2nd Level Approval Workflow

[Duc Anh Le]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to build out a Jira workflow for my company but having some difficulties. Please help.

When folks request work equipment, they fill out a Jira Form at our company. Generally, if it's just basic items (mouse, keyboard, headphones...) the request will send to their direct manager for approval. 

But when they select an item such as Personal Priter, Ipad, or iPhone, they will need additional approval from a (VP) on top of the approval from their direct manager.

When this happens, I want the request to be approved by the direct manager first before sending the approval request to the VP. 

 I haven't been able to get this to work yet. Please help.

[Kai Becker · Accepted solution]

Hi @Duc Anh Le ,

welcome to the community and thank you for your question. 
As of what I can see, you are on the right track, chaining two Approval steps after another.

Could you explain a little bit more, what your problem is? Maybe you could post some screenshots?

If it is the decision for the 2nd Approval, you might need to add a condition to the two transitions leaving your first Approval. Both need to check for the devices. 

If device is Mouse, ... --> direct approval
If device is Printer, ... --> 2nd approval

Depending on the custom field you use for the device, a Value Field condition could work. 
It might be necessary to connect multiple conditions with or per transition (one for each device type).

Hope this helps 🙂

[Duc Anh Le]

Hi @Kai Becker 

Thank you for your response and the warm welcome.

Yes, the transition out of Waiting for Approval is where I am having issues.

I created a custom field called EVP Approver. When the user selects a Printer in the form, the EVP Approver field became visible and required. The user now must select the EVP approver before submitting the ticket. 

There are 2 "approved" transitions out of the Waiting for Approval Status

• Direct approval (when it's only a mouse). I have the transition condition setup as when EVP Approver is empty below screenshot: 
• 2nd approval (when it's a printer). I have the transition condition setup as EVP Approver is not empty.

  I created a test ticket and have the printer selected and picked the EVP Approver. When the 1st approver hits approve, the issue immediately transitions to Waiting for Support ( instead of Waiting for 2nd Approval as I hoped for). 

  So I checked the approval step config within the Waiting for Approval status and saw that you must pick your transition when approved. I am not 100% sure but this seems to bypass all the conditions I have set above. Maybe I didn't set something correctly? Thx

  

[Tim Perrault]

Try setting the condition on the equipment field. If the value = mouse and so on

[Kai Becker]

Hi @Duc Anh Le , 

thanks for clarification. This is a really good approval workflow use case. I haven't had such a constellation before, but I guess it should be solvable.

My idea would be to only use one approval status, but to modify the people need to approve via automation rule.

1. Ticket gets created and fields are set (like you noted)
2. if device is to expensive, an automation rule would be triggered and set a second approver to the first approval step (maybe another email has to be send for the second approval, which could be done via automation too)
3. the approval step is configured to have all people to approve the request
4. after too approvals the issue is transition to the status in your configuration

I have not tried this by myself, so I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it might give you another option to play around with.

There are also automation triggers for completed approvals, as described here.

EDIT: Please try the hint from Tim first.

[Duc Anh Le]

Hi @Tim Perrault and @Kai Becker

Thank you!

Yes I've tried automation but it comes with a downside:

• If the expensive items get selected - I can use automation to add the VP as the 2nd approver and set both of them (Direct Manager and VP) must approve before transitioning to the next step (Waiting for Support).
  • Downside: The VP will immediately get bombarded with an approval request and automation notification while the direct manager might deny the request.
  • Ideally, I want this to be 2 step process:
    • The direct manager needs to review the request first
    • And if everything looks good and is approved, the ticket will go to the VP for 2nd approval.

In the Article, @Kai Becker shared, the case is always 2-step approval. My case is both 1-step and 2-step approvals which go back to my original question.

Thanks

[Kai Becker]

Hi @Duc Anh Le

I'm going to try this in my demo environment and get back to you within this week.
There might be some other things we could test out. 🙂

[Duc Anh Le]

@Kai Becker Thank you so much! 

[Kai Becker]

@Duc Anh Le as promised I tried several things and came up with a solution supported by the app JMWE.

My workflow uses sample statuses, please don't mind the wording. Key is that there is a status in between the two approvals. This one will always be auto transitioned over, but we need to have a step for handling of the device selection.

Glossary

Approver 1 = Approvers

VP = Budget Manager

Device = Selection

Workflow:

1. Creating an issue leads into the first approval step, like yours. Nothing special here
2. Approval leads to the "Under Review" status, but there are two post functions in this transition
   1. device is cheap (selection in (a,b)) --> transition to "In Progress"
   2. device is expensive (selection = c) --> transition to "Awating Approval" (2nd Approval step)

The 2nd Approval step has just the same simple logic as the first one, but with another user picker field, here Budget Manager

Here are some screenshots of the workflow and post functions. Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask again.

[Duc Anh Le]

Good morning @Kai Becker

Great solution and works as expected. Thank you so much! Have a wonderful weekend!

[Kai Becker]

You are welcome. I'm glad I helped!

[Parsa Shiva]

Hello @Duc Anh Le 

Have you tried using the Approval Path add-on?
This could simplify the process as it's quite easy to figure out, and it serves as a powerful tool for Jira/Confluence approvals. Approval Path for Jira

I hope that helps,
Cheers!

[Duc Anh Le]

Hi @Parsa Shiva  - Thank you for the suggestion. I tried it but the Approval Path process is not showing in the customer portal. Maybe I missed something?

[Parsa Shiva]

@Duc Anh Le 

I see the problem, I think Approval Path does not currently support that feature but it's on the roadmap.

You can subscribe to the ticket to get notified once it's implemented: Support portal - approval from client

[Rajeev John]

Hi @Parsa Shiva ,

How far have you come on the roadmap for -- "Approval Path does not currently support that feature but it's on the roadmap" -- this is from your comment above.

Many thanks

Rajeev

[Duc Anh Le]

Removed