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.

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.
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