Initiating approvals
Before you can initiate approvals, all the lifecycle steps that precede an approval gate must be completed. To mark a lifecycle step as completed, select the corresponding Done check box on the Project Details screen.
To initiate approvals
- Select the appropriate approval gate on the Project Details window.
The approval information appears at the bottom of the screen.
For example, click Approve Plan in the following Project Details screen:
- Click Initiate Approvals.
The Approve Plan for Project window is displayed. It displays the default approvers and provides fields for additional approvers, approver templates and instructions.
The users listed in the Default Approvers field include the following approvers:- Approvers listed in the approver template that the administrator has specified for the project lifecycle template.
- Approvers listed in the approver template that the administrator has specified as one of the task in project lifecycle template.
- Approvers listed in the approver template that you have added to the project.
- Individual approvers that the administrator added to the project lifecycle template.
- Individual approvers that you added to the project.
For more information on creating approval templates, adding or removing approvers from templates, see Configuring-approver-templates.
- In the Additional Approvers field, select additional approvers, if required.
- In the Additional Approver Templates field, specify additional approver templates, if required.
- In the Instructions for Approvers field, add relevant instructions for the approvers.
Click Initiate Approval Requests.
The software automatically sends an email notification and an in-application alert to every approver (depending on how the approvers have customized the receipt of alerts), and generates an approval task in the My Tasks section, which is accessed from the left navigation bar. The Current Approval Status field displays Pending, and a yellow square appears beside the approval gate on the Lifecycle tab of the Project Details screen.
The preceding lifecycle steps become locked down and unavailable for editing (unless the Administrator has enabled the Project Approval Override permission-see Editing-project-details-locked-by-approval-gates). You can continue to edit the actual dates and schedule outlook dates on the Schedule step screen (see Schedule), add attachments and links, and import MS Project information. In addition, the Project Request screen is available for editing.