How to Manage Ideas › The Idea Approval Process

The Idea Approval Process

The Idea Approval process is an out-of-the-box CA Clarity PPM idea management process. As a process administrator or manager, the idea approval process helps you to manage the submission, review, approval, and rejection of ideas. By default, this process is not active. The CA Clarity PPM process administrator activates it before the idea approval process can be started. You can customize a process using extra business rules.

Note: You can only have access to one Idea Approval process at any given time. The process administrator cannot grant access to more than one Idea Approval process. Otherwise, an error occurs when you click Submit for Approval.

Automated idea processes move the idea through an implicit workflow. The following steps summarize the process:

1. An instance of the Idea Approval process is created automatically each time a user creates an idea. A new idea has an Unapproved or Submitted for Approval status.
2. The approval process sends notifications for each action item or step to designated recipients. The process locks the idea status during the approval process and does not allow anyone to change the idea status manually.
3. When a user submits a proposed idea for approval, and all required information is complete, the idea status changes to Submitted for Approval.

   After a user submits an idea, it can be marked rejected, incomplete, or approved.

4. An action item is sent to each reviewer who has the right to approve the idea. The action item requests that the approver review and then approve the idea.
5. The reviewer examines the idea. The idea can be set to approved, rejected, or incomplete to request more information from the original person making the request.
6. Users can resubmit any Incomplete ideas. When a user resubmits an idea, its status is set to Submitted for Approval and it returns to the start of the process.
7. When an idea is approved, you can convert it into any project, service, or investment. Your access rights determine what entities you can create.
8. After a user marks an idea as Approved, Incomplete, or Rejected, the system sends an action item notification to the original author of the idea.
9. Idea approval, rejection, or deletion terminates the process.

As multiple users can have the right to approve the idea, contradictory responses could get recorded. For example, one reviewer approves the idea and another rejects it before the background process engine cycles. In this case, the outstanding action items are closed, if any, and new copies of the same action item are sent. The new action item states that contradictory responses are received.

As another example, a user with authorization can directly mark an incomplete idea as approved.

If a user changes an Incomplete idea to Rejected, error message INV-0007: Enter a valid status code appears. To avoid this condition:

1. Mark the idea Submitted for Approval.
2. Then, change it to Approved or Rejected.