Change Approval Policy workflow activity

Release version: Australia

Updated March 12, 2026

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Summary of Change Approval Policy Workflow Activity

The Change Approval Policy workflow activity is designed to manage the approval process for change requests by utilizing user and group approvals based on defined Change Approval Policy records. This activity can be integrated multiple times within a workflow, allowing for reference to the same or different approval policies. It operates exclusively on the [changerequest] table or its extensions.

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Key Features

Result Values: The activity provides various outcomes based on the applied policy, including Approved, Rejected, Canceled, Skipped, and Finished.
Input Variables: Initial behavior is determined by input variables such as:
- Approval Policy: Specifies the Change Approval Policy to apply.
- Policy Input: Additional inputs defined in the Change Approval Policy record.
- Finish Condition: Determines if the activity can complete while pending approvals remain.
Conditions: Transition outcomes are based on conditions:
- Approved: When criteria are met.
- Rejected: If any rejection occurs.
- Error: In case of an error condition.
- Skipped: Default to Approved if no conditions are configured.
States: The activity's state dictates the next action, including Executing, Waiting, Finished, Cancelled, and Error.

Key Outcomes

By implementing the Change Approval Policy activity, you can effectively control the approval process of change requests and streamline workflows. For instance, in a Normal change request, you can assess if a manager has approved the request, thus ensuring proper governance. The Finish condition allows for the activity to complete when the change request is on-hold, allowing for a smooth transition when the request is resumed.

Use the Change Approval Policy workflow activity to control the approval process for a change request by creating user and group approvals according to a change approval policy record. Multiple activities can be used in a workflow, where each activity can reference the same or different Change Approval Policies.

Using the current change request and additional inputs defined in the Policy Input script field in the activity, you can evaluate the Change Approval Policy record, which applies the approval definitions from matching decisions.

Note:

This activity is only available when the workflow runs on a table that extends or is the [change_request] table.

Results

The activity assigns a result value according to the outcome of the applied policy. The possible result values are:

Approved
Rejected
Canceled
Skipped
Finished

Input variables

Input variables determine the initial behavior of the activity.

Table 1. Change Approval Policy activity input variables
Field	Description
Approval Policy	The Change Approval Policy that you want to apply to the change request.
Policy Input	Policy Inputs that are defined on the Change Approval Policy record. Set additional policy inputs here.
Finish condition	Determine if the activity should complete while pending approvals remain. Use this condition if the workflow is configured to handle restarting the Change Approval Policy activity. For example, when the Change Request goes on-hold.

Condition

The following conditions determine which transition runs after this activity.

Table 2. Change Approval Policy activity conditions
Condition	Description
Approved	Change request is approved when the criteria defined by applied Approval Definitions is met.
Rejected	Any rejection from applied Approval Definitions will result in the Rejected outcome.
Error	The event or condition that generates an error.
Skipped	If this condition is not configured on the activity, then the Approved condition is used. This outcome occurs for the following scenarios: No decisions from the Change Approval Policy match No approvals can be generated from matched decisions

States

The workflow engine uses the activity state to perform the next logical action on the activity.

Table 3. Change Approval Policy activity states
State	Description
Executing	The workflow engine starts the execute function of the activity.
Waiting	The workflow engine ignores the activity until a specific event to restart the activity is fired.
Finished	The activity finished running. See the result value for the outcome of the activity.
Cancelled	This activity, or the workflow that contains this activity, was canceled.
Error	A JavaScript error occurred. Review the logs for error details.

Example

In this example, let us reference the Risk approvals activity in the Change Request - Normal workflow. In the workflow, the change approval policy factors if the assigned group's manager has already approved the Change Request.

You can use this activity to access the risk of the change request of a normal change policy. When this activity runs, the associated decisions executes the approvals that needs to be requested.

Example policy input script for risk assessment

Use the Policy Input field to set up additional inputs. In the given example, the activity defines the manager_approved property and performs the query to check if an approved record exists for the approved group's manager.

Note:

Ensure that the manager_approved policy input is defined in the Change Approval Policy record.

The Finish condition field is used to complete the activity by marking pending approvals as No Longer Required. In this workflow example, when the Change Request is put on-hold, the Change Approval Policy activity is completed and the workflow disregards the pending approvals before waiting for the Change Request to resume. When the on-hold state is released, the Change Approval Policy activity is restarted.