Specifying Approvers


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Change Management user

Overview

Specifying approvers

A user or a Change Control Board (CCB) that reviews a change are approvers. The approvers for a change are responsible for reviewing a change and assigning a status to the change. Common status types are Approve, Reject, Freeze, and Hold.

There are three ways to add approvers for a change:

  • Models
    If you choose a category that has an associated model, default approver information may be automatically supplied.
  • Rules
    Rules that apply to a change may automatically add approvers for the change.
  • Manually
    As the requester or author of a change, you can add individuals and CCBs as approvers.

When you create a change, if there is a model associated with the category you select, approver information may be filled in automatically for the change. If not, you can add users, CCBs, or yourself. You can add additional approvers to the list associated with models and rules as well. If there is a conflict between the approvers you add and the approvers specified by a model or rule, the model or rule takes precedence and can override your manual entries.

Note: You cannot delete approvers who are added as a result of a rule or model unless you have either the TCM Model Rule Value Override or TCM System Administration Rights.

Notification priorities When you submit a change, approval notifications are issued to the approvers who should review and approve the change first. You can specify who receives notifications first, second, third, and so on by setting a priority for each approver. The priority defaults to 1 for each new approver.

For approvers that you add manually, you can change the default priority. However, if an approver is added by a model or a rule, you cannot delete or change the approver or the priority without special rights.

Priority numbers can range from 1 to 99 and do not have to be in sequential order. The approver with the lowest numeric priority receives notification first. When all approvers with first priority approve the change, Tivoli Change Management issues approval notifications to approvers with the next highest priority.

For example, if you wanted to make sure that your manager approves the change before your director receives a notification, you could set your manager to priority level 1 and your director to priority level 2

Approval methods When you assign approvers for a change, you can also specify how they approve a change. For each approver, you have two choices:
  • Approves All Activity
    When an approver approves, rejects, freezes, or puts the parent change on hold, all attached activities are automatically placed in the same status.
  • Depends On Activity
    An approver must approve all activities individually before he or she can approve the parent change itself.

You can also modify the approval method for an approver, under the following conditions:

  • You have Tivoli Change Management system administrator rights
  • The parent change, rather than an activity of the change, is selected
  • The status of the change is "Saved"

Note: The approval method of activities associated with the change follows the approval method of the parent change.

If you change the approval method from Depends On Activity to Approves All Activity, approval requirements for an activity are displayed in the Approvals tab of the Change dialog box with the following:

  • "Disabled" in the Disposition column of the Approval List
  • "Root Change has Approval Method of Approves all Activities" in the Reason column of the Approval List

In addition, if you change the approval method of a root change from Approves All Activity to Depends On Activity, any associated activities that have a disabled approval method of Approves All Activities are now enabled and become part of the approval process.

Tip: Activities of an Approves All Activities change are automatically approved when the change is approved. Therefore, to minimize Tivoli Change Management processing time, do not define approval requirements for activities if the change is Approves All Activities.


Tasks

Adding a user as an approver

You can add as many users as necessary to review and approve a change.

To add a user as an approver:

  1. From the Change dialog box, choose the Approvals tab.
    Result: The Approvals tab appears.
  2. Choose Add User.
    Result: The User dialog box appears.
  3. Under User Search, type the name of the person or other identifying information.
    Note: You can display all users by choosing Find before typing in any of the text boxes. You can also use asterisk (*) as a wildcard.
  4. Choose Find.
    Result: A Caution message appears.
  5. Choose Yes.
    Result: All matches appear.
  6. From the table of users, select a user.
  7. Choose OK.
    Result: The user you selected appears in the Approval List.

Adding a CCB as an approver

You can add as many CCBs as necessary to review and approve a change.

To add a CCB as an approver:

  1. From the Change dialog box, choose the Approvals tab.
    Result: The Approvals tab appears.
  2. Choose Add Group.
    Result: The Work with Groups dialog box appears.
  3. Under Groups list, select a group.
  4. Choose Select.
    Result: The group you selected appears in the Approval List.
Specifying a notification priority You can specify a notification priority other than 1.

To specify a notification priority:

  1. From the Change dialog box, choose the Approvals tab.
    Result: The Approvals tab appears
  2. Under Approval List, select an approver.
  3. Choose Set Priority.
    Result: The Set Approval Priority dialog box appears.
  4. In the Set Approval Priority dialog box, type a number indicating the priority of the selected approver.
  5. Choose OK.
    Result: The selected approver appears in the Approval List with the new priority level.

Specifying the approval method of the change

You can specify the method of approval for a change.

To specify an approval method:

  1. From the Change dialog box, choose the Approvals tab.
    Result: The Approvals tab appears.
  2. Under Approval of Change, select the appropriate option.
  3. Choose OK.
    Result: The change is assigned the approval method.

Ensuring notification upon approval

As a requester, by default you receive notifications only when a change is rejected, frozen, or held. However, you can receive an approval notification when all approvers have approved the change.

To receive notification when a change is approved:

  1. From the Change dialog box, choose the Approvals tab.
    Result: The Approvals tab appears.
  2. From the Approvals tab, select Notify Requester On Full Approval.