: Double-check Edge Encryption, MID Servers, and complex integrations.
- PDFs & Reporting: Run a few scheduled reports to ensure formatting is still correct.
- Mobile App: If your users rely on the ServiceNow mobile app, ensure the app version is compatible with the new instance version. Typically, SaaS upgrades don’t force a mobile app upgrade, but any new features on mobile might require users to update their app to see Zurich capabilities.

Lastly, one human lesson: celebrate the upgrade success but also do a retrospective with the team. We will do a wrap-up meeting where we list what went well and what we can do better next time.

6. Conclusion 🎉

Preparing for the ServiceNow Zurich upgrade has already been a valuable process—even before we hit the “Go” button. A few key reflections stand out as we approach the final stages:

Upgrades as an Opportunity: We’re treating this upgrade as both a maintenance task and a strategic opportunity. It’s pushing us to re-evaluate outdated customizations, clean up technical debt, and align with modern best practices. In doing so, we’re gaining a much deeper understanding of our ServiceNow environment.
Focused on Customer Value: This upgrade is about delivering a faster, more reliable, and more powerful platform to our end users. With Zurich, features like improved UI performance, smarter incident experiences, and better support for generative AI will all translate into tangible benefits for the teams that rely on the platform daily.
Execution Discipline Matters: One of the most useful parts of this upgrade prep has been refining how we execute. From change freeze timing to test coverage and our communications, we’re tightening how we run major platform changes.
Invest in Upgrade Infrastructure: One thing we’re carefully reflecting on is the value of building reusability into our upgrade process. This includes automated test suites, reusable checklists, integration test scripts, and upgrade playbooks. Each item saves time, reduces errors, and removes ambiguity.

Our most important takeaway is that upgrading is not a solo effort. It takes collaboration between technical leads, project managers, testers, and end users. Having clearly defined roles, shared understanding of the goal, and open communication channels all build towards ensuring a smooth and efficient upgrade.

The Zurich upgrade is becoming a reset point for how we manage our ServiceNow environment and how we partner with the business. We’ll come out of this project not only with a better system, but also with a more capable, confident team.

Here’s to a smooth Zurich upgrade! 🎊