Creating group mappings for Change Management

Overview

When an approver list includes functional roles (for example, the Infrastructure Change Approval functional role), specific settings in the AP:Role form in the Approval Server determine whether the role is expanded into individual signature-line records for each member of the role, or a single signature-line record is created for the entire role. In the Approval Server integration with Change Management, the Infrastructure Change Approval functional role maps to the CAB-Member role name in the AP:Role form. The CAB-Member role has the same capabilities as the Infrastructure Change Approver functional role. To access the AP:Role form from the AP:Administration Console, from the IT home page select the AP:Administration Console form, click the Role tab, select a role, and then click View. 

In the CAB-Member role, group approvals by default require that only one member of the support group must sign the approval to move the request to the next stage. For more information about how the All Must Sign and If Multiple Approver settings are used in the Approval Server, especially if you require all members of a group to approve the request, see Creating a Get Next Approver rule  in the Action Request System documentation. For more information about the AP:Role records and the SGP unique support group identifier, see Troubleshooting-issues-with-approval-group-mappings. 

To configure group mappings for Change Management

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, select Change Management > Approval > Approval Mappings, and then click Open.
3. In the Approval For field, select Group.
4. When you select a Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group, select a support group that includes people with the Infrastructure Change Approver functional role.
   For this example, the Service Desk support group includes Mary Mann.
5. In the Approval Indicator field, select which form this approver mapping will affect, for example, Change.

6. In the Phase Name field, select which approval phase needs mapping in the application, for example, Review.

   Important

   When you select a phase name, the Phase Company field is automatically populated.

7. Do not create any other mappings for now.
   For example, let the Level field setting remain at zero for now.
8. Save the approver mapping.
   
   
   If you disabled the individual approver mappings and you did not modify the default approval configuration settings, whenever a change request is moved to the Review phase, the change request cannot be moved from the Request For Authorization status until this support group approves the request.
9. To test the relationship between change requests and the Approval Server, continue with the following steps.
    To simplify the example, open two instances of the web client, and then log on to your development server with your sample users.
   1. As Ian Plyment, create a change request.
   2. Use the Process Flow Status wizard to move the change request from the Draft status to the next stage.
      If Ian Plyment tries to approve his own request, he is prompted that he currently does not have access permissions to approvals.
   3. View the information in the Approvers table in the change request.
      If you have correctly created your approver mappings, the names of the individuals (Mary Mann) from the Service Desk support group that you mapped in step 1 to step 8 appears in the list of approvers.
   4. Log on to your server as Mary Mann, open the Approval Console, and then approve the change request.

   5. Go back to the window where Ian Plyment is logged in, and then refresh the change request.
      The Approvers table is now empty and the change request has moved to Planning In Progress status.

      Tip

      If you want to create a multiple-level group approver mapping, create another group approver mapping for another support group and set the Level setting to one (1). In this case, both support groups must approve the change request before it can move to the next stage. After the first support group approves the change (level 0), the second level of approvers (level 1) must approve the request before it can be moved to the next stage.

   6. To continue testing how approvals work and to prevent confusion with group mappings, set your group mappings to Offline status.

Inherent group mappings for Change Management

The Inherent Group menu lets you select a group specified on the Change form to be the Approval group, for example, Change Manager Group. The Functional Role menu lets you select a functional role for the approval, for example, Infrastructure Change Manager. These roles create individual approval entries for all people who have that functional role.

• You can use the Inherent Group and Functional Role menus combined to limit the individual approval entries to the Inherent Group.
• You can select an Inherent Group without a Functional Role; however, you cannot select a Functional Role without an Inherent Group.
  
  

The following table shows the results of approvers that are generated based on the Inherent Group and Functional Role combinations chosen. 

To configure support group mappings for Change Management

1. From the Application Administration Console, select Change Management > Approval > Approval Mappings, and then click Open.

2. In the Approval For field, select Inherent Group/Role. 
   The Approver Mappings form is displayed again, so that the fields to configure a group mapping appear.

   

3. In the Inherent Group field, select a change management group (for example, Change Manager Group).
4. In the Functional Role field, select one of the BMC Helix ITSM functional roles defined for change management (for example, Infrastructure Change Manager). 
   Make sure that you select an inherent group that includes people with the functional role. 
   For this example, the Change Manager Group includes Mary Mann. Only this individual at Calbro Services has the functional role of Infrastructure Change Manager.
5. In the Approval Indicator field, select which form this approver mapping will affect, for example, Change.
6. In the Phase Name field, select which approval phase needs mapping in the application, for example, Review.
   When you select a phase name, the Phase Company is automatically populated.

7. Save the approver mapping. 
   If you disabled the individual approver mappings and you did not modify the default approval configuration settings, whenever a change request is moved to the Review phase, the change request cannot be moved from the Request For Authorization status until this inherent group/role approves the request.

   Important

   Do not create any other mappings for now. For example, let the Level field setting remain at zero for now.

8. To test the relationship between change requests and the Approval Server, continue with the following steps: 
   To simplify the example, open two instances of the web client, and then log on to your development server with your sample users.
   1. As Ian Plyment, create a change request.
   2. Use the Process Flow Status wizard to move the change request from the Draft status to the next stage. 
      If Ian tries to approve his own request, he is prompted that he currently does not have access permissions to approvals.

   3. Click the Approvers tab in the change request. 
      If you have correctly created your approver mappings, the name of the individuals from the Change Manager inherent group that you mapped in steps 1 to 6 appears in the list of approvers, as shown in the following figure.

      

   4. Log on to your server as Mary Mann, open the Approval Console, and then approve the change request. 
      Based on the If Multiple Approvers setting in the Approval Server, either one or all members of the inherent group must approve the request for it to move forward.

   5. Go back to the window where Ian Plyment is logged in, and then refresh the change request. 
      The Approvers table is now empty and the change request has moved to Request For Change status.

      Tip

      If you wanted to create a multiple-level inherent group approver mapping, you could create another inherent group approver mapping for another inherent group and set the Level setting to one (1). In this case, both inherent groups must approve the change request before it can move to the next stage. After the first inherent group approves the change (level 0), the second level of approvers (level 1) must approve the request before it can be moved to the next stage.