In ServiceNow, maintaining and deploying updates in an efficient manner is important to make sure that your configurations and customizations get deployed smoothly without interruption. Update Sets are among the most powerful features of ServiceNow for monitoring changes in the platform. But maintaining these updates can be cumbersome, particularly when dealing with big, complex updates that might have several changes.

ServiceNow Update Sets are containers where groups of associated platform configuration changes can be gathered. They control changes to the system (workflows, scripts, form changes) so the changes can then be transferred between several ServiceNow instances, e.g., from test to development to ultimately production.

An Update Set is critical in the ServiceNow deployment pipeline because by using it, teams can:

Capture modifications made during a specific session or time period.

Transfer modifications between instances without having to manually duplicate them.
Revert modifications if needed, so deployments can be safely rolled back.
The Challenge: Dealing with Large Update Sets
Although Update Sets are intended to simplify migration, dealing with them can be tiresome when dealing with large-scale projects or multiple concurrent development tasks. Some of the issues encountered when dealing with Update Sets include:

Inadequate changes: Developers occasionally author changes that are not ready for deployment, but the changes remain part of an Update Set.

Interdependency among changes: Some changes are interdependent, and rollout of a group of changes results in breaks or failures of functionality.
Overloaded Update Sets: Large, unstructured Update Sets become difficult to deploy and lead to delays or failure of deployments.
To avoid these problems, you must become a master of splitting and releasing only what’s ready. By doing this, you will be able to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your release process so that only tried and stable changes make it to production.
Step 1: Organizing Update Sets Effectively

Before you can roll out only what’s ready, you have to properly organize your Update Sets. Here are some best practices for constructing and organizing Update Sets in ServiceNow:
Name your Update Sets unambiguously. Naming styles like “Incident_Form_Update” or “UI_Action_Update” show clearly what contents every Update Set contains.
Avoid generic names like “Update Set 1” or “Test Changes” that can get confusing and raise the level of difficulty in determining what’s contained within them.
Utilize Comments and Descriptions
Always log changes in the description and comment fields of each Update Set. This leaves you in a position to trace the reason for the changes and any interdependencies between them.
Make Changes Complete:
Ensure configurations and customizations are complete and stable before making changes in an Update Set. Never incorporate experimental or work-in-progress changes that will result in functionality breaks.
Step 2: Partitioning Update Sets
One of the most powerful ways to work with Update Sets is to split a large Update Set into small, manageable pieces. If you’ve already created an Update Set that contains a large number of changes, but only a few are deployable, you can split it to deploy only the associated updates.

How to Split Update Sets:

Identify Changes to Split:

Verify the items in your Update Set and identify which specific changes are deployable and which are incomplete.
Suppose you’ve made both a form layout and a UI policy, but the form layout is deployable while the UI policy isn’t yet complete. You can then split the Update Set to deploy only the form layout.
Move Completed Changes to a New Update Set:
You can move changes from one Update Set to another with the help of the “Move to Update Set” option in ServiceNow. This will help you transfer only the completed changes to a new Update Set.
This is done through the Update Set form by opening each of the individual records and clicking on the “Move to Update Set” option.
Track Dependencies:
Be cautious of dependencies when splitting Update Sets. For instance, if the change you are going to deploy is dependent on another change that is not yet done, you must break the Update Set into a new one and deploy the changes in the correct sequence or wait for the dependent change to be finished.
ServiceNow dependency views allow you to see relationships between records and ascertain which are dependent on another.
Test the Split Update Sets:
Split the Update Set when you have done so, then test the components separately in your follow-on environments (e.g., Test or UAT) to ensure deployment of each of the smaller Update Sets does not spoil functionality.
Step 3: Deploying Only What’s Ready
After Split Update Sets, the next most critical step is deploying only ready changes to your target instance (e.g., production). Deploying only stable and complete changes will enable you to have smooth deployments without any problems.

Best Practices for Deploying Ready Update Sets:

Validate and Review Update Sets:

Before deployment, double-check the contents of the Update Set so that it contains all the necessary changes and nothing incomplete or erroneous.
In the Update Set record, use the “Preview” feature to see what changes will be deployed when deploying. This assures you that the update will deploy just the correct changes.
Test in Lower Environments First
Always deploy your Update Set first to a lower environment like Test or Development. This is to catch any issues early in the cycle before going live with the changes to production.
Where possible, add a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase to ensure that the deployed changes are in line with business requirements.
Use the “Compare and Deploy” Feature:
ServiceNow offers the “Compare and Deploy” option to compare your Update Set to other Update Sets or target environments. This helps you deploy only the ready changes and not replicate existing updates.
The comparison also points out any conflicts or missing dependencies, which you can correct before deployment.
Monitor the Deployment Process:
Once you’ve installed the Update Set to the destination instance, monitor the deployment process closely to find out whether there are any issues or failures.
ServiceNow Deployment Logs and System Logs provide you with information regarding any errors or problems that could have happened while deploying, which allows you to fix them at the earliest opportunity.
Rollback if Necessary
In case issues are found after deployment, ServiceNow has the rollback capability to reverse the changes introduced by an Update Set. This is done through the use of the “Rollback” option in the Update Set record. Rollback allows you to reverse the changes applied with minimal disruption to your environment.
Step 4: Best Practices for Maintaining Update Set Health
To keep your Update Sets deployable at all times, follow these other best practices:

Utilize Update Set Naming Conventions:

Develop a uniform naming convention for your Update Sets so that it becomes simpler to identify and work with them. For instance, use the date, feature, or task in the Update Set name (e.g., “2025-03-19_Incident_Form_Update”).
Regularly monitor the status of your Update Sets and check for any open issues or records stuck in progress.
Use the Update Set History report to track the status of updates across multiple environments for consistency.
Create a Workflow for Update Set Management
Enforce a formal process or workflow for managing Update Sets in your organization. This may include policies on when and how to create new Update Sets, splitting and testing update guidelines, and approval procedures before deployment.
Conclusion: Deploy Efficiently with Update Set Mastery
Update Set mastery within ServiceNow is the key to having smooth, efficient, and risk-free deployments. Being able to split Update Sets and deploy only authorized changes will keep you out of deployment trouble and make your change management process better.

By implementing best practices such as keeping your Update Sets clean, validating them before they are deployed, and extensively testing in lower environments, you can guarantee that only stable, completely built-out changes make it to production. ServiceNow provides you with powerful tools for doing so, and with effective management and monitoring, you can make your update deployment process considerably more streamlined and efficient.