Approvals - Approving change requests

This is the second approval stage for the change request, also referred to as the Implementation Approval stage. Within the lifecycle of the change request, there are several possible approval phases, which vary depending on how your organization configures and implements the changes. Some changes bypass the approval process altogether. The application administrator determines which change requests require approval, what kind of approval process the change requests must undergo, and who the approvers are. The support staff and management can add more approvers to the list. For more information, see Adding approvers. 

For the Standard change class, the process would be to bypass this approval stage.

In this stage, the change approvers assess and approve the change request for implementation. This approval phase typically has the involvement of the change manager as an approver, especially if the previous Change Plan and Schedule review stage was bypassed. The change manager (or change coordinator) controls the overall progress of a change request. Change managers submit the requests for approval and monitor the approval process. As a manager, you might be required to review change requests for approval. Typically, the implementation team, development manager, QA manager, as well as other SMEs that can review the plans.

The following process flow diagram explains the recommended steps and the roles that play a part in the Implementation Approval stage.

The approvers and the approval phase are viewable on the change form. Approvers are notified when a change request requires their approval. If an approval is reassigned, the new approver is notified. 

When the change request is in the Approval phase, the following fields cannot be modified:

• Services CI
• Impact
• Urgency
• Priority
• Risk Level
• Status
• Class
• Change Location
• Change Manager details
• Change Coordinator
• Relationships
• Operation Categorization
• Product Categorization
• Financial Information
• Any Date fields

An approver might not have have access to the Change Management application to approve a change request. If the approver's access permission does not allow access to the change request, the approver can use Approval Central to approve change requests. For more information, see Approving changes using Approval Central.

Submit the change request for approval after you have completed the change request planning and have provided all the information that the approvers require to review the change request.

When the change request requires an approval move to the next stage, the word Approval is displayed on the Process Status Flow bar. You can configure the approval settings to require one or all approvers. For more information about the configuration options, see  Defining roles  in the Remedy AR System online documentation.

After reviewing the change request, approvers can approve it, reject it, or put it on hold if more information is required. When an approver approves the change request, the request is refreshed and the updated approval status is displayed in the Approval table on the change form. You can also configure the application to allow approvers to approve or reject change requests via email. For more information about approvals using email, see Approving or rejecting requests via email. 

If a technical error occurs when the request is sent for an approval, the change request moves to the Pending status with a status reason as Approval Error. The change coordinator should work with the change manager, if the change request is rejected during the approval stage. Once the change request is corrected, the change request can be restarted, which will take it back to the Plan and Schedule Review stage. Once the change request is approved for implementation, it proceeds to the Change Implementation stage.