Multiple approval groups on one status

[Wood_ Jeremy]

Hi team,

TLDR:

Is there a way to have multiple approval groups on one status on the parent ticket and only advance the ticket when one member of each group approves? 

Details: 

Our process requires approvals from 3 different groups (Legal, Security, and Finance) before it moves to the next step. We would like all the different groups to be able to approve at the same time (same status in the workflow) but only advance the ticket once all 3 groups have approved. We only require approval from 1 member of each group to approve. 

Our current solution has been to cerate sub-tasks for each department and track their approvals there. Then once all off the sub-tasks are closed (approved) move the master ticket to the next status. This works from a technical side but from a customer perspective they don't get visibility to the sub-tasks so all they know is they are waiting on one of the 3 groups. But they don't know which.  In addition, any comments the approvers add or make are only on the sub-tasks (I know i can make automation to copy the notes if needed but hoping for a better overall solution.) It also makes it difficult from an audit perspective as we now have to export each of the sub-tasks in addition to the parent ticket when sending information to an auditor. Its great for reporting because we can see how long each team takes to approve and find out who is dragging down the process. But not for much else. 

[Andy Rusnak · Accepted solution]

Hi @Wood_ Jeremy , 

I hope you are doing well!  Thanks for posting this to Community! 

If I am understanding what you are attempting to do, I believe this functionality does exist.  Within your Approval Step you can specify the field on the Work Item that contains user groups.  Then you can set the Approval field to say that you need at least 1 person from each group to approve.  For example: 

Does this sound like what you are looking to accomplish?  

Best, 

Andy

[Wood_ Jeremy]

This is definitely in the right direction for what we want. 

I tossed this together real quick in my sandbox and noticed on the customer side they do see "2 approvals needed" but is there any way to show them what groups they are waiting on approval from?

 

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Wood_ Jeremy 

On the customer side this can't be visualised.

It just says the number of awaiting approvals.