Approving a Change Request

When a change request is set to pending approval status, the approval workflow starts. Depending on how the workflow is configured for a change request type, a change request can be approved by a user or a group. By default, approval is set up for a group; more than half of the group must approve the change before the change request status is set to approved. The Change Manager can override all votes and change the status to approved.

By default, minor and standard change types are not included in the approval process.

If you are a change approver for a specific type of change request, you are notified when that type of change request is updated to the pending approval status.

You can approve a change request in either of the following ways:

From the email notification
From the Self Service application

After you approve the change request, the change status is not updated until all the users identified for the specific Change Approval Board have responded, unless the approval workflow is configured to accept at least a 51% approval. By default, a change request is not approved until all the group members have approved it.

The Approval Vote Tracking record for the approval instance of the change request is updated to show your response.

Responding to a Change Request Approval by Email

You can accept or reject a change request approval by responding to the email notification. When you are notified of a change request approval via email, do the following:

1.

Click Reply.

Do not modify the subject line of the notification email when sending your response through email.

2.

In the body of the message, enter either approved or denied to indicate your acceptance or rejection of the change request.

The approval keywords are configured in the FRS Approval Status Keyword tab records in the Email Configuration form. By default, the keywords to approve or reject via email are approved and denied.

3.

If you reject the change request, enter the reason for rejecting it in the second line of the body of the message.

4.

Click Send.

Responding to a Change Approval Request using Self Service

You can either click the link that appears in the notification email to go to the Self Service application or log directly into the Self Service application.

If you use the Self Service application for approvals, you must be in the Self Service role. Contact your administrator to add the Self Service role to your employee profile if you are not able to log into the Self Service application.

1.

While logged into Self Service, view the change request approval in one of the following ways:

View the change request approval in My Open Items on the Self Service dashboard.
Click the link to go to the change request record.

--or--

Click My Items.
Select Approval Request from the drop-down list.

If you have a single item, the change request record appears.

2.

Click Approval Request for Change.

3.

Either approve or deny the change request:

If you approve the change request, click Approve, then click Approve again to dismiss the change request approval confirmation message and confirm the change request approval.
If you deny the change request, click Deny, then enter the reason for denying the change request in the Deny Approval-Reason field and click Submit.

About Viewing Change Approvals

As a Change Manager you can view, at a glance, the following:

All change request approvals for all change requests, by clicking the Approval Vote Tracking tab on the navigator bar.
The change request approvals just for a specific change request, in the Approvals tab of the change record.

Viewing Approvals for All Change Requests

1.

Log in to the Service Desk Console as a Change Manager. Open the Approval Vote Tracking workspace. The list of approval votes appears.

2.

Sort by the Name column to view the Change Approval Board and management committee approvals.

3.

Double-click the change request approval record to view its details.

Tracking Approvals for a Specific Change Request

1.

Log in to the Service Desk Console as a Change Manager. Open a change request and choose the Approval Vote Tracking tab.

2.

View all the approval records for that change request.

3.

Double-click to open a specific change request.

Viewing Approvals Linked to a Specific Change Request

1.

Log in to the Service Desk Console as a Change Manager. Open a change request record and choose the Approvals tab.

The Approvals tab does not appear until after the change request record is in the pending approval state.

The number of approvals depends on the type of change. For example, if the change is major, the two contact groups that are defined to approve it are the Change Approval Board and management committee.

2.

To view a tally of the votes, open a change request approval by selecting and double-clicking it.