Approvals and Rejections

The transition Approvals dialog displays the approval list defined for the selected work item type transition. An approval list is a list of users and/or security roles required to approve the selected transition before the transition can be finished. Approval lists are defined and assigned to work item type transitions by your administrator in the System Settings module. The state of a transition determines which features are displayed in the transition Approvals dialog box.

The status ball next to the page title indicates the current overall status of the transition. A green ball indicates all approvers have approved the transition. A yellow ball indicates there are pending approvals, and a red ball indicates the transition has been rejected by one or more approvers.

When you open the transition Approvals dialog box before the selected transition has been started, the following features are displayed on the page:

Type Indicates whether the required approver is a security role or user. If the approver is a role, the transition requires any user assigned to the role listed in the Name column to approve the transition. If the approver is a user, that specific user is required to approve the transition. This column is only displayed in the transition Approvals dialog box before a transition is started.
Name Displays the name of the security role or user required to approve the transition.
# Required This column only applies to security roles in an approval list. The # Required column displays the number of users assigned to the security role listed in the Name column that are required to approve the transition. If all members of the security role are required to approve the transition, the # Required column displays All. For users in the approval list, this column is blank. For example, if Portfolio Managers is displayed in the Name column, and 3 is displayed in the # Required column, the transition requires three users assigned to the Portfolio Managers security role on the item's portfolio to approve the selected transition.

When you open the transition Approvals dialog box after the selected transition has been started, the following features are displayed on the page:

Approval Status Displays the transition's approval status for each user and/or member of a security role on the transition's approval list. A green ball indicates the transition has been approved, a yellow ball indicates the transition is pending approval, and a red ball indicates the transition has been rejected.
Approval Order Displays the approval order for a transition's ordered approval list. A transition must be approved by the users and/or security roles in the order they are listed. The Approval Order column is only displayed for ordered approval lists.
Actions Click in the Actions column next to your user name or security role to approve or click to reject the selected transition, or click to clear your approval or rejection.
Approver Displays the name of the users that are required to approve or have already approved or rejected the transition. When a security role is required for approval, {approval required} is displayed under the security role name in the Approver column until a user assigned to the security role approves the work item transition. If all members of a security role are required to approve the transition, the members' names are displayed in the Approver column instead of {approval required}. Once a user has approved or rejected the transition, their user name is displayed in the Approver column.
Date Displays the date and time the user approved or rejected the work item transition.
Notes Displays any notes entered by an approver on the Approval Notes or Reject Notes page.

Approving a transition

To approve a work item type transition

Open the Projects module.
Select a work item.
Select the Workflow tab.
Select the Transition tab.
Click the diamond in the Approval column for the workflow transition you want to approve.
In the Approvals dialog box, click Approve to approve the workflow transition.
In the Approval Transition dialog box, add any notes you want to add and click OK.
Click OK.

Editing the approval status of a transition

You may change your approval status any time after a transition has started and before a transition has finished. If you belong to an ordered approval list and you change (or clear) your approval status, any member of the list who appears after you will have their approval status returned to pending approval (yellow). Open the Approvals dialog box and change your approval status.

To edit the approval status of a work item type transition

Open the Projects module.
Select a work item.
Select the Workflow tab.
Select the Transition tab.
On the Transition tab, click the diamond in the Approval column to update the approval status.

Rejecting a transition

If you belong to an approval list, you will be notified when it is your turn to approve (or reject) a transition. The notification will be available in the navigation bar or in an email notification. Open the Approvals dialog box and reject the transition from the Actions column. When a transition is rejected by a member of the approval list, the team member who started the transition is sent a transition rejected notification. A transition that has been rejected by one or more members of the approval list may still be started; however, many transitions that are rejected by one or more members of a transition approval list will be canceled.

To reject a work item type transition

Open the Projects module.
Select a work item.
Select the Workflow tab.
Select the Transition tab.
Click the diamond in the Approval column for the workflow transition you want to reject.
In the Approvals dialog box, click to reject the workflow transition.
In the Approval Transition dialog box, add any notes you want to add and click OK.
Click Save.

Viewing a workflow transition approval list

Click the approval icon for the transition path and open the Approvals dialog box. The Approvals dialog box shows who in your organization will need to approve a work item transition, including the approval order (if ordered). After the transition has started, the Approvals dialog box will show the approval status for each approver, the date and time the transition was approved (or rejected), and any notes entered by an approver. If a transition does not require approval, there will not be an approval list.

To view a transition approval list

From the application toolbar, click Setup, and then select Customization.
Select the Workflow and Approvals tab.
Select the Workflow tab.
Select an approval list.