Given that milestones are used to track important case events over time, a milestone waiver request may be required in order for the milestone expected start and end dates to be changed for an automatically created milestone. Expected start and end dates for manually created milestones can be changed without a waiver request. The milestone waiver request approval process is used to confirm that the changes in dates to the milestone are valid. Once a submitted request has been approved, the new expected start and/ or end dates will take effect.
Milestone waiver requests can only be submitted (i.e., the expected dates for a milestone can only be changed) if the Expected Date Extension Allowed setting has been configured. The approval process (i.e. the need to submit a waiver request for approval) for these requests will only be necessary if the Waiver Required setting has also been configured. If the Waiver Required setting has not been configured, a user will be able to change the expected start and/or end dates directly.
Milestone waiver request approval check settings for a milestone determine the percentage of submitted waiver requests for a milestone of a particular type that need to be reviewed by a case supervisor. For example, an approval check can be set up on a milestone that requires 60% of all submitted requests to be approved; 40% will not require approval. Setting approval checks at the milestone level governs all milestones of a particular type. Milestone waiver request approval checks can also be set up at the organization and user level, with user configuration settings taking precedence over organization unit and milestone settings, and organization unit settings taking precedence over milestone settings. Consequently, the approval check settings for a particular type of milestone are the last step in the system's evaluation of whether or not a waiver request requires approval. In other words, when a waiver request is submitted for approval by a user, the system first checks the user's milestone waiver request approval check settings, and then checks the milestone waiver request approval check settings for the organization unit that the user belongs to. After checking these settings, the system checks the approval settings at the milestone level. The system may determine at any point in this process that the milestone waiver request requires approval.