Application Approval Workflow in System Center 2012 When and How to use it (Part II)

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This is in continuation of the Part I on this same topic written by our very own Anil Malekani, if you haven’t read it already, you can read it here

First you can download the Application Approval Workflow Solution Accelerator along with Print Ready documentation, from Microsoft Downloads : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29687

At a high level, you need to install the Application Approval Workflow on Service Manager Management Server and the Orchestrator Management server. Detailed steps for installation and configuration are given under the AAW Administrator's guide so you can follow the Administrator's guide you downloaded.

Here I'm going to explain some of the steps that you'll follow to configure AAW for your organization's requirement.

On your Service Manager Management console

1. Create Application Approval Request Templates, customized to your needs. You can create a single template to use with different Selection criteria's later. The Activity template is used to document all the Application Approval requests from end users and let's you define the review activity and some common fields.

  • Go to Library > Templates > Create Template
  • On Create Template box, Select Application Request Class and create a new Management Pack for Application Approval Workflow MP when you're create your first AAW template
  • Click OK

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  • Now you can fill details on the new template and add review activity under the template
  • Navigate under the General and Activities tabs

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2. Create a new selection Criteria for Application approval. The selection criteria helps you to channel the approval request to the right approver based on the Application and the requestor .

  • Go to Administration > Selection Criteria > Create Selection Criteria Wizard

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  • Fill title for the Selection Criteria and select one of the templates you created in Step 1

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  • Add Applications and Users to define the criteria

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  • Select Line Manager for approval or add another approver and complete rest of the Wizard.

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Application Approval Workflow (AAW) - End User Experience

Now end users can request the application from the Application Catalog and fill the reason for the request.

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The Reviewer can approve the application request from the Self Service Portal

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Once the request has been approved, the end user can Install the application from the Application Catalog

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You'll also start to notice Application request being tracked under the Work Items

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Application Approval Workflow (AAW) - Configuring Workflows

You can also configure workflows to route notification emails to Approvers when there is a new Review request pending.

1. Under Workflows Configuration, select Activity Workflow Configuration and then select Review Activity and click OK

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2. Add a new workflow and select the Application Approval Management Pack, which you created during initial configuration

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Define a criteria like the following

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Click next twice and then select people to notify along with a notification template. You'll need to define the Notification Template as well (That can be a different topic). Now you can complete the wizard.

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Now whenever there is a new review activity pending, the reviewer will be notified by using the above workflow using the template.

Cheers!