Sequential change approvals for emergency change

[Amina El hadad]

I want the first approval to be triggered separately, and once it is completed, two additional approvals should be triggered in parallel. However, from the Change Approval Policy, it is only possible to configure approvals in parallel for the same stage, so this sequential-then-parallel flow cannot be achieved through policy alone.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

https://www.servicenow.com/community/workflow-automation-articles/flow-designer-approvals-overview-w...

https://www.servicenow.com/community/servicenow-ai-platform-forum/how-to-perform-sequential-approval...

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB2503176

Parallel approval

Parallel branches may be necessary if the subsequent actions are different for each branch. If divergent, parallel logic is not needed, consider working with the extensive options of complex approval rules within one Ask for Approval action instead.

The default behavior of the Ask for Approval action is that a record watcher is being created for each approval. Once one of them is approved, the conditions of the second/all other record watchers are satisfied as well, so the next time the scheduled check looks at that record watcher, it'll change the second/all other approvals to "No longer required". If this does not suit your use case, you can use the workaround outlined above. Empty the Approval Field on the Ask for Approval actions, so that no record watcher is being created for those approvals.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Amina El hadad 

Instead of relying on the Apply Change Approval Policy action directly in a simple flow, with that you can use flow.

1. Trigger: Change Request - Created or Updated.
2. Action - Ask for Approval: Select 1st Approval 
3. Wait for Approval: Ensure the flow pauses until 1st Approval  is Approved.
4. Flow Logic - Do the following in parallel:
   • Branch 1: Action - Ask for Approval (2nd Approval ).
   • Branch 2: Action - Ask for Approval (3rd Approval ).
5. Result: The flow will automatically wait for both branches to complete before proceeding to final change state update. 

refer : 

Apply Change Approval Policy ends after first approval 

Flow Designer Approvals Overview - Workflow Automation Center of Excellence