How can I allow an ITIL agent to set the State field of an Approval Request to "No Longer Required"

[MikePengell]

Hi. 

Sorry - a beginners question. 

In order to introduce a Business Rule to prevent closure of a RITM if there are outstanding Approval Requests, we need our ITIL agents (role = itil) to be able to set the State of an Approval Request to "No Longer Required". 

Any guidance as to the best way of making the field Read/Write for ITIL agents ? 

With my admin role, I am able to select "No Longer Required" for State - 

But, when impersonating an agent, the field is read only - 

Any help gratefully received. 

Thanks in advance. 

[Mark Manders · Accepted solution]

Your question should be: why are ITIL users allowed to work on a RITM that has not yet been approved? The entire logic behind approvals is that something is requested and before it's done, it needs to be approved by someone else. 

Why do you even have approvals if you are letting your agents just ignore them?

If there is a valid reason (like no delegation and someone has left the company without approving), you could apply some logic that an ITIL user can trigger a flow with some kind of reasoning so no audits will ever cost you any certifications (like ISO). But this requirement is not one to just develop. Challenge it and if they still want it, fight it. It is the worst possible practice imaginable. 

[MikePengell]

Thanks, Mark. That makes sense and is, obviously, the better way forward.

We're brand new to ServiceNow and have ended up with a whole heap of unnecessary approval requests that are littering the place up. We'll find a more suitable method of tidying up and preventing more from happening.