Setting up approval processes for your company

You can either use the default approval processes or use a custom approval process by creating a copy of an approval process and saving it for your company. Based on the default global settings, the system automatically creates the remaining approval processes for your company. You can edit these approval processes as needed.

Approval states

When the Status and Status Reason fields for the SRD record match with the value specified in the Begin column, the approval process is started. Whenever the Status or Status Reason changes, the workflow searches the Approval Process Configuration form to see if there are any approval mappings for the new Status and Status Reason combination. If a mapping is found, the process name is returned to the SRD, and a command is issued to the Approval Server to start the approval process.

After the approval process starts, the Status and Status Reason fields cannot be modified. This prevents further changes to the SRD until the approver submits a decision (approved or rejected).

Approval configuration records are mapped for SRDs by navigational categories, price information, and so on.

Approval states are as follows:

State	Description
Begin	This state is an indicator to the Approval Server for starting the approval process. For example, if you set up Pending as the Status and Approval as the Status Reason for an SRD, the approval process does not start until the SRD's Status and Status Reason fields match these values. The approval process, for example, does not start when the SRD Status is Draft.
Approved	Based on the rules set up in the Approval Server, if one or all approvers have approved the SRD, the Approval Server changes the Status and Status Reason fields values on the SRD record to match the values you configure. At that time, the locked Status and Status Reason fields on those records are unlocked and the requests go through the remainder of their life cycle. The Approved state is based on rules set up in the Approval Server Rule Definition form. To access the Rule Definition form, select AP:Administration from the IT Home page. From the Rule tab on the Approval Server Administration form, select a rule, and click View.
Rejected	Defines the values of the Status and Status Reasons fields for SRDs if a record is rejected. For example, you might want to set the Status back to Pending and the Status Reason to More Information if the SRD is rejected.
No Approvers	If the Approval Server does not find any of the mapped approvers, the Status and Status Reason field values on the two forms are changed to the values specified.

Approval process types

BMC Service Request Management provides two approval process types: Ad Hoc and Level.

Process	Description	Default status
Service Request Definition - Ad Hoc	Provides routing authority to each approver without requiring the administrator to create approver mappings for every individual or role. The Service Catalog Manager is the first approver. The first approver must specify the next approvers before approving the catalog offering.	Enabled
Service Request Definition - Level	Uses the data configured in the Approval Mappings form to determine approvers. For more information, see Creating-approver-mappings.	Offline

These processes are based on sample data such as companies and support groups provided in the Foundation. There is no separate configuration data for approvers. You can modify the sample processes, or disable them and create approval processes and rules based on your business needs.

Best practice
Do not enable both SRD approval processes at the same time. Otherwise, your SRD approvals will not work as described. If you want to modify the default approval settings, enable only one SRD approval process and set the other to Offline.

Company versus global approval processes

The default approval processes are designed for global use, and you need not create additional approval configuration records.

If you need alternate approval processes, create copies of these processes. Do not modify the default approval processes.

The company-based approval processes that you create take precedence over global approval processes. When an SRD reaches an approval phase, the Approval Server first evaluates any company approval processes you have created and ignores the global approval processes. If there are no company approval processes, the Approval Server uses the global approval processes.

The following diagram demonstrates this scenario.

Setting up an approval process for your company

Before you configure the approval process, you must ensure that the approvers are defined in the system. For more information, see Creating-individual-and-group-approvers.

To set up an approval process for your company

In the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
From the Application Settings list, select Foundation > Advanced Options > Approval Process Configuration, and click Open.

On the Approval Process Configuration form, specify the following fields:

Field name	Location or tab name	Action and description
Form Name	Top of form	Select the SRD:ServiceRequestDefinition form, from which the service requests are generated. When you select a form name, category and total cost fields appear on the Additional Qualifications tab. You will use these fields to map the approval configuration record to the SRD categories for SRDs.
Company	Top of form	Select the company that will use this approval configuration record. This name maps to the name specified in the Company field on the Delivery tab of the SRD record. If you are using multi-tenancy, you can configure a separate approval configuration record for each company. If you are defining an ad hoc approval, select Global. This option makes sure that the service request goes to the Service Catalog Manager of the SRD, who would either approve the request or route it appropriately.
Status	Top of form	Select a status for the approval configuration record. Select Enabled to run this approval configuration record. If the process should not be available in Service Request Management, select the appropriate status: Proposed, Offline, Obsolete, Archived, or Delete.
Description	Top of form	(Optional) Enter a description of this approval configuration process.
Phase Name	Approval Process tab	Type or select a value to indicate at which phase of the request this approval configuration record should be run. The phase name is associated with the company for which this approval is being defined.
Process Name	Approval Process tab	From the list of processes you configured, select the process that should be used for this approval configuration record.
Process Type	Approval Process tab	A preconfigured corresponding process type that appears when you select the process name.
Impacts Approval Status	Approval Process tab	Select Yes or No to indicate whether this approval configuration process impacts the approval status of the SRD.
Default Process Name	Approval Process tab	(Optional) Select another process from the list. In general, if no approvers are found for the Process Name, the Default Process Name is checked, to see if any approvers can be found. If you clear the Default Process Name field, when the SRD reaches the Service Request Definition - Level phase and does not find any values that match the Approver Mappings, the SRD will not have any fallback processes to use. The SRD moves to the next state. Important: Do not select a process unless you specifically need one.
System Approval Flag	Approval Process tab	(Optional) To specify that no approvers can be mapped to this process on the Approval Mappings form, select Yes. This field is blank by default.
Sort Order	Approval Process tab	(Optional) Helps you sort the execution order when you have multiple approval configuration records for a specific category.

Click the Status Flow tab to set up the approval cycle for the specific service catalog.
To create a status flow, follow these steps:
1. (Optional) For the Begin state, define a status and a status reason.
  This field specifies which status starts the approval process.
2. (Optional) For the Approved state, define a status and a status reason.
  If the SRD is approved, the Approval Server changes the status and status reason values on the relevant form to the values you configure here.
3. (Optional) For the Rejected state, define a status and a status reason.
  If the SRD is rejected, the Approval Server changes the status and status reason values on the relevant form to the values you configure here.
4. (Optional) For the No Approvers state, define a status and a status reason.
  If the Approval Server does not find any approvers, the Approval Server changes the Status and Status Reason values on the relevant form to the values you configure here.
(Optional) Click the Additional Qualifications tab to include other fields in a service request to define which approval process to use for a particular request, for example, the Category 1 field or the Total Cost of the SRD.
Save the approval process.