Portal User Guide › Running Certification Campaigns › Certification and Approval Stages of a Campaign

Certification and Approval Stages of a Campaign

Most certification campaigns involve two phases:

• Certification—Managers and resource owners review the links of the users, roles, and resources they administer. For example, a manager reviews the privileges of their staff members, or a role owner examines the resources included in the role.
• Approval—If a link is rejected during the review phase, or a new link is suggested, the manager of the linked resource must approve the proposed change. For example, if a manager rejects access to a certain resource for their worker, the owner of that resource must approve the change. Only rejected links or new links trigger approval tasks, because they change the base configuration.

By default, campaigns have distinct review and approval phases. Approval tasks are held until all certification tasks are complete. The campaign owner initiates the approval phase from the root ticket of the campaign. Approval tasks and notifications are consolidated, simplifying the work of resource owners.

You can configure the campaign so that approval tasks are initiated immediately when a reviewer submits a rejected link. The review and approval phases of the campaign overlap, and both review and approval tasks are active throughout most of the campaign. This campaign structure has several disadvantages, especially for campaigns with a large scope. Because approval tasks are not consolidated, resource owners and managers receive a separate email notification for each change they must approve. The approval phase is extended, and the volume of notifications and approval tasks can be distracting and unmanageable. Resource owners cannot assess the overall impact of changes resulting from the campaign.