In this article, we will walk through the process of setting up Standard Approvals for project stages.
Standard Approvals allow organizations to require formal approval before a project can move from one process stage to the next.
To enable and configure Standard Approvals for project stages, follow these steps:
1. Enable Standard Approvals for the Process stages
Standard Approvals are configured at the project process level by the PPM Express Administrator.
- Navigate to the Process Management page.
- Open the Process where you need to enable Standard Approval.
- Open the relevant stage for editing.
- Set the Approval for Transition option to Standard Approval.
- Click Save Stage.
- Repeat the same steps for all stages requiring approval for completion and transition to the next stage.
You can enable Standard Approvals for any combination of stages. Not every stage requires approval.
2. Add Approvers
Approvers are assigned per project:
- Open the required Project -> Process section.
- Open the Process Approvals view.
- Add one or more approvers for stages that require approval. Approvers can be added:
- individually, using the Add Approver button;
- in bulk, using the Bulk Add Approvers button.
Bulk assignment is available only for stages that have not yet started the approval workflow. If a stage already has a pending approval request, additional approvers can still be added individually. Newly added approvers immediately receive an approval request.
After a stage has been approved, additional approvers cannot be added to that stage.
3. Submit an Approval Request
Simply assigning approvers does not start the approval workflow.
To begin the approval process:
- Open the Project -> Process section -> flow chart view.
- Navigate to the current stage.
- Click the "Go to the next stage" button.
The approval request is sent to all assigned approvers. Email notifications are sent to approvers when a new approval request is submitted.
4. Review Approval Requests
Approvers receive approval requests in the Approval Center under the Project Stages tab.
For each request, approvers can:
- approve the stage transition;
- reject the request;
- optionally provide comments.
Once an approver makes a decision, the request status is updated accordingly.
If any approver rejects the request, the project remains in the current stage. A new approval request must be submitted.
Permissions for using Standard Approvals
Users who have permission to edit a project can:
- assign approvers;
- submit approval requests.
Only users assigned as approvers can access the Approval Center.
Administrators can also perform administrative process actions, such as skipping stages, following the same permission model used by project processes.
A cancellation notification is sent to approvers whenever a pending approval request is removed because of actions such as restarting the process, moving to another stage, or deleting the request.