Empty assignment group in change approval list

[Scott Eaglesham]

I'm trying to determine why/how an approval assignment group is left empty for the manager of an assignment group to which a change is assigned, meaning that their approvals, as members of a CAB group, aren't counted towards change approval.

In this example, the top user is the manager of the assignment group to which the change is assigned, and is also a member of the CAB Approval Group. Although they have approved the change, this approval isn't counted as they aren't listed as a member of the CAB Approval Group on the change Approvers list. With changes assigned to other teams, they appear as a member of the CAB Approval Group. I've not yet been able to identify the exact circumstances under which this occurs, and haven't been able to locate where this is managed in change flows.

[GopikaP · Accepted solution]

Hi @Scott Eaglesham , In change request, we have assignment group approval which will be group approval, and there is conditional assignment group manager approval which is user approval. So, there will not be a group specified for the manager approval since it is 'user' approval not 'group' approval. You can refer the change flow and see. I have added my flow screenshots as well. One more thing - they are looking if the manager has already approved or not.

[Scott Eaglesham]

Thanks for the helpful response Gopika. I hadn’t noticed that the Assignment Group Manager Approval was user rather than group approval. On investigating further, I see that this only applies to normal changes with low risk (indicated by the decision title Low Risk Manager Approval!). I would have thought that this part of the process was to allow the assignment group manager to approve such changes and bypass CAB approval, but strange that CAB approval is required even when the assignment group manager has approved?

[GopikaP]

Hi @Scott Eaglesham , yes, it is strange. This was new for me as well.

Actually, it's because the manager is a member of the assignment group. If they weren’t, it would make sense to require extra approval from them. But since the manager is already part of the group, their approval should count as both group approval and managerial approval. I think that logic is missing.