You already have a listing: release certification, or recertification

• You need to support a new family release. ServiceNow released Brazil to early-availability customers on 24 September 2026 and targets general availability for early November.
• You changed the code or the listing and need the new version certified.
• Certification came back with findings you can’t clear.

• Neither kind changes what customers need licensed, but new features might. Check them against your listing’s requirements.

• Upgrade one of your vendor instances to the release you’re certifying for. ServiceNow’s KB0794197 says “Instances can be upgraded but not downgraded.”
• Run the Certification Self-Test Tool on the new version. ServiceNow’s App Publisher blog said in February 2023 that the tool “does not include all the tests for certification” but “will help you address up to 90% of the commonly discovered issues we find in the first few iterations of the certification process”.

The two kinds need different documents. ServiceNow’s App Publisher blog is explicit about the split. It calls both of them recertifying; we call the unchanged case a release certification.

• Release certification. For an app you don’t change, ServiceNow asks for “a revised version of your Scoped Application Test Plan along with the results”.
• Recertification. “If you already have a certified application on the ServiceNow Store and intend to make changes to the code or its listing, you must re-submit the app for app and listing re-certification.” Bring the design document, test plan and installation guide up to date, and any listing details and images that change.

Release certification (no code or listing changes)

Plan on roughly 2–3 weeks from upgrading your vendor instance to the release certification.

Recertification (any change to the app)

Plan on roughly 4–8 weeks from starting the changes to the new version being certified.

Weeks come from our own projects, except the 3–5 week review, which is ServiceNow’s typical range.

• Deleting application files after the first version. ServiceNow says “Deletion entries are not packaged as part of app file”: set the file inactive, or mark it deprecated where there’s no active field. In our experience the certification team accepts a deletion if you commit to giving existing customers an update set that removes it; with no customers yet, you don’t need one.
• Changing code in what you submit as a release certification. Any change to the code or listing makes it a recertification.
• Platform behaviour that changed under you, such as Australia’s four-option read-only field.
• Scanner findings that are by design. Answer them in the reviewer notes.

• Treat release certification as the standing maintenance job, one for each family release. Plan every change to the app as a recertification.

• Whether the listing is current for the release they run.