Workflow Approval Override

[angiejones]

I have created a workflow with multiple approval-user activities. I have been asked to give a group of people the ability to override the approval in case those individuals are not available within a timely manner. I've added the manual approval but you have to add the individual/group before the activity is executed so that won't work. I can add them automatically to the approval-user list but they will get an email notification which they do not want. I tried changing the current approver to the new approver but the system treats the change outside of the workflow so the workflow doesn't continue nor recognize that it needs to go to the next step.

Any suggestions on how to add another user to a workflow so they can approve and force the workflow to continue?

Thanks!

[HugoFirst]

I've not had to handle this kind of situation, but if I did, I'd approach it like this:

Create 2 groups, one for the regular approvers, a   second one for the executive approvers.

In the group definition for the executive approvers, enter an email address in the "Group email" field.   All email notices will be sent to this email address and not the individual members. It could be a dummy email address or a real one.   The point it that the members won't see them.

Now, in the workflow define 2   group approval's in parallel, one for each group.   Have their "Approved" exits converge on a JOIN which will take the incomplete exit.   If either group approves,   the workflow will continue.   Their "Reject" exist will cancel the request.

I haven't tested this scenario, so I hope that an approval by one group, will mark the approval requests of the other group as "no longer needed".   Be sure to test this.

One might also ask how the "executive approvers" will know that they can approve a request. Especially since they will not see any email.   The answer is that they should have a link in their left navigation pane labelled "Waiting for my approval" which links to a list of the sysapproval_approver table with a filter for their user id.

Here's an example:

[HugoFirst · Accepted solution]

Forgive me for over thinking this. But you only need one approval widget.

Just add both groups to the approval widget and set "Wait for" to "An approval from any group".

That should make it less complex than my previous advice.

Here's a link to a page about group approvals.   You should find it helpful.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/jakarta-servicenow-platform/page/administer/workflow-activities/r...

[angiejones]

Great idea! I will try that out. Thanks!