Create New Approval Process Templates

On the Design menu, click Approval Process. The Approval Process Templates page is displayed.
Click the New icon. The fields to create a new process template are displayed.

Introduction

In addition to the default templates provided, IRC enables you to create approval process templates to suit your requirements.

Process Detail tab

The Options panel contains a list of pre-set approval options that may be modified. Modification is possible only if the check-box override this option is selected on the Access Management section on the Configuration page.

Not all the options listed in the Approval Options are available for modification. The following options are available:

Approval Stages tab

An approval stage is a stage in the request workflow. A request moves from one stage to the next only when it meets the approval conditions at the current stage. When you create an approval process template, you can define one or more stages.

The Completion of Request option setting in the Options panel of the Process Details tab determines how many approval stages are created.

Add a new approval stage as follows:

Click Add Stage on the Approval Stages tab. The system displays Approval Stages panel.
Provide a name for the approval stage.
Provide a description for this approval stage.
Specify the approvers for this stage. Select one of the following from the Approvers drop- down list:
Add Approver: Click the Browse icon to select an approver from the list.
Add Functional Area Variable(s): Click the Browse icon to select a functional area variable from the list instead of hard-coding the name of an approver. The variable will be replaced with the correct approver at the time of approval. Ensure that the functional area variable selected is the one used at the bottom- most level of the functional area.
For details on creating functional areas refer to the section Create or Modify a Functional Area.
Emergency Access Users: Click the Browse icon to add an emergency access user to the list.
Manager of User: Click the Browse icon to add the manager of the user.

Two additional options are displayed in the Approvers drop-down list for all template types, except for User Deprovisioning template types:

Rule Owners: If you select this option, the approvers for this stage will be the owners of the rules that are violated in the request that is created using this template.
Rule Business Process Owners: If you select this option, the approvers for this stage will be the business process owners assigned to the rules that are violated in the request that is created using this template.

Note: For all stages other than the manual request execution stage, the first approver, by default, is the manager of user if no approvers are selected for this stage.
Information about the ‘Manager of user’ is retrieved from the .csv file uploaded into IRC through the Approval Options tab on the Access Management section on the Configuration page.

Select the check box Allow Mitigation at this Stage if you want the violations identified in a request to be mitigated at this stage.

Note: If any of the stages is marked as a mitigation stage, the request will be routed to the first approval stage as soon as the analysis is completed.

If the analysis option is not selected, this option will appear disabled.

Select the check box Make approver comments mandatory if approvers will be required to add their comments.
Stage Approval Requirement: Select the approval requirement option for this stage. The request cannot move to the next stage unless this requirement is met.
Stage Mitigation /Approval Option: Select whether violations can be mitigated or roles approved only by their respective owners or by any approver for this stage.

Note: The Stage Mitigation setting works in conjunction with the Stage Approval Requirements setting as follows:

‘Any object owner can mitigate/approve’ in conjunction with ‘Any one approver must approve’	The first approver to take action on the request will be the only approver for the object regardless of whether the approver is the object owner or not for that stage.
‘Any object owner can mitigate/approve’ in conjunction with ‘All approvers must approve’	If an approval stage has multiple approvers, all approvers must approve all objects regardless if they are object owner or not for that stage
‘Object owners can mitigate/approve only their respective objects’ in conjunction with ‘Any one approver must approve’	If an approval stage has multiple approvers for the same object, the first object owner to take action will be the only approver for that approval stage. The other approvers for that stage will not be allowed to take action on the request; however they will be able to see the request details in the Pending/Completed panels
‘Object owners can mitigate/approve only their respective objects’ in conjunction with ‘All approvers must approve’	If an approval stage has multiple approvers for the same object, all object owners for the same object must take action on the request for that stage.

Bypass Stage If: An approval stage is bypassed, if one of the options on this panel is selected.

Note: The option No approvers exist for this stage applies only when a functional area is attached to an approval stage and the workflow engine cannot find an approver because certain conditions cannot be satisfied.

Click Add.

On the Approval Stages tab click the link for the approval stages to be edited.
Edit the approval stage details as explained in the Add Approval Stage section.
Click Save.

To delete an approval stage, click Delete in the Actions column of the approval stage to be deleted and click Save.

Note: Adding, modifying or deleting an approval stage will not affect existing requests. However, all the requests created after the changes to the template are saved will use the new template.

Approval Process Templates without Stages

Approval process templates may be created without any stages defined if approval for a request is not required. This is possible only for templates that allow for automatic completion of requests. Requests based on such approval templates are compulsorily analyzed for violations.

Note: For the application write-back to work for templates without stages, the following xml files should be configured before creating the approval process templates. Unless this is done, write-back to the application will be unsuccessful even if the request is completed with the status 'Approved':

Insights	xml Files
Authorizations Insight for SAP	SAMIWritebackConfig.xml and ApprovalOptions.xml.
Authorizations Insights for Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP EP	ApprovalOptions.xml.

For details, refer to the Configuration Settings Guide. for the respective Insights.

Important: In a template of this type, if the Analyze Request on creation check-box on the Options tab is not selected, the application displays an error message and you cannot create the approval template.

If no violations are found after analysis, any further action on the request depends upon the value of the tag appupdatebeforeexit in the configuration file [InstallPath]/Settings/ApprovalOptions.xml.

Note: The change in settings will be reflected only in those requests that are created after making the changes.

Setting	Can be modified locally
Analysis Options	Yes
Completion of Request	Yes
Email Notification Settings	Yes, except Display comments in email notifications
Requestor Comments	Yes
Self Approval Settings	Yes
Stale Request Cancellation	Yes
Stale Request Reminder	Yes
Violation Mitigation	Yes

Create a New Approval Process Template

Introduction

Process Detail tab

Approval Stages tab

Approval Process Templates without Stages