Approval requests in action flows

An action flow can raise an approval by itself, which turns a manual sign-off into part of an automated sequence.

An action flow can raise an approval by itself, which turns a manual sign-off into part of an automated sequence.

What this adds

Without it, an agent decides that something needs approval and raises it. With it, the flow decides, based on conditions you set, and raises the request without anyone remembering to.

That matters where the rule is objective. Any refund above a threshold, any access request for a particular system: those do not need human judgement about whether to ask, only about the answer.

Build it

1. Open the action builder.
2. Add the step that creates an approval request.
3. Set the approver, and the text of the request.
4. Define what the flow does with each outcome.
5. Test with a ticket that should trigger it and one that should not.

Test the negative case

The failure that matters is not an approval that does not fire. It is one that fires when it should not, sending a manager three requests a day for things nobody needed to sign off. Test the boundary in both directions.

Keep the human decision human

Automating the raising of an approval is sensible. Automating the answer is not an approval at all, and if a rule can decide, you did not need sign-off, you needed a rule. Be honest about which of the two you are building.

See also

• Building an action flow
• What approvals are and how they work
• What action builder is