Service Manager

Configuring Approvers and Workflows

•Approval Workflows

•Configuring Approvers

•Configuring the Approval Sequence

•Configuring the Approval Criteria

•Email Notifications

•Configuring Approver Notifications

•Configuring Owner Notifications

•Configuring a Voting Deadline for an Approval Request

Approval Workflows

Knowledge management provides an approval workflow for each knowledge article type.

Article Type	Workflow Name	Business Object
Document	Document Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Document
Error Message	Error Message Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.ErrorMessage
Issue and Resolution	Issue Resolution Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.IssueResolution
Patch	Patch Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Patch
Q&A	Q and A Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.QandA
Reference	Reference Knowledge Approval Workflow	FRS_Knowledge.Reference

Workflows mostly consist of the Get Approval and Notification workflow block. These define the approvers, the approval sequence and criteria, the notification recipients during the approval process, and the voting deadlines. These settings can be changed to customize the approval process as described in the following sections.

See Using Workflows for information on workflows.

Configuring Approvers

Approvers can be configured as groups or as an individual.

Groups

By default, approvers are configured using these contact groups:

•Knowledge Business Approval Group

•Knowledge Technical Approval Group

•Knowledge Presentation Approval Group

For example, if a knowledge article requires business approval, all members of the Knowledge Business Approval Group are notified when the article is ready for review by one or more group members. Reviewers can be specified by adding or removing users to or from this group.

You can also create a new approval group and then reconfigure an approval workflow to use the new group instead of a default group.

1.From the Configuration console, click Configure > Users and Permissions > Groups, to open the Contact Group workspace.

2.Click New Contact Group.

3.Fill in the contact group form.

4.Reconfigure one or more approval workflows to use the new contact group:

5.Access the approval workflow that you will reconfigure.

6.Double-click the Get Approval block that will use the new approval group. (Approval workflows typically have three Get Approval blocks; one each for technical, presentation, and business approval). The Get Approval properties window appears.

7.In the Approvers area, use the drop-down list in the From a Group field to select the new contact group.

8.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

9.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Individuals

Approval workflows can be configured to specify one or more individual approvers rather than an approval group. In this case, approval is required from specified individuals.

You can use Get Approval workflow blocks to specify individual approvers rather than approval groups. However, only one individual approver can be specified in a Get Approval block. To specify multiple individual approvers, you must use multiple Get Approval blocks.

1.Access the approval workflow that will use individual reviewers.

2.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure.

3.In the block properties dialog Approvers area, select From a User and use the drop-down lists in the group and user fields to select an individual approver.

4.Click Save followed by OK to save the new workflow version.

5.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Configuring the Approval Sequence

By default, the Get Approval blocks in all of the provided knowledge approval workflows are arranged in this sequence:

1.Technical approval

2.Presentation approval

3.Business approval

All three approval types are not always required for a knowledge article. The knowledge collection in the article is placed depending on the type of approval that is required.

Configuring the Approval Criteria

1.Open the knowledge workflow for the knowledge article type.

2.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure.

3.In the Approval/Denial Criteria area of the Get Approval block properties window, select an approval method.

4.Click Save.

Approval criteria are controlled by the information in the Approval/Denial Criteria area of the Get Approval block properties window.

Configurable Criteria	Conditions for Approval/Rejection
Approve if all approved	Every member of the approval group approves the request.
Approve if any approved	One member of the approval group must approve the request.
Approve if at least N% approved	The specified percentage of the approval group members approve the request.
Deny if any rejected	One member of the approval group rejects the request.
Deny if at least N% rejected	The specified percentage of approval group members rejects the request.

Email Notifications

Email notification occurs at two general stages in a knowledge approval workflow:

•Approvers are notified when an article is ready for them to review.

•The owner of an article is notified about the article status after it is reviewed or after a review deadline expires.

Configuring Approver Notifications

The Send Notification for Knowledge quick action (affiliated with the FRS_ApprovalVoteTracking business object) sends email to approvers when an article is ready for them to review. By default, this notification is sent to $(OwnerEmail).

To reconfigure this quick action:

1.From the Configuration console, click Build > Automation Tools > Quick Actions to open the Actions Manager workspace.

2.Scroll to FRS_ApprovalVoteTracking and click Add/Edit.

3.Under Your Actions, double-click Send Notification for Knowledge and reconfigure it as necessary.

4.Click Save.

To specify that another quick action be used:

1.Log in to Service Manager as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, then click Open Definition. The Workflow Designer opens.

5.Double-click the Get Approval block to reconfigure it.

6.In the Approval Notification Quick Action area, use the drop-down list to select another quick action.

7.Click Save in the Workflow Designer.

Configuring Owner Notifications

1.Log in to Service Manager as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, and then click Show Definition. The Workflow Designer opens.

5.Double-click the Notification block to reconfigure it. The Notification properties window opens.

6.You can use the default template that appears, or modify it as needed.

7.Click Save and then OK to save the new workflow version.

8.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.

Notification blocks in the knowledge workflows are configured to send the following notifications to an article owner after an article is reviewed or if a review deadline expires.

Notification	Indicates ...
Failed Technical Review	A failed technical review.
Failed Presentation Review	A failed presentation review.
Failed Business Review	A failed business review.
Technical Review Deadline	The deadline for technical review has expired and the article must be resubmitted for approval.
Presentation Review Deadline	The deadline for presentation review has expired and the article must be resubmitted for approval.
Business Review Deadline	The deadline for business review has expired and the article must be resubmitted for approval.
Notification to Owner	Article is approved.

Configuring a Voting Deadline for an Approval Request

Voting deadlines for article approvers are configured through Get Approval workflow blocks. Deadlines can be based on a duration (in days, hours, and minutes) or on the date in a field that you specify.

1.Log in to Service Manager as a Knowledge Manager.

2.Open the Knowledge workspace.

3.Open a knowledge record.

4.From the toolbar, click View Workflow, and then click Show Definition. The Workflow Designer opens.

5.Double-click the Get Approval workflow block that is labeled as default, to reconfigure it. The Get Approval properties window opens.

6.In the Approval Voting Deadline area, do one of the following:

•Click Field and use the drop-down list to specify a field name.

•Click Duration and specify the duration length in the provided fields. (The duration clock starts when the Get Approval workflow block is triggered; the deadline is reached when the duration ends).

7.Click Save and then OK to save the new workflow version.

8.Return to the version list for this workflow and publish the new version.