Change Request State - Scheduled back to Assess - Authorize - to Scheduled

[athavichith]

I’m working on a Change flow where CAB Management want to set State back to Assess from Scheduled, whenever there's an update at Scheduled State. I have built a flow in flow designer to set state back to Assess and Ask for Approval to CAB Management. 

 After that approval, the business wants a manual action to send the change for CAB approval (which would move it to Authorize). If that manual action isn’t taken, the change just sits in Assess and stalls.

Goal:

• After CAB Management approval at Assess, allow a manual UI action (e.g., “Send to CAB”) to create the CAB approval and move the change to Authorize.
• If no manual action is taken within a defined window, automatically fallback the change back to Scheduled (so it keeps moving and doesn’t get stuck).

Questions:

• Has anyone implemented a similar pattern?
• Is using Flow Designer with a Wait (duration/condition) + timeout path a good approach?

[Dr Atul G- LNG · Accepted solution]

Hi @athavichith 

From a process perspective, I believe this is not the best approach.

Whenever a change is moved back, it should go to the New state so that updates can be made and then resubmitted for approval. From Schedule, it should move to New, not to Assess.

Second, the manual action to send the change to CAB is not appropriate. This should be automated. Once a change is approved in Assess, it should automatically move to the Authorize state and wait for CAB approval. Adding manual actions complicates the process and creates both process issues and technical debt.

Third, CAB approval should always happen in the Authorize state, not in Assess. Approving changes in Assess goes against the process and ITIL. If CAB approves the change in Assess, then what is the purpose of the Authorize phase?

Regarding the “no manual action” point: if this means no one needs to manually click a UI action, then automation is the right solution. Waiting a fixed period (7–10 days) does not fit all types of changes. Some changes may need only 3 days, others 30 days. Adding a manual step here creates unnecessary overhead and process issues.

Also, sending a change directly to Schedule without CAB approval because no manual action was taken is a major process gap. In that case, all changes could bypass CAB and move straight to Schedule, which is not acceptable.

As a BPC and Platform owner, from my side this is primarily a process issue. The process should be fixed first, and then we can determine what needs to be implemented on the platform