Change Approval Policy workflow activity

Release version: Washingtondc

Updated February 1, 2024

2 minutes to read

Summarize

Summarized using AI

Summary of Change Approval Policy workflow activity

The Change Approval Policy workflow activity is designed to manage the approval process for change requests within ServiceNow. By utilizing user and group approvals based on defined Change Approval Policies, this activity helps ensure that change requests are vetted according to organizational standards.

Show full answer Show less

Key Features

Multiple Activities: You can implement various activities in a workflow, each referencing the same or different Change Approval Policies.
Dynamic Evaluation: The activity assesses the Change Approval Policy record in real-time, applying relevant approval definitions based on the current change request and additional inputs.
Input Variables: Essential input variables include the Approval Policy to be applied, additional policy inputs, and conditions that dictate the activity's completion and transitions.
Activity States: The workflow engine monitors states such as Executing, Waiting, Finished, Canceled, and Error to manage the workflow effectively.

Key Outcomes

The results of the Change Approval Policy activity can yield several outcomes including Approved, Rejected, Canceled, Skipped, or Finished, depending on the applied policy and conditions. This functionality allows organizations to streamline the change approval process, ensuring timely and appropriate responses to change requests.

For example, in a workflow scenario, if a manager has already approved a change request, this activity can bypass further approvals, marking them as No Longer Required if the request is put on-hold, while still allowing the process to resume smoothly when the request is active again.

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.