Change approval

[BERIARD Anne]

Hello, I know that Change Owner-Implementer ("Assigned to") was not allowed to approve their Change for segregation of duty reason. But what for the Change Requester? Are they allowed to approve the Change they request? I thought it was possible but today my training environment does not work that way. Is it a bug? 

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @BERIARD Anne 

In ServiceNow, allowing the Change Requester (the Requested By user) to approve the same change request they submitted is generally considered a violation of ITIL best practices.

Allowing requesters to approve their own changes can create a conflict of interest and may enable users to bypass established review processes, authorize unauthorized work, or avoid independent oversight if issues arise after implementation.

For these reasons, auditors and compliance teams commonly require approval workflows to exclude the change requester from the approval chain.

Refer:

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-forum/change-prevent-requester-from-approving/m-p/606308

https://www.servicenow.com/community/itsm-forum/prevent-change-requester-from-approving-their-own-ch...

https://www.servicenow.com/community/guided-learning-itsm/how-to-restrict-agent-as-being-approver/m-...

[Nilesh Pol]

@BERIARD Anne for Requesters: There is no strict OOTB rule universally preventing approval, In many  ServiceNow environments, requesters can approve their own change. hence it depends on the process of your organization.