Knowledgebase Article

Change Approval Process

BMC Remedyforce
Virginia Leandro
20 September 2011


PAGE 1 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Table of Contents
Change Approval Process ________________________________________________________________________________ 3
Approval Processes ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Simple Approval Process _________________________________________________________________________________ 4
Creating an Approval Process............................................................................................................................................................ 4
Creating Approval Steps for a Process ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Complex Approval Process ______________________________________________________________________________ 11
Creating the Approval Process ........................................................................................................................................................ 12
Creating the Steps for the Process .................................................................................................................................................. 13
Create Final Approval Actions .......................................................................................................................................................... 16
Create Final Rejection Actions ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
Activate the Change! .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18



PAGE 2 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Document Information
Version: 1.0
Created by: Virginia Leandro
Last Modified on: 16 September 2011
Modified by: Virginia Leandro





PAGE 3 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Change Approval Process
Change Approvals are an important part of the overall Change Management strategy for any given organization.
Change Management can be geared to manage changes as small as fixing a line of code to as big as replacing a
server and everything in between. Change Approvals help get the necessary approvals (or rejections) before a
Change can move forward.

This document is intended to be a working paper on how to go about setting up Change Approvals. Change Approvals
in BMC Remedyforce take advantage of the force.com platform by utilizing the Approval Processes engine provided in
Salesforce.

Well walk through setting up Change Approval Processes and then well dive into a single Process and cover the
Change Approval Steps within that process. Well also provide an example of putting this all together!

Approval Processes
An approval process is just thatits a process to approve a Change. Its an automated way for the organization to
approve Changes.
An approval process specifies the steps necessary for a record to be approved and who must approve it at each step.
When building the approval process, one of the first things youre asked to provide is the entrance criteria that will
cause the system to use that approval process. This is an important point. You can have multiple processes, all with
different entrance criteria, but the only process that will be used will be the first process that evaluates as True.
We encourage you to check out the Salesforce online help which provides lots of great insight and information about
Change Approvals!
https://help.salesforce.com/apex/htviewhelpdoc?id=approvals_getting_started.htm&language=en



PAGE 4 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Simple Approval Process
Lets walk through creating a basic approval process.
Creating an Approval Process

1. In Salesforce navigate to Setup | App Setup | Create | Workflow & Approvals.
2. In the Manage Approval Process For: click the drop down and select Change Request.

3. Click on Create New Approval Process. Here we highly recommend selecting the Use Standard Setup
Wizard.
4. The first step to creating your approval process is to provide a name for the process, a unique name for the
process, and a brief description for the process. Below is an example:
Process Name: Emergency Change
Unique Name: Emergency_Change
Description: Approval process for a change identified with a Change Type of Emergency.

You might also find it helpful to document who the approvers are or any other important information about the
given process.

Click Next.



PAGE 5 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
5. Specify Entry Criteria is where you define what will cause this one particular process to be used for a given
Change. In our example, were going to set an entry criteria of Change Type = Emergency.
a. Leave the default of Use this approval process if the following criteria are met:
b. Under Field, click the drop down and select the field called Change Type.
c. Under Operator, select equals.
d. On Value, click the Lookup icon and check the box next to Emergency and then click on Insert
Selected.
e. Click Next.




PAGE 6 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce

6. In Specify Approver Field and Record Editability Properties page, we have a couple of choices to make. For
the purpose of this paper, were going to leave the defaults however; well go ahead and discuss the options.
a. Next Automated Approver Determined By: Here you can select a Standard User Field of Manager.
This would mean that the manager of the person initiating the Change record would be the first
person automatically assigned to approve the change. Note that this would require that the user
record in Salesforce have the manager field populated for this to work.
b. Use Approver Field of Change Request Owner: This option signifies that the selected Manager from
above would be the Manager of the person who owns the Change record vs. the Manager of the
person who submitted the record.
c. Under Record Editability Properties select who can edit a Change during the approval process.
As a reminder for the purposes of this document and this step, well take the defaults. Click Next.


7. For this document we assume youre familiar with Email Templates and have already created an email
template for use to notify your approver of a pending request. For this example, well use our out of the box
email template Change Request Approval Required Email. Click Next.

8. On the Select Fields to Display on Approval Page Layout, accept the defaults and click Next.



PAGE 7 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
9. On the Specify Initial Submitters, accept the defaults and click Save.
At this point, we have defined an approval process; however, we havent really defined any steps for the process.
Remember the process checks the Change Request record submitted for approval to see if the Change Type is
Emergency. If that evaluates as true, then the steps well define next will be executed for the approval. If the
Change Type is something else, say, Standard, then none of the steps will be executed.
Lets accept the default of Yes, Id like to create an approval step now. and click Go!

Creating Approval Steps for a Process
Since were starting with the basics, were only going to define one step. Well work on a slightly more complex step
process later in this document.

1. Define the name of your first step. This includes the Name, the Unique Name and Description. For example:

Name: Step 1

Unique Name: Step_1

Description: Send emergency change to the Change Manager.

Step Number: 1

Click Next.





PAGE 8 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
2. On Specifying Step Criteria, were going to allow all records to enter this step. Accept the default and click
Next.


3. Select Assigned Approver allows you to select or specify the appropriate approver.

You have a choice of making a Queue an approver or selecting individuals or related individuals as approvers.

If you select and specify a Queue, anyone who is a member of the Queue can approve the Change.

The other option is to select Automatically assign to approver(s). This option allows you to select a list of
folks as approvers. You can just make one person the approver, or you can select multiple folks as approvers.

For our example, well select the radio button Automatically assign to approvers(s). Well select User and
then click on the Lookup icon to select our Change Manager.



If you define multiple approvers you must decide if the approval is based on the first response or whether
everyone listed must be unanimous in their approval of the change.

You also have the option to allow an approvers delegate to approve the change if the approver is not
available.

Please note that BMC Remedyforce currently does not support allowing the submitter to choose the approver
manually.

Click Save.




PAGE 9 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Now that weve created a Step we have the option of defining actions (such as notifying the person who submitted the
request whether it was approved or not). Since were simply discussing basics at this point, select No, Ill do it later.
Take me to the approval process detail page to review what Ive just created and then click Go!



You now can review everything youve just createdboth the process and the step.



Important:
Once youve confirmed your information do not forget to click on the Activate button at the top of the page to
make the Change Process active! Note that once a Process is active and have been used you may find that
you cannot change certain elements of the change later. However, you can always clone the Change (which
makes a deactivate copy of the process), make your change then activate the new process while deactivating
the old process.


PAGE 10 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce

To recap, in BMC Remedyforce when a Change Request with a Change Type of Emergency is submitted for approval,
the approval request will be emailed to the user, Admin Remedyforce. Once the user receives the email they have the
option of either responding to the email (as Approved or Rejected) or accessing the approval directly within Salesforce
by clicking on the embedded link within the email.

The above is a very simple Change Process. But what if you have multiple processes and those processes have
multiple steps?

In this next example, were going to talk about that and walk through a real world example of a Change that you might
find useful for your environment.





PAGE 11 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Complex Approval Process
In this example, we have added 14 checkboxes to our Change Request. Each checkbox represents a system or
systems. In our example, 5 of the systems belong to one change manager, the next 5 to a different change manager,
and the final 4 belong to yet a third change manager.

Creating the custom fields on the Change Request and adding them to the Change Request form is beyond the scope
of this document. But for reference, heres what the Change Request form looks like:



Scenario:
We want to setup a single Change Process so that when the Status is set to Evaluated that the Change is submitted for
approval. Further, if Salesforce, Concur, Xactly, Open Air, or Navision is selected, the approval request goes to User1.
If Cognos Planning, Cognos BI, Precision Point, FPX, or Cast Iron is selected, the approval should be sent to User2.
Finally if ADP US, ADP Canada, ANPA, or Equity Edge is selected, the approval goes to User3.

If Status = Evaluated submit for Change:

Step 1: If Salesforce or Concur or Xactly or Open Air or Navision are checked email approval request to
User1.

Step 2: If Cognos Planning or Cognos BI or Precision Point or FPX or Cast Iron are checked email approval
request to User2.

Step 3: If ADP US or ADP Canada or ANPA or Equity Edge are checked email approval request to User3.

So what happens if we have products checked from each step? For example, what if Salesforce, Cognos Planning
and ADP US are all checked? Well show you how to set this up so the approvals will fall throughin other words,


PAGE 12 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
User 1 would get an email about the pending change. Once User1 approves, then User2 would get an email about the
pending change. And finally once User2 approves, an email about the pending change will be sent to User3. Once
User3 approve, the Change will be marked as Approved and a notification go out to the person who initially submitted
the Change.

Finally, once all approvals are gathered, wed like to update the Approved field on the Change and send an email to the
initiator and owner of the Change!

Creating the Approval Process

1. Navigate to Setup | App Setup | Create | Workflow & Approvals.
2. In the Manage Approval Process For: click the drop down and select Change Request.
3. Click on Create New Approval Process. Select Use Standard Setup Wizard.
4. Create the following approval. Below is an example:
Process Name: Hosted Solution Changes
Unique Name: Hosted_Solution_Changes
Description: If a Change Request has a status of EVALUATED. Then send the appropriate approval request
to the systems respected change approver.

Click Next.

5. Well now specify the entry criteria for this process.
a. Leave the default of Use this approval process if the following criteria are met:
b. Under Field, click the drop down and select the field called Status.
c. Under Operator, select equals.
d. On Value, click the Lookup icon and check the box next to EVALUATED and then click on Insert
Selected.
e. Click Next.
6. In the Specify Approver Field and Record Editability Properties page accept the defaults and click Next.
7. For the Approval Assignment Email Template, select Change Request Approval Required Email. Click Next.
8. On the Select Fields to Display on Approval Page Layout, accept the defaults and click Next.
9. On the Specify Initial Submitters, accept the defaults and click Save.
10. On What Would You Like To Do Now? accept the default of Yes, Id like to create an approval step now.
and click Go!


PAGE 13 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Creating the Steps for the Process

1. Provide a name and description for the first step. For example:

a. Name: Step 1
b. Unique Name: Step_1
c. If Salesforce or Concur or Xactly or Open Air or Navision is checked, send approval request to User1.
d. Step Number: 1

Click Next.

2. In Specify Step Criteria, select the radio button next to Enter this step if the following. Click the first drop
down and select formula evaluates to true. Leave the else, approve record for now. Well change this
later.

You now see the Salesforce formula field. Youll notice there are a number of Functions you can use to build a
formula. While writing formulas and explaining the functions is beyond the scope of this document, were
going to utilize the formula functionality for our steps.

In the formula field were going to write:

OR(Salesforce__c, Concur__c, Xactly__c, Open_Air__c, Navision__c)

Basically this formula says if any of the fields returns True (i.e. checked) then the formula is set to True.

Be sure and click on Check Syntax to make sure the formula is correct. If no errors are found, click Next.

3. Select the radio button next to Automatically assign to approver(s). Leave the selection as User and select
an approver for this step. In our example, this is Admin Remedyforce. Leave the default selection of Approve
or reject based on the FIRST response.


Click Save.



PAGE 14 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
4. On the What Would You Like to Do Now? page, select the radio button next to No, Ill do this later and
click Go!

5. Scroll down to the section called Approval Steps and click on the New Approval Step button.

6. Provide the information for Step 2. For example:

a. Name: Step 2
b. Unique Name: Step_2
c. If Cognos Planning or Cognos BI or Precision Point or FPX or Cast Iron is checked, send approval
request to User2.
d. Step Number: 2

Click Next.

7. Select the radio button next to Enter this step if the following and change the drop down to formula evaluates
to true. Here is the formula well use for the next set of checkboxes:

OR(Cognos__c, Cognos_BI__c, Precision_Point__c, FPX__c, Cast_Iron__c)

Click on Check Syntax and if no errors are found, click Next.

8. In Select Approver, select the radio button next to Automatically assign to approver(s) and then select your
next approver. Once youve made your selection, click Save.

9. On the What Would You Like To Do Now? page, select the radio button next to No, Ill do this later and
click Go!

Important: The next step is very important in making this approval process work!
Now that we have a second step defined, we need to modify the first step!

10. Scroll down to Approval Steps and click Edit next to Step 1.

11. Click Next.

12. On the Specify Step Criteria page, notice that after Enter this step if the following formula evaluates true that
a new statement is added: , else approver record.



Click the drop down next to approve record and change to go to next step.

This option only becomes available when the system detects another step in the sequence. You can either
change this information after adding the next step or add all of your steps and go back and edit the previous
steps to be go to next step.


PAGE 15 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce

13. Click Save. Your Approval Steps will now look something like this:



14. Click the New Approval Step to add our third and final step.

a. Name: Step 3
b. Unique Name: Step_3
c. If ADP US or ADP Canada or ABRA or Equality Edge is checked, send approval request to User3.
d. Step Number: 3

Click Next.

15. Our formula now reads as:

OR( ADP_US__c, ADP_Canada__c, ABRA__c, Equity_Edge__c)

Check syntax and if no errors, click Next.

16. Select your third approver and Save.

17. On the What Would You Like To Do Now? page select the radio button next to No, Ill do this later and
click Go!

18. In Approval Steps, now that we have a third step, click Edit next to Step 2.

19. Click Next.

20. Change the drop down at , else approve record and change to , else go to next step.

21. Click Save. The Approval Steps now look like this:







PAGE 16 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Create Final Approval Actions
Under Final Approval Actions well define the actions that should occur once the approval is achieved.

1. In Final Approval Actions, click on Add New and select Email Alert.
Note: In this example, we have created a single Email Template to notify both the Initiator of the
Change as well as the current record holder. You may actually want to have two different Email
Templates (one for Initiator and one for Owner). In that instance youd simply setup two email actions.
Here were going to use one template to notify two people.

2. Provide the necessary information. For example:

Name: Email Initiator of Approval
Unique Name: Email_Initiator_of_Approval
Email Template: <select appropriate email template>
Recipient Type: Related User

Under Available Recipients, select Related User: Initiator ID and move to Selected Recipients.

3. Change Recipient Type to Owner. This time, under Available Recipients, select Change Request Owner and
move to Selected Recipients.


4. Click Save.

5. Again in Final Approval Actions, click on Add New and select Field Update.



PAGE 17 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
6. Provide the necessary information to update a field. In this example:

Name: Update Approved Checkbox
Unique Name: Update_Approved_Checkbox
Object: Change Request
Field to Update: Approved
Checkbox Options: True


7. Click Save.






PAGE 18 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Create Final Rejection Actions
Lets define what action should occur if the Change is rejected. In this instance were simply going to email the Change
Owner.

1. In Final Rejection Actions, click on Add New and select Email Alert.

2. Similar to what you did for the Approval Email:

Name: Email Rejection to Owner of Change
Unique Name: Email_Rejection_to_Owner_of_Change
Email Template: <select appropriate email template>
Recipient Type: Owner

Under Available Recipients, select Change Request Owner and move to Selected Recipients.

3. Click Save.
Activate the Change!
We suggest you carefully review the process and steps you have created. Once a Change is made active and is used,
there are elements that cannot be changed. You will need to deactivate the change, create a clone and then make the
necessary changes.
One way to view your Change Approval and its Steps is to utilize the View Diagram feature.
At the top of the process youll see a button called View Diagram.




PAGE 19 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
If you click on that, you get a very nice flow chart showing you the change and its steps. Below is the change we just
created above.




PAGE 20 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
As you click on various elements, the details will show up in the right hand bar. For example, if we mouse over Step 1
Criteria, youll notice the details of the step in the right hand side bar:

Once youre satisfied, with everything click on Activate to activate the Approval Process.




PAGE 21 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Activate the Change!
Lets run through some tests to make sure our Change Approval Process is working as expected. This document
assumes you are familiar with Change Request creation in BMC Remedyforce. Once a Change Request is created, in
the Supporting Information section, you can click on Change Approvers, click on Actions and then submit the Change
for approval.

1. Create a change with the following:

a. Status = Evaluated
b. Salesforce checkbox is checked

Result: An email is sent to User1 or the person assigned to Step 1 of the approval process. Once the
approval is granted both the initiator of the Change and the Change Owner (aka Assign To) are notified that
the Change is approved. Also, the Approved checkbox is now checked.

2. Create a change with the following:

a. Status = Evaluated
b. Cast Iron checkbox is checked

Result: An email is sent to User2 or the person assigned to Step 2 of the approval process. Once the
approval is granted both the initiator of the Change and the Change Owner (aka Assign To) are notified that
the Change is approved. Also, the Approved checkbox is now checked.

3. Create a change with the following:

a. Status = Evaluated
b. ABRA checkbox is checked

Result: An email is sent to User3 or the person assigned to Step 3 of the approval process. Once the
approval is granted both the initiator of the Change and the Change Owner (aka Assign To) are notified that
the Change is approved. Also, the Approved checkbox is now checked.

4. Create a change with the following:

a. Status = Evaluated
b. Concur checkbox is checked
c. FPX checkbox is checked
d. ABRA checkbox is checked

Result: An email is sent to User1 or the person assigned to Step 1 of the approval process. Once the
approval is received from this person, the next approval email is sent to User2 or the person assigned to Step
2. Likewise, once User2 approves the change, the last approval email is sent to User3 or the person assigned
to Step 3. At this point the Change is approved and both the initiator of the Change and the Change Owner
(aka Assign To) are notified that the Change is approved. Also, the Approved checkbox is now checked.








PAGE 22 OF 24 CONFIDENTIAL
Change Approval Process
BMC Remedyforce
Notes to Remember
We setup two approval processes for Change in this document.



Each process had different entry criteria. What if we changed the entry criteria of Emergency Change from:

Change Type equals Emergency

to not specifying any criteria? For example:


While this will work its not advised to do this if you have multiple processes. The way the Approval Process of
Salesforce works is that it starts at the top of the Order List and evaluates each process until one evaluates True!

Using our example above, this would mean all Changes regardless of what is selected would enter the Emergency
Change and would NEVER be processed under Hosted Solution Changes! So while you can define multiple
processes, only one process can ever be applied to a change.











Business runs on IT. IT runs on BMC Software.
Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster, and stronger. Thats why the most demanding IT organizations in the world rely on BMC
Software across both distributed and mainframe environments. Recognized as the leader in Business Service Management, BMC offers a
comprehensive approach and unified platform that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk and drive business profit. For the four fiscal
quarters ended September 30, 2008, BMC revenue was approximately $1.83 billion. Visit www.bmc.com for more information.