Is there any way that you can have approvals run in parallel within a request item?

[ritaaudi]

Hi: I'm not having any luck running 2 approvals in parallel within a request item. It seems that one approval has to finish before the second one starts. Is there a way around this? Like perhaps kick off 2 requests items within the master request item, or something along those lines?

Thank you! Rita

[Michael Ritchie]

There are different ways to solve this and it depends on what you need, but absolutely doable.   When you say parallel approvals can you please provide more detail,on what you mean?   Are they user or group or both?   A screenshot of your workflow will help too.

If if they are the same type of approvals you can add multiple users and groups to the same activity.   You can also use an approval coordinator as well. Or you can connect two approval activities from one activity and then create a join activity to ensure both finish.

[ritaaudi]

Hi Michael: Thanks for your response. Here's an image of my master workflow. The assignment group manager approval is in the subworkflow called in each of the 3 group run script activities you see below. Currently I have them run sequentially because if I run them in parallel only one approval processes. Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Michael Ritchie]

Thanks for the screenshot. Unfortunately I still need more detail to help.   Why are you calling sub-workflows?

Maybe we should take a step back and understand the use case you are trying to solve and what the task this workflow is running on is doing.

[ritaaudi]

Hi Michael: Yes sure. Basically I have a catalog item to grant users access to assignment groups. The requestor selects a user and up to 3 assignment groups for the user. Each of the assignment group requests needs to be approved by the assignment group manager and if approved the access to the assignment group is granted. The subworkflow runs the workflow for one assignment group at a time - requests the approval and grants access if approved. Let me know if you need further clarification. Thx