Note

 

This documentation supports the 20.19.01 version of Remedyforce.

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

Creating an approval process

You must create an approval process for the Change Request, Incident, and Knowledge Article objects to set up an approval mechanism for the change requests, incidents, and knowledge articles that are created in BMC Remedyforce. An approval process ensures that the concerned supervisor, lead, or manager is aware and has approved the change request that is being implemented, the incident that is being resolved, or the knowledge article that is being published.

Note

Only Salesforce system administrators or Salesforce license users who are assigned the Customize Application profile-level permission, can create an approval process.

Consider the following points before creating an approval process:

  • The assigned approver cannot edit the change request if the assigned approver is not a member of the Change Manager profile.
    Even if you have selected Administrators OR the currently assigned approver can edit records during the approval process in step 3 of the Standard Setup Wizard, this assigned approver cannot edit the change request.
  • The submitter cannot recall approval requests if you have cleared the Allow submitters to recall approval requests check box in step 6 of the Standard Setup Wizard for creating an approval process.

Before you begin

If you are creating an approval process for incidents or change requests, you must update the Salesforce.com instance in the approval email templates to ensure that the approval record opens correctly when the approver clicks the link in the template. Review the approval process considerations in Salesforce Help.

To create an approval process

  1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
  2. On the Home page, click the Manage Workflows and Approvals tile, and from the menu select Approval Processes.
  3. From the Manage Approval Processes For list, select the object for which you want to create an approval process.
  4. From the Create New Approval Process list, select Use Jump Start Wizard.
  5. In the Approval Process Information section, in the Name field, type the name of your approval process.
    A unique name is generated for the approval process from the name you have entered. You can choose to keep this unique name or create a new unique name for the approval process.
  6. When a record is submitted for approval, Salesforce sends an email message to the approver that contains the link to the approval page. However, if you want to use a customized email template to notify approvers, perform the following actions:
    1. Click the Approval Assignment Email Template lookup.
    2. In the Lookup window, select the Change Request: Approval Required Email or Incident: Approval Required Email email template.
      Before you use the email template, you must update the Salesforce.com instance in the email template to ensure that the approval record opens correctly when the approver clicks the link in the template.
  7. (Optional) In the Specify Entry Criteria section, you can choose to define the filter criteria for incident, change request, or knowledge article records that enter the approval process.
  8. (Optional) If you want configure the approval process to allow only service requests created from a particular service request definition to enter the approval process, perform the following actions:
    1. In the Use this approval process if the following list, select formula evaluates to true.
    2. Click Insert Field.
      By default, Incident > is selected in the first column.
    3. In the second column, select Service Request Title.
    4. Click Insert.
      The Service Request Title field of the Incident object is added to the Formula field.
    5. In the Formula field, type the following:

      ='<The title of the required service request definition>' 
    6. Click Save
  9. In the Select Approver section, perform the following actions to define the staff members who approve the incident, change request, or knowledge article.

    Note

    If you define multiple approvers, an approval is created for each approver. When each approver approves or rejects the incident or change request, their individual responses can be tracked, which is not possible when you assign a queue as an approver.

    Approver optionDescription
    To assign the approval to a queueSelect Automatically assign to queue. If you select a queue, only one approval is created for the incident, change request, or knowledge article, and this approval appears in the Approvals list of all the members of the selected queue. If any of the queue members approves or rejects the incident or change request, the approval is designated as completed, and it goes out of the Approvals list.
    To assign the approval to selected staff members
    1. Select Automatically assign to approver
      By default, User is selected in the list that appears.
    2. Click the User lookup.
    3. Select the staff member who approves the incident or change request.
    4. Click the Add Row link to add another staff member to the list of approvers.
    5. In the User lookup for the next approver, select the next staff member who approves the incident, change request, or knowledge article. 
      A manager must be assigned to the staff member who is selected as an approver. For more information about assigning a manager, see Salesforce Help.
    6. To add more staff members to the list of approvers, repeat step 9d and step 9e.
    7. Select any of the following options to define how approvals from multiple approvers are applied to the incident, change request, or knowledge article:
      • To approve or reject the incident, change request, or knowledge article depending on the first response you receive from any of your approvers in the approvers list, select Approve or reject based on the FIRST response. When an approver approves or rejects the approval, the approval is removed from the Approvals list of the other approvers and the action records for each approver in the incident, change request, or knowledge article are updated with the status of No Response.
      • If you want all approvers to approve the incident, change request, or knowledge article before it is implemented, select Require UNANIMOUS approval from all selected approvers. If a single approver rejects the incident, change request, or knowledge article, the Overall Status field of the incident, change request, knowledge article is updated to Rejected. However, the individual responses of all the approvers are updated as action records in the incident, change request, or knowledge article. Select this option when you are resolving incidents of HIGH priority or implementing important changes that require approval from all stakeholders.
    To assign the approval to the manager of the client. Note: Applicable to approval processes for the Incident object only
    1. Select Automatically assign to approver.
    2. In the first list that appears, select Related User.
    3. In the second list, select Client Manager.
      When you select Client Manager, the approval is assigned to the user who is the manager of the client. You can assign a manager to a client by editing the client record and selecting a manager in the Approver Settings section. Only those users with a Salesforce or Salesforce Platform license can be assigned as managers. For more information about editing users, see Salesforce Help.

      When you create an incident or service request for a client with a manager, the manager is stored in the Client Manager field of the Incident object. The approval process retrieves the value of the Client Manager field and assigns the approval to the manager.

    Note: The approval process assigns the approval for incidents and service requests that are created in the Incident form and in Self Service. If the manager of the client changes, the approval is sent to the new manager only when you edit the incident or service request.

  10. Click Save.
  11. In the summary page that appears, click View Approval Process Detail Page to view the details of the approval process you have created.
  12. To create the fulfillment records when you approve a service request that was automatically submitted for approval, perform the following actions:
    1. In the Final Approval Actions section, click Add Existing.
    2. In the Choose Action Type list of the Select Existing Actions page, select the Field Update type of action.
    3. In the Available Actions list, select Field Update: Update Service Request as Approved.
    4. To move the selected action from the Available Actions list to the Selected Actions list, click Add.
    5. Click Save.
      Service requests are automatically submitted for approval when you select the Automatically Submit for Approval (when matching criteria is met) check box while creating a service request definition (SRD).
  13. If you want delegated approvers to approve incidents, change requests, or knowledge articles, perform the following actions:
    1. In the Approval Steps section, in the Action column, click Edit.
    2. In Step 1. Enter Name and Description, click Next.
    3. In Step 2. Specify Step Criteria, click Next.
    4. Select the The approver's delegate may also approve this request check box.
    5. Click Save.
  14. (Optional) If you want all service requests to be automatically submitted for approval when a Self Service user submits the service request, perform the following actions.
    1. Select the Automatically Submit for Approval (when matching criteria is met) check box for the required service request definition.
    2. In the sidebar, navigate to Manage Users > Public Groups to create a public group that contains all portal users and staff members.
      For more information about creating public groups, see Salesforce Help.
    3. Click New.
    4. In the Group Name field, type the name of the group.
    5. From the Available Members list, select All Customer Portal Users and All Internal Users.
    6. Click Add.
    7. Click Save.
    8. In the sidebar, navigate to Setup > Create > Workflow & Approvals > Approval Processes to configure the created public group as an initial submitter of the approval process.
    9. In the Approval Process Name column, click the approval process that you have created.
    10. In the Edit list of the Process Definition Detail section, select Initial Submitters.
    11. In the Submitter Type list, select Public Groups.
    12. In the Available Submitters list, select the public group that you have created.
    13. Click Add.
    14. Click Save.
      If the Self Service users are not configured as initial submitters of the approval process, their service requests do not automatically enter the approval process.
      These service requests must be manually submitted for approval to enter the approval process.
  15. In the Process Definition Detail section, click Activate to activate the approval process.
  16. In the confirmation dialog box, click OK.

Related topics

Approval process overview

Creating an approval process for deploying operational rules

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