Approving a Change


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Change Management user

Overview

How you approve changes

Depending on your position or role in the change management process within your organization, you might be specified as an approver. As an approver, you are responsible for reviewing a change and assigning it an approval status:
  • Approve
  • Reject
  • Hold
  • Freeze

If you receive a submittal or resubmittal notification that indicates that a change requires your approval, you need to review the change and assign it an approval status.

You receive notifications only when you are on the approval list for a submitted change or activity. As an approver for a change, you may or may not be an approver for subordinate activities. You can view the change and determine whether you are an individual approver or a member of a CCB.

The Approve dialog box

Use the Approve dialog box to approve, reject, freeze, or hold a change. For more information, see Reviewing a change and Approving a change.

To access the Approve dialog box, do one of the following:

  • If you are using the Tivoli Service Desk administrator profile, from the Change Management menu, choose Approve.
  • If you are using the Tivoli Change Management administrator profile, choose Changes, then choose Approve.
  • If you are using the Tivoli Change Management user profile, choose Change, then choose Approve.
  • From the Help menu, choose Your System Profile and follow the instructions under Change Approve.

Tasks

Reviewing a change Before you approve or reject a change, you should review it thoroughly. In addition to reviewing the general information on the tabs in the Change dialog box, you may want to review the following information:


Topic Information
History Statuses assigned to the change in the past
Attachments Supporting evidence for the change, such as diagrams, spreadsheets, and other documents
Impacts Who is affected by the change if it is implemented
Microsoft Project files Associated activities and tasks
Tasks Resources for the change, estimated hours, and associated assets

To review a change:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the Change menu, choose Approve Change.
    • Choose the Approve Change tool from the toolbar.
      Result: The Approve dialog box appears.
  2. Under Changes, select the change you want to approve.
  3. Choose View.
    Result: The Change dialog box appears displaying the change.
  4. Review the change information in the Change dialog box.
  5. Do one or more of the following:
    • From the General tab, the Impacts tab, or the Tasks tab, choose Attach to review files attached to the change.
    • From the Impacts tab, select an impact and choose View to review the effect the change will have on users, organizations, and others.
    • Initialize a DDE link between the change and the Microsoft Project file and then choose Microsoft Project from the Tasks tab to view the project plan of the change.
    • From the Tasks tab, select a task and choose View to review task information such as resources and estimated hours.

Approving a change

You can approve, reject, freeze, or put a change on hold that you reviewed.

Note: A change is automatically approved if it is submitted, eligible for approval, and there are no approvers.

To approve a change:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the Change menu, choose Approve Change.
    • Choose the Approve Change tool from the toolbar.
      Result: The Approve dialog box appears.
  2. Under Changes, select the change you want to approve.
  3. Type a reason for your decision in the Reason box.
  4. Approve the change by choosing one of the following:
    • Approve
    • Reject
    • Freeze
    • Hold
      Result: The following occur:
If you chose ... then ...
Approve a message appears informing you that the change is accepted. You cannot reverse your approval decision.
Reject, Freeze, or Hold a confirmation message appears to determine whether you want to proceed with rejecting, freezing, or holding the change. If you choose Yes, you cannot reverse your reject, freeze, or hold decision.

When the Approve dialog box appears, the change is updated according to the status you chose.

  1. Choose Close.
    Result: The Approve dialog box closes.

Note the following:

  • If you freeze, reject the change or put it on hold, the change requester automatically receives a notification of the status of the change.
  • If the change requester selected Notify Requester On Full Approval in the Approvals tab of the Change dialog box, he or she receives an approval notification only after the change has successfully completed the approval process.