Reviewing and approving change requests
Your organization's policies might require change requests to be approved by a manager or other team members.
Before you begin
To set up the approval process, the administrator configures the approval process. A change request approver in Smart IT must have permissions to view the change request. Otherwise, the change request can be approved by using Approval Central or email-based approvals. For more information, see Smart-IT-roles-and-permissions.
To authenticate yourself as a change request approver
You might be prompted to authenticate yourself as a change approver.
Based on whether BMC Helix Single Sign-On is integrated or not, you must do one of the following to authenticate yourself as the approver by using your Smart IT login credentials and submit your review:
- If BMC Helix Single Sign-On is integrated with Smart IT, the system redirects you to the BMC Helix Single Sign-On authentication page. You must login using your Smart IT login credentials.
- If BMC Helix Single Sign-On is not integrated with Smart IT, you must enter your Smart IT password on the approval banner to authenticate yourself. For Progressive Web App screens, click Show Approvers on the approval banner to open the Approval list window where you can login by using the Smart IT password.
To review and approve a change request
To review and approve a change request in Progressive Web App screens
When a change request is submitted for approval, the approver receives a notification about it. An approver can also search for change requests requiring approval by using filters in the Ticket Console (for example, Ticket Type = Change, To be approved by = Me, or Approval Status = Change Awaiting Approval).
On the change request, click Show Approvers on the approval banner.
In the Approval list window, the following filters are displayed:
Filter
Description
My pending approvals
Lists all the approvals for which you are the approver.
All pending approvals
Lists all the pending approvals.
Closed approvals
Lists all the approvals that are closed.
All approvals
Lists all the approvals.
- Click + Add approver to add individual or group approvers for that change request.
In the Approval List window, when you select an entry, the Approve, Reject, and Hold buttons are displayed.
- When you click either Approve or Reject, if BMC Helix Single Sign-On is not integrated with Smart IT, to authenticate yourself as the approver, enter the Smart IT login password in the Login Password field.
- In the Rationale field, provide a reason for the approval and again submit the approval.
If BMC Helix Single Sign-On is integrated with Smart IT, after adding the reason for the approval, when you submit the entry as an approver, you are directed to the BMC Helix Single Sign-On login page. Enter the Smart IT login credentials to authenticate yourself.
After authenticating you as the approver, the system accepts the review. After you complete the review, the change request is displayed on your Updates feed.
To review and approve a change request in Smart IT
After the change request has been submitted for approval, the approver receives a notification about it. An approver can also search for change requests requiring approval by using filters in the Ticket Console (for example, Ticket Type = Change, To be approved by = Me, or Approval Status = Change Awaiting Approval).
On the change request, the following banner appears. The approver can approve, reject, or keep the request on hold.
Tip
The approver must refresh the change request profile before reviewing. To do so, click the Refresh 
icon available on the change request. Mobile users must pull down the change request screen to refresh the ticket.
If BMC Helix Single Sign-On is not integrated with Smart IT, to authenticate yourself as the approver, enter Smart IT login password in the Login password field. In the rationale field, provide a reason for the review, and then submit the review.
If BMC Helix Single Sign-On is integrated with Smart IT, after adding the reason for the review, when you as an approver submit the review, you are directed to the BMC Helix Single Sign-On login page. Enter the Smart IT login credentials to authenticate yourself.
After authenticating you as the approver, the system accepts the review. After you complete the review, the change request is displayed on your Updates feed.
To see details about the approvals, click Show approvers > (right arrow) and view the Approval List.
To see the list of approvers
To see the list of approvers in Progressive Web App screens
On the change request, in the approval banner, click Show Approvers to view the Approval list window.
Important considerations about the All pending approvals and the My pending approvals filters are given below:
- Depending on the value specified in If multiple approvers option on the AP:Role form in BMC Helix ITSM, the system identifies the approvers in the Approvers column.
- On the AP:Role form, when the If multiple approvers option is set to One must sign, then one of the members of the support group and all the individual approvers must review and approve the change request.
- On the AP:Role form, when the If multiple approvers option is set to All must sign, then all the members of the support groups and all the individual approvers must review and approve the change request.
- Individual reviewers and support groups with single member are by default listed in the Approvers column.
- When one of the members of the support group keeps the change request on hold, the Approval list window still displays names and details of reviewers from the support groups. Other pending reviewers can review the change request.
- When one of the members of the support group approves the change request, the approver and other members of that support group are moved under the Closed approvals filter. Reviews by the other reviewers of that support group are bypassed.
- When an approver rejects the change request, all the pending reviewers are automatically moved under the Closed approvals filter. The change request is moved to the Reject status, and it is not passed to the next status. The rejected change request can be later resubmitted. For more information, see Resubmitting a rejected change request.
- When you restart the same change request, the system displays the status previous to the status that required review. For example, if the change request is rejected when in the Review Approval status, the change request can be resumed from the Draft status. If the change request is rejected when in the Scheduled for Approval status, the change request can be resumed from the Planning in Progress state.
- When a reviewer belongs to multiple support groups that are configured for reviewing the change request. In this case, the support group name is displayed on the basis of the first match group. It could be any group. The system selects the first match group out of the groups assigned for review to which the user belongs.
To see the list of approvers in Smart IT
On the Open tab, the reviewer can see a list of reviewers who have not yet made their decision about the change request or have put it on hold. The Closed tab displays a list of reviewers who have already approved or rejected the change request.
Important considerations about the Open and Closed tabs are given below:
- Depending on the value specified in If multiple approvers option on the AP:Role form in BMC Helix ITSM, the system identifies mandatory and optional reviewers on the Open tab. Optional reviewers from the support groups are listed under One of the following people must sign section. Reviewers whose review is mandatory are listed under All the following people must sign section of the Open tab.
- The number of sub sections under One of the following people must sign depends on the number of reviewers and the support groups to which they belong. For example, there are 4 reviewers from 4 support groups. On the Open tab of the Approval list pane, they are placed in 4 sections under One of the following people must sign section.
- On the AP:Role form, when the If multiple approvers option is set to One must sign, then one of the member of the support group, and all the individual approvers must review and approve the change request.
- On the AP:Role form, when the If multiple approvers option is set to All must sign, then all the members of the support groups and all the individual approvers must review and approve the change request.
- Individual reviewers and support groups with single member are by default listed under All the following people must sign section.
- When one of the members of the support group keeps the change request on hold, the Approval list pane still displays name and details of reviewers from the support groups. Other pending reviewers can review the change request.
- When one of the members of the support group approves the change request, the approver and other members of that support group are moved to the Closed tab. Reviews by the other reviewers of that support group are bypassed.
- When a reviewer rejects the change request, all the pending reviewers are automatically moved to the Closed tab, and the Open tab becomes empty. The change request is moved to the Reject status, and it is not passed to the next status. The rejected change request can be later resubmitted. For more information, see Resubmitting a rejected change request.
- When you restart the same change request, the system displays the status previous to the status that required review. For example, if the change request is rejected in the Review status, after restart, the change request is displayed in its previous status In progress. When it is moved from In progress to Review status, again the review process with the same reviewers starts.
- When a reviewer belongs to multiple support groups that are configured for reviewing the change request. In this case, the support group name is displayed on the basis of the first match group. It could be any group. The system selects the first match group out of the groups assigned for review to which the user belongs.
Alternate approvers
You can designate alternate approvers by using the Approval Administration Console in BMC Helix ITSM.
Like primary approvers, alternate approvers can also receive notifications about change requests requiring approval. These change requests appear in the Updates feed on the Dashboard. Alternate approvers can locate change requests that require approval by using filters in the Ticket Console.
If you are both a primary and alternate approver for a change request, of if you are an alternate approver for more than one person, your "signature" might be needed more than once. When you make your decision (approve, reject, and hold), it applies to all of the approvals under your name for that change request.
Ad hoc approvers
Individuals and groups can be added as ad hoc approvers to a change request, in addition to the approvers that are selected by any configured approval processes. Ad hoc approvers can only be added to an active approval process where there are still pending approvals. This functionality helps to ensure that all relevant signatures are obtained.
The ability to add ad hoc approvers to a change request is limited to:
- Any user with Infrastructure Change User permissions that belongs to the assigned Change Coordinator or Change Manager support group
- Any user with Infrastructure Change Master permissions
You can select individual approvers who have an active People record with a login ID. The user does not need to be a member of a support group or have the Infrastructure Change Approver functional role to be added as an approver. For group approvers, at least one member of the group must be a member of a support group and have the Infrastructure Change Approver functional role.
Ad hoc approvers are notified immediately of the pending approval request, which is handled as a separate approval signature. The change request cannot move past the approval phase until each ad hoc approval is completed, along with any approval that is mapped to the change request through a configured approval process.
The following figures show how to add approvers from the Approval list in the universal client (for Smart IT) and in the Progressive Web App screens. To add an individual, select Add Approver (for Smart IT) and Individual (for Progressive Web App screen) and enter the user's name or email to search for the matching entries. To add a group, select Add Approval Group (for Smart IT) and Group (for Progressive Web App screen) and enter the support company, organization, or group name to search for the matching entries. Select the required approver from the list and click Add.
Smart IT | Progressive Web App screen |
|---|---|
| Individual
Group
|
