Don't notify everyone in approvers group

Question

In JSM we can base our approval steps on

* a user-picker field or
* a group-picker field

If I select a group-picker and the request gets transitioned to the approval status, everyone in this group receives an email.

While I understand this is intended behavior, may I ask if there is some workaround so that just 1 person receives the notification while all others are still able to approve?

Use case: Someone raises the request and is the main approver. In case this person is not available, but the request urgently needs approval, someone from the group can step in.

Geethanjali Katagani · Answer

Hi @Jared Schmitt ,

So, in this case, we can't use the native Approver feature to notify only one user from a group. However, we can achieve this using conditions instead. You can specify users or groups in the condition, and then create an automation rule to send an email notification to a specific user — as I mentioned in the previous message.

Let me know if you’d like help setting up the condition or automation.

Jared Schmitt · Answer

Hi @Geethanjali Katagani

Thank you for your quick reply! I could indeed do that, but then there are other request types that should trigger an approval notification to each approver.

Basically, the setup described in my question should only apply to 1 request type out of many.

Geethanjali Katagani · Answer

Hi @Jared Schmitt ,

If you want to configure the approvers field as a group picker but ensure that only one person receives the notification, you can follow the steps below:

* Disable the “Approval required” notification in the Project → Customer Notifications section. This ensures that no one from the group gets the default approval notification.
* To notify only a specific person, you can create an automation rule:

*     Trigger: When the request transitions to the Approval status.
* Action: Send an email to the desired person.

In the email, include a message like:

“Approval is required for the below issue:
               [Issue Key] – [Issue URL]”

This way, that specific person can easily open the ticket and proceed with the approval.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

Thanks,
Geethanjali