Using Policies to Manage Requests › How to Specify Assignees

How to Specify Assignees

To specify assignees while creating a policy or editing one, follow this process:

1. Decide how many approvers and how many levels of approval to specify, based on the needs of your organization.
2. Add the first assignee by clicking the plus sign (+) in the Action Builder, the box under the Condition field.

   The first level of approval appears and opens for input, including fields named Requirement, Assignees, and so forth.

3. Complete the first Requirement field (the one next to the Level 1 column), as follows:

   In the drop-down list, select ANY or ALL.

   ANY specifies that any one of the assignees that follow must approve, reject, or fulfill the pending action.

   ALL specifies that every assignee that follows must approve, reject, or fulfill the pending action. If any assignees are groups, then one member of each assigned group must act on the pending action.

   Click Save.

4. Complete the first Assignees field (the one next to the first Requirement field), as follows:
   1. Click the Search (magnifying glass) icon to display the list of valid values.

      The Find Approvers dialog appears.

   2. Select a category (User, Group, or Manager) from the Assignee Type drop-down list.

      If you select User or Group, the name of the next field remains Name Filter.

      If you select Manager, the name of the next field changes to Manager Level.

   3. Enter any applicable search criteria in the next field (Name Filter or Manager Level) and click the Search icon.

      For example:

      • To specify the direct manager of the requested for user, select Manager as the category and enter 1 in the Manager Level field.
      • To specify that manager's direct manager, select Manager as the category and enter 2 in the Manager Level field.
   4. Select one or more of the users, groups, or managers displayed as approvers.

      Click any one entry to select it.

      To select multiple entries, hold down the Control key while selecting the entries you want.

      For example, if you select five individual users and you selected ALL, then all five must approve the pending action. If four approve but one rejects, the pending action is rejected.

      Conversely, if you select five individual users and you selected ANY, then only one must approve the pending action. As soon as one of them approves, the pending action is approved and advances to the next phase or next level of approval.

      The assignees you selected are recorded.

   5. Click OK to close the Find Approvers dialog.

      You return to the Action Builder page.

5. Click OK under the first row of approvers, and click Save (above the Policy tree).

   You have specified and saved the first assignees for the first level of approval.

6. Specify one or more assignees.

   If you specify multiple assignees, specify whether the pending actions are to be sequential or parallel.

   Parallel actions occur at the same time and at the same level of approval.

   Sequential actions occur in order, one after the other, and at different levels of approval.

   • To specify a complex (OR) or compound (AND) expression for the first level approval, double-click the first row, to open the Operation field and the second Requirements and Assignees fields for input.
     1. Complete the second Assignees field as described for first Assignees field earlier in these steps.
     2. Complete the second Requirements field as described for first Requirements field earlier in these steps.
     3. Select AND (for a compound approval) or OR (for a complex approval) in the Operation drop-down list.

        Specify AND to require that both the first and second assignees you specify must approve (or fulfill) the pending action. Otherwise, the pending action is rejected (or is not fulfilled).

        Specify OR to require that only one of the first and second assignees you specify must approve (or fulfill) the pending action. Otherwise, the pending action is rejected (or is not fulfilled).

     4. Click OK under the first row of approvers, and click Save (above the Policy tree).

     If you are finished specifying approval levels and approvers, navigate away from this window.

   • To specify a second level of approval, go to the next step.

     Optionally complete the steps for the previous bullet (if applicable) before going to the next step.

   • If you are finished specifying approval levels and approvers, navigate away from this window.
7. Click the plus sign (+) in the Action Builder to add a second level of approval.

   A second approval row appears, with the fields open for input.

   1. Complete the first Assignees and Requirements fields in this row, as described for these fields earlier in these steps.
   2. If applicable, specify a complex (either-or) or compound (both-and) expression for this row, as described in the previous step.
8. Optionally specify a third or more level of approval, using the previous steps as a guideline.
9. When you are finished specifying approvers for this policy, verify that the text in the Description field accurately represents the number and types of approvers and the levels of approval you want. Such text helps other users to decide whether to use this policy for their requests, services, or service options. Such text is also helpful for organization and maintenance.

You have assigned approvers for this policy.

The Catalog system searches for and assigns approvers and fulfillers in this order of preference:

1. A relevant policy
2. The requestor's management hierarchy
3. The Service Provider administrator (spadmin)