You are here: Chapter 9: Advanced Features > Change Manager > Create Phases

Create Phases

To create a phase:

  1. Select Administration | Workspace, then select Change Manager from the Automated Workflow section of the main frame.
  2. Click Add Phase.  The Configure Approval Phase page is displayed.
  3. Complete Step 1
  4. Name field-The Name field is limited to 254 characters.
  5. Description field-The Description field is unlimited.
  6. Copy From Another Phase field-The Copy From Another Phase field allows you to copy all of the Phase values of an existing Phase into this Phase. To copy Phase data, select the existing Phase from the Copy From Another Phase drop-down field and save the page (scroll to the bottom of the page, enter your password, and click the SAVE button). Once you've created a Phase by copying it, you can come back and edit the values of the new Phase.
  7. Complete Step 2-Set the requirements for Requests for Change (RFCs). Requirements include the Voters who will determine whether the RFC is approved or denied. There are several options for selecting approvers and you can select any combination of these options.
  8. Agents/Contacts Tab—Highlight an individual user or users in the User List on the left and then use the arrow button to move them to the Eligible Voters list on the right (or highlight Eligible Voters and use the arrow button to remove them from the list).
  9. Filters (User Name, Display)—The User Name and Display fields allow you to filter the names that are listed in the Eligible Voters list. Enter a string in the User Name field and click the Load button to repopulate the list with all names containing that string. Select from the Display drop-down to repopulate the list with all the names that meet the drop-down's criteria (for example, all Workspace Administrators users). The two fields, User Name and Display, can be used together to filter the names further. For example, if you enter the letter "b" in the User Name field and then select Concurrent Agents from the Display drop-down, the list displays all agents with the letter "b" in their user name that use a concurrent license.
  10. User ID—Add a user to the Selected Users (eligible voters) list directly by entering a user ID in the User ID field and then clicking the Add button.
  11. Phase approval when All eligible voters approve.  Phase Disapproval when One eligible voter disapproves—All voters must unanimously approve the Issue in order for the Issue to be considered approved.  This means that if there is just one vote against approval, the Issue is rejected.  It also means that as soon as one disapproval is submitted, voting is closed regardless of whether all approvers have voted.
  12. Phase approval when At least X% of eligible voters approve. Phase Disapproval when More than X% of eligible voters disapprove—Approval is given when X% voters approve.  For example, if this is set to 33% and there are nine eligible approvers, when three of them approve then the Issue is approved.  When the approval percentage is selected, the disapproval percentage is calculated for you automatically.  Approval or disapproval do not always wait for all of the votes to be submitted; as soon as the approval or disapproval threshold is reached,  the voting is closed.
  13. Phase approval when More than X% of eligible voters approve.  Phase Disapproval when At least X% of eligible voters disapprove— Approval is given when more than X% voters approve.  For example, if this is set to 33% and there are nine eligible approvers, when four of them approve then the Issue is approved.  When the approval percentage is selected, the disapproval percentage is calculated for you automatically.  Approval or disapproval do not always wait for all of the votes to be submitted; as soon as the approval or disapproval threshold is reached,  the voting is closed.
  14. Phase approval when One eligible voter approves.  Phase Disapproval when All eligible voters disapprove—The Issue is approved when one of the eligible voters approves.  The Issue is only disapproved if disapproval is unanimous.  Voting closes as soon as one of these states is reached.
  15. First tally to reach X% of eligible voters—The Issue is approved or disapproved based on which set of voters achieves the specified percentage of voters first.  For example, if 33% is specified and there are nine approvers, then the first vote count to reach three votes first decides the Issue.
  16. Deadline for approval/disapproval checkbox—Check the box and enter the amount of time to set a deadline to approve/disapprove.  If a clear approval or disapproval vote is not reached when the timer runs out, the decision is made according to what is specified in the drop-down field.  The number of days refers to real days, not Workspace Schedule days.  Drop-down options are:  Approved (the Issue is approved when the timer runs out); Disapproved (the Issue is rejected when the timer runs out); Determined by Highest Tally-Tie: Approved (whichever set of votes is higher wins, but in the case of a tie the Issue is approved when the timer runs out); Determined By Highest Tally-Tie: Disapproved (whichever set of votes is higher wins, but in the case of a tie the Issue is disapproved when the timer runs out); Expired (the Issue is no longer active).
  17. Teams Tab—Highlight a team or teams in the Team List on the left and then use the arrow button to move them to the Eligible Voters list on the right (or highlight Eligible Voters and use the arrow button to remove the team from the list). The phase approval parameters that appear on this tab are described immediately above.
  18. Issue Characteristics—Select the eligible voters based on the issue characteristics. For example, if you want the person who submitted the Issue to be an eligible voter, click the Submitter checkbox. The phase approval parameters that appear on this tab are described above. Options are:
  1. Issue FieldsFootPrints Change Manager retrieves the voter from the value in a workspace field. The value must be a user ID or address book ID (in the case of customers). One use for selecting voters this way is that it allows an escalation retrieve the voter based on issue characteristics. The phase approval parameters that appear on this tab are described above.
  2. Select an approver who will only vote if...—Select a fallback voter in case none of the selected eligible voters (e.g., Assignees’ Supervisor) can vote on the Issue. A selection is only required when nobody is set to be an eligible voter and one of the selection boxes is selected in the 'Select Eligible Voters from User List'.
  3. Step 3: General Options deals mainly with email notifications for approvers, but provides some other options as well.

Click the [Insert Variable] link to display a list of valid variables.  Double-click a variable or click it once and then click the Insert button to append the variable to the title.  Click the [Preview] link to view a preview of the email you have built.

These statuses cannot be removed from the field once they have been added. Other changes to the field, such as adding statuses or moving the field on the page, can be made on the Form Designer page. To delete a field that has been enabled for tracking approval status, you must first disable the Phase Status Workspace Field by removing the check from the checkbox on this page.

Click the [Insert Variable] link to display a list of valid variables.  Double-click a variable or click it once and then click the Insert button to append the variable to the title.

  1. Step 5:  Actions on Final Disapproval determines what is done with an Issue once a disapproval has been obtained.  The options are the same as in the preceding step of this procedure.
  2. Type in your password and then click the Save button to save this phase.

NOTE

If the final phase in a process does not specify at least one action to be taken upon final approval and the Issue is approved, the Issue will be re-submitted to the same Change Manager process.  Likewise, if the final phase in a process does not specify at least one action to be taken upon final disapproval and the Issue is disapproved, the Issue will be re-submitted to the same Change Manager process.  In other words, the Issue will loop back into the process in those instances.  To ensure that this does not happen, the final phase in a process should specify some action to be taken upon final approval and upon final disapproval.

VBS Scripts

The VBS scripts interpreter (wscript.exe or cscript.exe) requires the presence of certain registry entries for IUSR_Machine user. Since an HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive is not available for the IUSR_Machine, IIS loads the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive in its place. However, the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive does not contain the necessary keys and entries for the scripting engine, and read access for IUSR_Machine user is not granted to the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive. Therefore, in order to run VBS scripts as an external action from an escalation, the registry must be changed as follows:

  1. Using the Registry Editor, create the following Keys and Entries:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows Scripting Host

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows Scripting Host\Settings

  1. Verify that the user IUSR_Machine has Read access to these keys(using regedt32).
  1. Create the following entries under HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows Scripting Host\Settings:

DisplayLogo: REG_DWORD: 0

Timeout: REG_DWORD: b4

BatchMode: REG_DWORD: 0