Change Approval Policy workflow activity

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Change Approval Policy workflow activity

    The Change Approval Policy workflow activity enables ServiceNow customers to manage the approval process for change requests by applying user and group approvals based on a specified change approval policy record. This activity can be used multiple times within a workflow, allowing for flexible referencing of the same or different approval policies. It evaluates the policy using the current change request and additional inputs defined in the activity's Policy Input script field.

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    This activity is available only for workflows running on tables that extend or are the changerequest table.

    Key Features

    • Result Values: The activity returns one of several outcomes based on the policy evaluation: Approved, Rejected, Canceled, Skipped, or Finished.
    • Input Variables:
      • Approval Policy: Select the applicable Change Approval Policy record.
      • Policy Input: Additional inputs defined on the policy can be set here to customize approval logic.
      • Finish Condition: Determines if the activity should complete even if some approvals are still pending, useful for scenarios like putting a Change Request on hold.
    • Conditions: Define which transition occurs after the activity, based on outcomes like Approved, Rejected, Error, or Skipped. The Skipped condition is used when no matching decisions or approvals exist.
    • States: The activity progresses through states such as Executing, Waiting, Finished, Cancelled, or Error to manage workflow execution logic.

    Practical Application

    For example, in a Normal Change Request workflow, the activity can be configured to consider if the assigned group’s manager has already approved the request by using policy inputs (e.g., managerapproved) to query approval records. This ensures dynamic and context-aware approval processes.

    The Finish condition can be leveraged to mark pending approvals as No Longer Required when a Change Request is placed on hold, allowing the workflow to pause and later resume with the Change Approval Policy activity restarting accordingly.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables consistent, policy-driven approval processes tailored to organizational requirements.
    • Supports complex approval scenarios with multiple policies and conditional logic.
    • Provides workflow flexibility to handle change states like on-hold by completing or restarting approval activities as needed.
    • Improves visibility and control over change approvals, reducing manual intervention and errors.

    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.

    Example for Change Approval Policy Risk approvals

    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.