Parallel group approval in flow

[rambo1]

Hi team,

I am stuck at one requirement, please let me know your thoughts .

requirement - RITM will have 3 group approvals triggered all at once . I did this using ask for approval in flow and selected all 3 groups in same activity but there are only few approval rules like any one approve or all approve . But requirement is anyone from each group should approve , how can I achieve this . I know that if group approvals are created sequentially , this can be achieved but requirement is to have approvals triggered to all groups at once and at least one from each group must approve . Please help .

[Bhuvan]

@rambo1 

It is not supported in Flow Designer,

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0964016

Try using scripted approvals,

https://www.servicenow.com/community/workflow-automation-blogs/scripted-approvals-in-flow-designer-w...

If this helped to answer your query, please mark it helpful & accept the solution. 

Thanks,

Bhuvan

[Ajay_Chavan]

[RITM Trigger]
    ↓
[Do the following in Parallel - 3 branches]
    ↓                    ↓                    ↓
[Create Subtask A]   [Create Subtask B]   [Create Subtask C]
    ↓                    ↓                    ↓
[Ask Approval        [Ask Approval        [Ask Approval
 Group A on           Group B on           Group C on
 Subtask A]           Subtask B]           Subtask C]
    ↓                    ↓                    ↓
[Close Subtask A]    [Close Subtask B]    [Close Subtask C]
    ↓                    ↓                    ↓
        [Wait for All Branches to Complete]
                         ↓
              [Continue RITM Processing]

[kaushal_snow]

Hi @rambo1 ,

Flow Designer currently does not support the scenario by default. You can’t configure an Ask for Approval action to require at least one approval from each group when triggered in parallel. The system options like Anyone approves or All users approve aren’t granular enough to handle this case.

Servicenow Article link: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0964016

Instead you can follow this approach: Scripted Approvals via Subflows

Build your own logic by creating approval records manually..Use a Script Action to create sysapproval_approver records for each group member you want to target. Use a Wait for condition activity to monitor these records until they reach approval or rejection...Advance the RITM only after each group has at least one approver approved...

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as ‘Accept as Solution’ and ‘Helpful’. This helps other community members find the right answer more easily and supports the community.

[Harsh_K]

Hi @rambo1 ,

Took me a while to figure this one out, so wanted to post the fix here.

The requirement was: send a RITM to three different groups for approval at the same time and only let it move ahead once any one person from each group approves it or if anyone from any group rejects then cancel it right away.

First thing I tried was "Do the following in parallel" with a separate approval action in each branch, one per group. Made sense at the time. But when I tested it, as soon as one group's approver responded, the flow just carried on and skipped the other two branches, even though nobody from those groups had approved yet. So that didn't work.

I dropped the parallel branches and tried something different: one "Ask for Approval" action with all three groups added to it and used the approval rules to control things instead.

Rules were:

• Approve rule set: "Anyone Approves" from Group 1 AND "Anyone Approves" from Group 2 AND "Anyone Approves" from Group 3
• Reject rule set (joined with OR): "Anyone Rejects" from Group 1, Group 2, or Group 3 (all three grouped together in one reject condition)
  

All three groups still get notified at once, so it's still parallel from their side. But the flow waits until each group has an approval before moving on, and if someone rejects, it stops immediately.

Turned out I was overthinking it by trying to run three approvals side by side. Using one action with the right AND/OR setup did the job.

Posting in case it saves someone else the trouble.

Thanks,
Harsh