Setting up an emergency change process that bypasses the approval process

You can configure emergency change requests to bypass some approval phases. To bypass the approval process for emergency changes, you must create a new record on the Approval Process Configuration form.

To bypass the approval process for emergency changes

From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
The Approval Process Configuration form appears.
From the Application Settings list, select Foundation > Advanced Options > Approval Process Configuration, and then click Open.
Select the Form Name and Company for this approval process (for example, Calbro Services).
Set Status to Enabled.
Set the Auto Approve? value to Yes so that no approvers can be mapped to this process on the Approval Mapping form.
If no approvers are mapped when the emergency approval process is called, the No Approvers approval state then applies, and the change request is approved. This setting allows you to track the approval process, but the change request is not held up waiting for approvals in the emergency case.
Enter a Phase Name, for example, Emergency.
Select a Process Name.
Click the Status Flow tab.
Select the Change Process Flow as Standard Process.
Select the Begin, Approved, Rejected, and No Approvers states for the process.
For more information, see Approval-states-on-the-Status-Flow-tab.
Click the Additional Qualifications tab.
Select Emergency in the Change Timing/Class list.
Click Save.

When a change is created for Calbro Services, and Emergency is selected in the Class (Timing) field, the new approval process phase is used, bypassing the normal change states.

Example of approval process configuration for an emergency process flow

In this example, we will be creating new approval process configuration records for an emergency process flow. For this flow, we should have an approval process for both, the Implementation stage, and for the Close Down stage. For this, we need to create two approval process configuration records, one for each approval phase. To achieve this, we will perform the following steps:

Open the Approval Process Configuration form and select New Request.
Enter the following details:
1. Select the Form Name for the application for which you are creating the approval process.
  For Change Management, this value is always Infrastructure Change.
2. Select the Company for which you want this flow to be applicable.
  In this example, we will select Calbro Services.
3. Set the Status to Enabled.
4. Set the Phase Name to Implementation Approval and the Process Name to Change Level CI-IA – Implementation.
  The Change Management and approval server applications provide these processes out-of-the-box.
  Important
  The CI-IA abbreviation in the process name stands for Configuration Item and Impacted Areas. In this example, one of the main mapping criteria is tied to the impacted areas for the change request as well as the associated CIs to a change request. The out-of-the-box approval server processes have been designed to leverage this information while performing the approval process workflow.
  Best practice
  We recommend that you use the out-of-the-box approval server processes.
5. Keep the default values for the Impacts Approval Status, Auto Approve?, and the Sort Order fields.
6. From the Status Flow tab, set the Change Process Flow to Standard Process.
7. Select the Status based on how you want the approval process to begin and how the process will be when the approvers approve or reject the change request, or when no approvers are found.
  1. Set the Begin status to Draft.
    When the change request is moved to this state, the approval process is initiated.
  2. Set the Approved status to Scheduled.
    When the approvers for the approval phase approve the change request, the request moves to the Scheduled state.
  3. Set the Rejected status to Rejected.
    When the approvers for the approval phase reject the change request, the request moves to the Rejected state.
  4. Set the No Approvers status to Scheduled.
    If no approvers are found in the Approval Mapping form for this approval phase, the change request automatically moves to the Scheduled state.
8. From the Additional Qualifications tab, set the value of the Change Timing/Class field to Emergency.
  Important
  If you are using this process for all the change classes, leave all the fields under this tab blank.
Click Save.
Create the second approval process configuration record for the Close Down Approval phase.
1. Select the Form Name for the application for which you are creating the approval process.
  For Change Management, this value is always Infrastructure Change.
2. Select the Company for which you want this flow to be applicable.
  In this example, we will select Calbro Services.
3. Set the Status to Enabled.
4. Select the Phase Name to Close Down Approval and the Process Name to Change Level CI-IA - Close Down.
5. From the Status Flow tab, set the Change Process Flow to Standard Process.
6. Select the Status based on how you want the approval process to begin and how the process will be when the approvers approve or reject the change request or when no approvers are found.
  1. Set the Begin status to Completed with the Status Reason as Final Review Required.
    When the change request is moved to this state with this status reason, the approval process is initiated.
  2. Set the Approved status to Completed with the Status Reason as Final Review Complete.
    When the approvers for the approval phase approve the change request, the request stays in the Completed state and the status reason changes to Final Review Complete.
  3. Set the Rejected status to Rejected.
    When the approvers for the approval phase reject the change request, the request moves to the Rejected state.
  4. Set the No Approvers status to Completed with the Status Reason as Final Review Complete.
    If no approvers are found in the Approval Mapping form for this approval phase, the change request automatically moves to the Completed state with status reason as Final Review Complete.
From the Additional Qualifications tab, set the value of the Change Timing/Class field to Emergency.
Click Save.