This documentation supports the 21.02 version of BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

Configuring approval flows

After you have registered the record, the next step is to configure either self approval flows or approval flows that define how the request gets approved.

An approval request with self approval flows is automatically approved by the system without requiring an approver to approve it. Whereas, approval flows determine the specific person or group of people to approve a request.

An approval process varies depending on how your organization configures and implements it.

The following image illustrates the end-to-end process of creating an approval process and approval flows:

The following video (2:44) demonstrates how to create approval flows.

The video shows an older version of BMC Helix Innovation Studio. The previous product name was BMC Helix Innovation Suite. Although there might be minor changes in the UI, the overall functionality remains the same.

 https://youtu.be/7mjz5BmQ9D0

To configure approval flows

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
  2. Select Approvals > Approval configuration.
  3. On the Approval configuration page, click New.
  4. On the Approval configurations UI, click Approval Flows > New Flow Group.

  5. In the New Flow Group, enter the new group name in Flow group name field, and click Add.
    A flow group a contains single or multiple approval flows. You can create one or multiple approval flow groups.

    Important

    Once the Flow Group is created, go to the approval process and in the Element Properties > Flow Group Name field, enter this flow group name. Ensure that the approval process is in enabled state.

  6. From the Selected flow group list, select one of the following options:

    • New General Flow: If you want to create a general approval flow or process chaining, specify the following parameters:

      FieldDescription
      Flow nameEnter a name for the new general flow.
      Qualification

      Define an expression to configure the conditions based on which the approval flow should be executed.

      To define an expressions perform the following actions:

      1. Click Click to build an expression.

      2. From the list of Available Values, click Record Definition.

      3. Select the record field or associated record field on which you would want to build an expression.
        Alternately, you can use Associations for creating the expressions. To use associations, expand Associations and select the record data.

        While building an expression, ensure that you select a Record Definition that has a GUID value.

      4. Click OK.

      Important: The approval request is sent to the approvers with status as Enabled. If an approver is deleted after the approval request is generated, then the approval request is not sent to that approver.

      Approvers

      Select approvers by using the Foundation dataYou can set multiple approvers for one request. You can either select approvers by filtering specific approvers from functional roles, company, people data, or from the list of the fields on the record definition in the Available Approvers list. This enables you to narrow your selection by limiting the approvers and not select the entire group or organization.

      Important: The approval request is sent only to the approvers with status as Enabled. If an approver is deleted after the approval request is generated, then the approval request is not sent to that approver.

      1. To select the approver, click Edit.

        In the Select Approvers dialog box, only the users with Enabled status appear in the approver list.

      2. Select the following options based on your preferences:

        • Functional Roles: Select the specific approvers from the list of functional roles.

        • Company: Select the specific approvers from the company, support company, department, or organization.

        • People: Select the specific approvers from the list of People data.

        • Field Identifying Approval: Select the field on the record definition in the Available Approvers list.

          During runtime, the field value is assigned as the approver.
          Important
          : If you select a record definition field as the approver, you cannot modify the approver after you save the approval flow.

      3. Click .
      4. Click Save.
      Qualify approvers

      Define an expression to select approvers.

      To define a qualification to select approvers, perform the following actions:

      1. Click Click to build an expression.

      2. From the list of Available Values, click Person to create an expression by using the person attributes. 

      3. Click OK.

      Important: The approval request is sent to the approvers with status as Enabled. If an approver is deleted after the approval request is generated, then the approval request is not sent to that approver.

      If Multiple ApproversSelect one of the following:
      • One Must Approve—Use this option when only one of the approvers needs to approve the request.

      • All Must Approve—Use this option when all approvers must approve the request.
      • N% Must Approve—Use this option when a specific percentage of approvers must approve the request.
      Value of N%Select the percentage of approvers that must approve the request.

      For example, if the request is sent to five approvers and you have specified the percentage as 60, then the request is approved only after any three approvers approve the request.

      This option is displayed only if you select the N% Must Approve option from the If Multiple Approvers field.

      Important: If the result of percentage is a decimal value, then the result gets converted to the nearest integer value.

      For example, if the result of the N% is 3.5, then the request is approved only after any four approvers approve the request.

      Process to invoke on flow outcome action section
      On approveFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is approved.
      On rejectionFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is rejected.
      On errorFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is errored.
    • New level up flow: If you want to create level up approval flow, specify the following fields:

      FieldDescription
      Flow nameEnter a name for the new level up approval flow.
      No of LevelsEnter the number of levels the approval request must go through.
      Qualification

      Define an expression to configure the conditions based on which the approval flow should be executed.

      To define an expressions perform the following actions:

      1. Click Click to build an expression.

      2. From the list of Available Values, click Record Definition.

      3. Select the record field or associated record field on which you would want to build an expression.

      4. Click Save.

      Important: The approval request is sent to the approvers with status as Enabled. If an approver is deleted after the approval request is generated, then the approval request is not sent to that approver.

      Process to invoke on flow outcome action section
      On approveFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is approved.
      On rejectionFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is rejected.
      On errorFrom the list, select the process that you want to execute if the approval status is errored.
  7. Click Save.

Where to go from here

ActionReference

Create notifications when an approval request is approved, rejected, reassigned, or an error exists in approval signature, and so on.

Creating approval notifications to notify approvers

Related topic

Approvals

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