Types of case approvals

An administrator can configure the following types of approvals:

Self approvals—These are system-driven or automated approvals that do not require any manual intervention.
Approval flows—These are user-driven or manual approvals that require manual intervention.

For more information about approvals, see Case approvals.

Self-approvals

Self-approvals are automatically processed by the system. They contain expressions that are evaluated to determine for which case the self-approval needs to be run.

An administrator can configure a self-approval in the following ways:

Without process—To automatically approve a case that matches with the defined qualification.
With process—To evaluate additional expressions or to perform additional tasks. After a case matches with the self-approval expression, the self-approval process is run, and the expression defined in the process is executed. When this expression is met, the case is approved. Otherwise, the case is rejected.

For more information about self-approvals, see Configuring case self-approvals.

Example of a self-approval with process

An administrator configures a self-approval with the following details:

A self-approval process to notify the manager of the case assignee that the case status is changed to Pending.
An expression Case Priority = Medium that is evaluated to find a matching case.

The following events take place for a case where an employee requests for name change:

Based on an approval mapping, the case status triggers an approval.
The case matches with the self-approval expression and status changes to Pending.
The self-approval process is run for the case and the manager of the case assignee is notified about the case status change.
After the manager is notified, the case is automatically approved.
The case status is changed based on the status defined in the approval mapping.

The following figure illustrates the example of a self-approval:

Example of a self-approval without an approval process

An administrator configures a self-approval without a process by defining an expression Case Priority = Low.

The following events take place for a case where an employee requests for a sick leave:

Based on an approval mapping, the case status triggers an approval.
The case matches with the self-approval expression.
The case is automatically approved.
The case status is changed based on the status defined in the approval mapping.

The following figure illustrates the example of a self-approval without an approval process:

Case approval flows

An approval flow determines a specific person or group of users who need to approve a case. An approval flow enables an administrator to group similar types of approvals and define how they should be executed.

The following figure illustrates the entities that together form an approval flow:

Flow groups

A flow group is a logical grouping of approvals that might be based on the type of cases, lines of business, group of users, and so on. An administrator can also use a flow group to:

define approval processes that belong to a specific group.
create a chain of approvals.

Flows

A flow defines an expression that is evaluated to determine for which case the approval needs to be run. It also defines the approvers who need to approve the case.

The following types of flows are available:

Level Up Approval Flow—This is a manager approval flow that is used to specify the levels of approvals that a case requires.
For example, an employee requests for a performance award for a colleague and the case for the request needs two levels of approval. First, the employee's manager approves the case, and then, the manager's manager approves the case.
General Approval Flow—This is used to define multiple approvers for a case. It also determines whether all or one of the approvers must approve the case.
For example, an employee requests for a transfer from one location to another location, and a case agent creates a case for the request. The case needs to be approved by any member of the HR support group.

Additionally, an administrator can create a chain of approvals for cases that require multiple approvals. For more information, see Defining a chain of approvals.

Example of a flow group and its flows

In Calbro Services, an administrator wants to group approvals that are related to the HR line of business. To do this, the administrator creates the HR approvals flow group that contains the following flows:

Performance award approval request—Approval required from the HR manager when an employee requests for a performance award for a colleague.
Create payroll details—Approval required from the direct manager of a new employee to create the payroll details of the employee.
Apply for medical reimbursement—Approval required from the direct manager of an employee who wants a medical reimbursement.

Out-of-the-box and custom flow group

Out-of-the-box BMC Helix Business Workflows provides the BWFA Group flow group with a level-up approval flow Manager Approval Flow. An administrator can add flows in this flow group. However, to create a custom flow group and its corresponding flows, BMC recommends to use Flowsets.

To create a flow group by using a Flowset, a case business analyst defines an approval process for that flow group, and associates the process with the Flowset.

For more information about adding an approval process to a Flowset, see Creating a Flowset for a line of business.