Change Approval policies:
- In Change approval policies, approval definitions are used to generate approvals according to your business requirements.
- A change approval policy is a course of action that can be applied to a change request. It uses a set of variable inputs to evaluate the decisions that are associated with it. For each matching decision, the associated approval definition is applied.
Approval Definitions:
- define the type of approval action to be taken when a related decision matches the evaluated conditions.
Use Case Overview
In Change Management, approval requirements may vary depending on the nature of the change.
This use case ensures flexibility by allowing the approver type to be selected dynamically when the Change Request moves to the Assess state.
Business Requirement
When the Change state moves to Assess, the system should:
Prompt the user to choose how approvals should be handled:
User Approval
Group Approval
No Approval
Trigger approvals based on the selected option
Automatically move the Change to the next state after approval completion
Bypass approvals entirely if No Approval is selected
Solution Approach
The solution is implemented using Change Approval Policies and Approval Definitions.
This approach allows:
Dynamic decision-based approval routing
Better scalability and maintainability
Alignment with out-of-box Change Management best practices
Implementation Steps
1. Configure the Change Form
Add a Choice field on the Change form to capture the approval requirement.
Example field values:
User
Group
No Approval
This Approval For field will drive the approval logic when the Change enters the Assess state.
2. Create Decisions for Approval Selection
Create three separate Decisions to handle each approval type:
User Approval Decision
Group Approval Decision
No Approval Decision
These decisions evaluate the selected approval choice and determine the approval path.
3. Configure Approval Definitions
Create three Approval Definitions, one for each approval type:
User Approval Definition – sends approval to a selected user
Group Approval Definition – sends approval to a selected group
No Approval Definition – bypasses approvals
Map each Approval Definition to the corresponding Decision.
- User.
- Group.
- No Approval.
4. Configure Answers in the Normal Change Policy
In the Normal Change Approval Policy, configure Answers for each Decision.
Each Answer:
Evaluates the approval choice field
Triggers the appropriate Approval Definition
This ensures the correct approval flow is executed based on the selected option.
- No approval
- Group
- User
5. Update Change State Model Conditions
Modify the state transition conditions in the Change State Model.
Ensure the following condition is met when transitioning to Assess:
Assignment Group is not empty
This validation ensures approvals can be properly routed before entering the Assess state.
6. Validate Policy Integration with Flow
Verify whether the modified Change Approval Policy is already added to the Change Flow.
If not:
Add the policy to the Flow Designer logic
Ensure it executes at the correct stage of the Change lifecycle
This step is critical to ensure the approval logic is actually triggered.
Outcome
After completing the above configuration:
The Change dynamically asks for the approval type when entering Assess state
Approvals are sent to the user, group, or No approval.
The Change automatically progresses to the next state after approval
The solution remains configurable, scalable, and aligned with ServiceNow best practices
