Dynamic approvers

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Introduction

The SolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD) dynamic approvers feature lets you scale your approval processes to the people and roles in your organization, synchronize with your provisioning platform, and automate so that each approval service process is easy to define and approve.

Using dynamic approvers lets users assign approvals by walking through the relationships of roles in your organization, rather than relying on the names of individuals. As people move in and out of roles in your organization, SWSD ensures approvals are assigned to the proper person based on their role in the approval process.

Where it works

Dynamic approvers are available in workflow processes for:

• Service catalog objects
• Change catalog objects
• Runbooks

How it works

When a service catalog item requiring approval(s) is created, SWSD dynamically identifies who should perform the approval step at each phase of the approval based on that person's relationship with the requester or the assignee, as it is defined in the approval workflow.

Levels of approval are set up in the approval process in the Service Catalog, but who performs the approval is identified through relationships when the request is invoked. The relationship information comes from user accounts.

Administrator setup steps

Prerequisite: Ensure that users are set up in SWSD

There are multiple ways of setting up user accounts in SWSD. You can provision user accounts with one of several identity and access management tools, CSV import, or other methods. See Users for methods of setup.

Step 1: Create custom fields for user roles that don't already exist

It is important to identify the user roles your organization needs for the approval process. Before you can assign a user to a role, you must create a custom field for the role. For example, your organization might need an HR Manager role or a VP Marketing role.

1. Navigate to Setup > Service Desk > Custom Fields.

2. Click Add in the upper right corner.

3. Name the new field using the role name, for example, HR Manager.

4. In Field Type, select User.

5. In Scope, select Service Catalog or Global.

6. Repeat the process to create every User custom field your organization needs for approvals.

See also Custom fields.

Step 2: Create a custom form for user records

So that users can be assigned specific roles in SWSD, you need a Users custom form that you can add custom fields to. For example, if you have created a custom field for the HR Manager role, you need to be able to assign a user as the HR Manager. Your custom form should contain all of the fields identifying approver roles within your organization.

1. Navigate to Setup > Service Desk > Custom Forms.

2. If you have a custom form you use for your user records, you can add custom fields to it. If not, you need to create a new custom form.

3. Click Add in the upper right corner.

4. Create a name for the custom form, for example, Users.

5. Optionally, add a description: Form to add and modify fields for users.

6. In the grey Form fields bar, to the right click Add Field.

7. Add the custom fields created in Step 1 above.

8. Click Save or Update.

See also Custom forms.

Step 3: Create a dynamic form rule

In the list of Dynamic Form rules, locate a rule called Users: Users. When active, this rule displays the Users form when user accounts are added or modified. To verify the rule is active, be sure the toggle in the Actions column is green.

If the rule named Users: Users does not exist, create one:

1. Navigate to Setup > Service Desk > Dynamic Form Rules.

2. Click the blue Add icon in the upper right corner.

3. Name the rule. For example, Users: Users.

4. Optionally, add a description.

5. Under Scope, select Users.

6. Under the grey Rule bar, click Add.

7. From the dropdown, select Action.

8. In the New Action dialog, name the Action. For example, show Users form.

9. Under Action, select Show Form.

10. Under Form, select the name of the form you want displayed.

11. Click Add Action.

12. Click Create to save the new dynamic form rule.

See also Dynamic form rules.

Step 4: Assign users to custom fields

After creating the custom field and applying them to a custom form and dynamic rule, you can assign the users to those newly created role fields. You can do this in the following ways:

• Mapping for custom fields through API.

  An example of a Ruby script to sync users imported from a CSV file that included custom fields is available at: https://github.com/SAManage/Samples/tree/master/Sync%20Users

• Manually by navigating to Setup > Users and Groups > Users, and then selecting the User

• Mass updating multiple users in Setup > Users and Groups > Users

Step 5: Create an approval process workflow

You create approval process workflows as part of your Service Catalog Items. Approval processes identify approvers, either by name or by role through relationships. You can select dynamic approvers as part of the approval workflow.

For instructions, see Create an approval process workflow.

Optional Step 6: Configure global setting for unidentified approvers

If your organization wants SWSD to automatically approve a workflow step when an approver is unidentified, SolarWinds recommends that you enable the global setting for unidentified approvers. When the option is enabled, the approval step is automatically approved even though the approver is unidentified.

By default, when an approver is unidentified, meaning no one is identified to approve a workflow step, the process will not move forward unless there is another approver on the approval.

Automatic approvals are added to the Audit record.

Related topics

• Custom fields
• Custom forms
• Dynamic form rules
• Incidents
• Runbooks
• Service catalog
• Workflow test mode