Phased rollout This documentation supports the 21.05 version of BMC Service Request Management. To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

Approving or rejecting requests

When you finish planning the request, and have supplied all the information that the approvers require to review the request, you can submit the request for approval.

When a request requires an approval, its approvers are notified. Notifications are sent according to the method specified in the Notifications tab of the approver's record in the People form. Approvers receive an email with details of the request and approve and reject options if email-based approvals are enabled.

Related topics

How-approvals-are-handled-for-emergency-change-requests

AR System Email Templates form 

On the request, the word Approval is displayed on the Process Status Flow area. The request must be approved, canceled, or rejected from the Approval table on the change request or the AR System server for it to move to the next defined status.

  • If the request is approved—An approval signature is generated and the request moves to the next valid status or the status defined in the Approved field of the Approval Process Mapping.
  • If the request is rejected—It moves to the status defined in the Rejected field of the Approval Process Configuration. You can resume or cancel a rejected request. When the change request is rejected, all the approved and pending approval signatures are closed. If the reason for rejecting the request can be resolved, the Change Manager, Change Coordinator, or Release Coordinator can take the necessary action and resume the request. If the request is resumed, all the approval signatures are automatically generated and the approved signatures stay as approved. The tasks associated to the change request are not affected when a change is rejected; these tasks can also be resumed. The request can also be canceled. A canceled request can be reopened and moved to Draft. You can submit this reopened request or reject it. For more information about resubmitting rejected change requests, see Resubmitting-a-rejected-change-request.

For a change request, the request moves to the Pending status with a status reason as Approval Error when:

  • A technical error occurs when the request is sent for an approval.
  • An ad hoc change is defined, and the change manager for the change requester in not defined.
  • Approval is mapped to a group and no valid approver is found within the group.
  • Change Approval Chain has been configured and an approver cannot be found.

The change user can restart the change so that it can be sent for approval again.


To approve change requests

You can approve or reject requests by using any of the following methods. You can also approve a change request by using BMC Digital Workplace.

You can directly approve requests via email. When email-based approvals are enabled, an email notification is sent to the individuals who have approval authority for the request. Those people either can approve or reject the request directly from the email notification.

Important

If the approval process requires a password or requires that the rejection of a request must include a business justification, you cannot use email-based approvals. If this is the case, you must approve the request from Approval Central.

The approval email notifications are also sent out to any alternate approvers defined for the process. However, if the approver adds an alternate approver after the email has been sent, the alternate approver will not receive the email.

The following figure show examples of approval emails.

new_change_email.jpg


Important

The Server Timezone Offset displays the time zone offset information where the AR System server is located.

  1. In the approval email that you receive, click the request ID link to view the details of the request.
    However, this is not applicable for service requests.

  2. Click Approve or Reject.
    An email formatted with your approval or rejection reply is displayed.

    Important

    The Approve and Reject buttons are displayed in the email by default. However, you can customize the definitions for these buttons by using the email based approval HTML templates (for example, ITSM_Approval_By_Email_Content_en.html or Approval_By_Email_Content_en.html).

    Additionally, if you do not want to receive the notification related to the approval or rejection of a request, from the SYS:Notification Messages form, select the required template in the Email Template Name field, and then clear the Fallback Template Name field. For more information, see Customizing-notification-messages.

  3. Send the email without modifying the text.

    Warning

    Do not modify the content followed by the #DO NOT MODIFY FOLLOWING TEXT# text in the email.

You are notified of the success of the approval or rejection by email, as shown in the following figure:

approval_confirmation.gif

If you attempt to approve or reject a request that is in a state that cannot be changed (approved, rejected, closed, or canceled), you receive an approval error notification email, as shown in the following figure:

approval_error.gif

If you receive an Approval Error Notification, click Launch Approval Central to view the status of the request.

You can use the AR System Approval Central to approve change requests. This method is especially important if your current access permission does not allow you to access the change request. Not all approvers have access to the Change Management application through their home pages, yet still have the role to approve change requests before they can move forward.

Before you begin

You must have appropriate permissions to modify, view, and approve a change request. For more information about roles and permissions, see Roles and permissions in the BMC Helix ITSM documentation.

  1. Log in to the AR System server as the approver.

  2. Open Approval Central. 

    approval-central_61624_516.gif

    Important

    Click the Source ID to view the details of the change request.

    The Approval Central displays all the pending change requests that are assigned to you. If there are many requests, you can filter them by using the fields in the Search Criteria area.

  3. Approve, reject, hold, reassign, or view the change request.
    After you approve the change request, it no longer is displayed in the Approval Requests table. The appropriate approvers are notified of any reassigned approvals.

    Important

    If approvers need more information about a change request, they can view the request details and add a question in the approval activity log. Their signature is on hold while they are waiting for the information and the status is set to More Information.

    When you enter information in the Comments and More Information fields while approving or rejecting a change request by using the Approval Central, the information entered in these fields is saved when you save the form. However, when you open the pending change request, the Change Signature form from the Work Details tab displays empty Comments and More Information fields. However, the change request process is not affected.


To view change requests awaiting approval

You can view a list of all change requests that are awaiting approval.

  1. In the Change Management console, under Counts in the left navigation pane, click Waiting Approval.
    The Changes table shows the change requests waiting for approval.
  2. Select the change request to review, and then click View.
    The approver can approve or reject the change request the Change Request form, or request further information.

To approve or reject requests by using Approval Central

  1. From the IT Home page, select Applications > Quick Links > Approval Central. 
    Approval Central displays all pending approval requests that are assigned to you. If there are many requests, you can filter them by using the fields in the Search Criteria area. 
  2. (Optional) To view details of the request, click the Request ID.
  3. (Optional) Ask questions about the request:

    1. In the More Information area, enter the following values:

      Field

      Value

      Type

      Question

      Question To

      Requested For login name

      Question

      Text of the question

    2. Click Save.
      The request is marked as needs attention, and the user can respond to your question from the Request Entry console.
  4. Approve, reject, hold, reassign, or view the request by clicking the respective buttons.

After you approve the request, it no longer is displayed in the Pending Approvals table. The appropriate approvers are notified of any reassigned approvals. 

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*