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Approval procedures control the approval process for requests for change. In an organization, certain processes must be approved by the persons responsible, before they can be performed. For example, a request for change must be approved before an urgent or normal change can be made.

Approval procedures can be edited manually and integrated into the workflow. For all information relevant to the approval of a request for change, see the Approvals assignment block of the request for change.

Integration

You can control approval procedures using rule policies. For more information, see Rule Policies.

Prerequisites

The standard authorization object CRM_APPRVL has been assigned to your user.

In Customizing, you have maintained the Approval Settings in   SAP Solution Manager   Capabilities   Change Request Management   Transactions   Approvals  .

Features

  • In the header data of the request for change, you assign the approval procedure. By default, the approval procedure CR Approval Procedure is proposed.

  • The following functions are available in the Approvals assignment block:

    • You can monitor the approval steps and their details. For example, you can see which business partner approved the step, and when.

    • The change manager is entered as the approver, by default. You can add other approvers.

    • The participants in the request for change enter their approval activities, with the options Approved, Not Relevant, and Rejected. The approvers can add comments to the activity, for example to explain a rejection.

    • You can add or remove approval steps and approvers until the status of the request for change is set to Approved.

  • In the Change Management work center, you see the requests for change awaiting approval that are assigned to you.

  • You can use workflow functions for the request for change approval process, so that approvers are informed when requests for change are to be approved.

Enhanced Approval Procedure Functions

The following features are available if you have activated the enhanced approval procedure functions in Customizing, under   SAP Solution Manager   Capabilities   Change Request Management   Transactions   Approvals   Activate Enhanced Approval Procedure Functions  :

  • Restrict the approval procedure functions using the authorization object SM_APP_AP. For more information, refer to Customizing documentation.

    The Change Request Management roles contain the following authorizations, by default:

    Role

    Transaction Type

    Authorized Activities

    SAP_CM_SMAN_ADMINISTRATOR

    SMCR, SMCT

    Change, Enter, Include, Assign, Accept, Administer, Remove

    SAP_CM_SMAN_CHANGE_MANAGER

    SMCR

    Change, Enter, Include, Assign, Accept, Remove

    SMCT

    Change, Enter, Include, Assign, Remove

    SAP_CM_SMAN_OPERATOR

    SMCR

    Accept (inactive)

    SAP_CM_SMAN_DEVELOPER  

    SMCR

    Accept (inactive)

    SAP_CM_SMAN_TESTER           

    SMCR

    Accept (inactive)

  • You can maintain a substitute, who can also approve or reject your requests for change, for example, while you are out of the office. In the WebClient UI, choose Maintain Substitute and choose the business partner who is also to be able to approve your requests.

    Note Note

    The authorization object SM_APP_AP with activity Accept needs to be assigned to your substitute’s user for the specific transaction types.

    The system only sends a notification to the approver when a request for change is to be approved. It does not send a notification to the substitute.

    End of the note.
  • You can assign business partner organizations, with several persons that have been assigned in the organizational model (transaction PPOMA_CRM), to approval steps. Only one group member needs to approve the request.

    Note Note

    Prerequisite: You have created a business partner group of type “Organization” in the organizational model, and assigned the business partners which belong to the approval group.

    If a substitute is maintained for the approver, the system only checks for the substitute, not for organizations. You cannot enter an organization as an approver or as a substitute.

    End of the note.
  • If a business partner is not authorized to approve a request for change, the relevant fields and buttons (for example, Delete and Add) in the Approvals assignment block are inactive.

Activities

  1. A service employee creates a request for change and the change manager classifies it, for example, as a normal change.

  2. The change manager checks the request and releases it for approval. The request for change has the status Awaiting Approval, so the system starts the approval procedure.

  3. The system sends a notification to the assigned approver.

  4. When all approval steps have been completed, the request for change has the status Approved, and the change documents for the request for change are generated.

More Information

Substitution

Processing Requests for Change

Customizing documentation under   SAP Solution Manager   Capabilities   Change Request Management   Transactions   Approvals   Approval Settings Overview  .