Approval Flow

Whenever you’re working on a rule or a workflow, you might publish it directly to the production. But if you’re working in a team, then the rule or the workflow may need to go through a thorough review before publishing it. In this scenario, if you’re creating the rule, you can simply assign someone as a reviewer and can submit the rule/workflow for a review. But in case somehow you forget to do so and directly publish the rule/workflow, then the complete process can be a disaster. To avoid that we provide you with the option to enable the “Approval flow” which will make the review a mandatory step. And you can’t just directly publish the rule or workflow.

The Approval flow is just to make the review flow mandatory.

The Approval Flow, also known as the Maker Checker process, aims to establish a robust review mechanism. It helps users:

• Ensure changes are thoroughly reviewed before publication.

• Maintain high-quality standards by involving multiple stakeholders in the review process.

• Track the approval status and history of changes.

• Facilitate better collaboration and accountability within teams.

Now, let’s see how you can enable the Approval Flow:

How to Enable Approval Flow?

By default the "Approval flow" option is disabled, making the review process optional. This means if you are editing any rule or workflow, and the approval flow is disabled, the default action becomes Publish for rules and workflow.

But, you can still submit your rule or workflow for review by:

1. Clicking the dropdown button just after the Publish button.

2. And by selecting the "Request Review" button from the dropdown list.

After submitting the rule/ workflow in review, even if you're the owner of your workspace, you can't publish the rule/workflow. If you click the Publish button, then you'll see this message:

Now, to enable the Approval Flow feature, follow these steps:

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1. Navigate to Workspace Settings: Go to the workspace settings where you manage your overall workspace configurations.

2. Toggle Approval Flow: Locate the option called Approval Flow and toggle it on. This activates the feature across your workspace.

3. Save Settings: Click on save to ensure that the changes are applied.

Once you’ve enabled the approval flow, make sure to add at least one of your team members in the workspace assigned as “Approver”. If you don’t have any, then follow the RBAC guide to make someone an approver.

Now, as mentioned before, the approval flow is not creating the flow itself, the flow is always present there. Enabling it is just making the review flow mandatory for your team. This means, now you can't publish the rule or workflow. After editing, you can just submit it for review. Now, the default option will be "Request Review".

And the Publish button by default now becomes disabled. So, by default now, you need to submit it for review and if the reviewer approves that, then it will be published. However, you can revert it as a draft as well.

Assigning Reviewers and Roles

To add someone as an Approver, you need to change their role in your workspace:

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1. Navigate to Team Settings: Go to the Team tab in the workspace settings.

2. Select Role: Click on the member's current role and select Approver or a higher role (e.g., Admin).

3. Send Invite: If the member is not already part of your workspace, invite them and assign the role during the invitation process. To know, how to invite them you can read RBAC(Role-based access control) for more information.

Using Approval Flow in Rule Editor

Once the Approval flow is turned on, the default function is to "Request in Review". So, you can only submit the rule for review. Let's see how you can do this:

Submitting a Rule for Review

To submit a rule for review, follow these steps:

in_review.gif

1. Navigate to Rule Page: Go to the rule page and select the rule you wish to submit for review.

2. Open Rule Editor: Click on the rule to open the editor.

3. Test the rule: Click on “Test in Staging” and test your rule before submitting it for review.

4. Request Review: Click on the request review button. Fill in the necessary details, such as the title and description of the changes.
5. After clicking the “Request review” button, you can see this popup, where you need to write a title and a description of what you’ve done in this version.

   

   Screenshot 2024-07-04 at 10.59.39 AM.png
6. Assign Reviewers: Then from the dropdown you need to select the team members who will review the rule.

7. Submit: Click submit to send the rule for review. The rule will now appear under the In Review tab in the Version Control section.

Ensure you’ve tested your rule/workflow in staging before submitting it for approval.

Reviewing and Publishing a Rule

Now if you’re the reviewer/ owner of the rule, then you can check the rule that is submitted for review, and take the following steps:

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1. Access In Review Tab: In the Version Control section, go to the In Review tab to see the list of rules awaiting review.

2. Review Comments: As a reviewer, you can review the comments and changes made by the maker.

3. Archive: If you're the reviewer, then you can also, send the rule to archive. You can do this by following the below steps:

   1. Go to the "In Review" tab inside the version control section.

   2. Click the 3 dot button, and then click on Archive to archive the review version.
   3. After clicking the Archive button, another popup will appear, like this: Here you've to give the description, and then you can click on "Send to archive" and then the rule will be archived.
   4. Once, the rule goes to archive, you can just preview that version from the preview button. But the archive version will be reverted to draft or any status. But this feature is not only for the reviewer, if you're the owner of the workspace as well, then also, you can submit the rule into the archive.
4. Request Changes: If you want to request further modifications, you can click on the dropdown button on the side of the Publish button, it will open the options, and from there you need to select Request Changes.

   1. After you click on the Request Changes, a popup will open, like this: Here you need to describe the changes, and then you need to click Send to Draft.

   And then it will be reverted to draft.

5. Publish Changes: As a reviewer, if you want to publish the in-review version, then from the same dropdown, you need to select the Publish button (if the button has changed to "request changes"). Then after clicking the Publish button, another popup will be opened, like this: Similarly, you need to describe the changes and then click on the Publish button. And then the in-review version will be published.

Once, the reviewer will Publish the rule, it will be visible in the Published tab. Now, if you( reviewer or owner) have any previous non-live published version of the rule, then you can go to the published tab and from there you can roll back the previous version of the rule. To do this, you can read from the "Version controlling and rollback" doc.

Same as rule, for Workflow as well, you can only submit the workflow for review.

Using Approval Flow in Workflow Editor

The process for using the Approval Flow in the workflow editor is similar to that in the rule editor. Here’s a quick guide:

1. Navigate to Workflow Tab: Go to the workflow tab and select the workflow you wish to submit for review.

2. Open Workflow Editor: Click on the workflow to open the editor.

3. Test the rule: Click on “Test in Staging” and test your rule before submitting it for review.

4. Submit for Review: Click on the request review button and fill in the necessary details.

   
5. Assign Reviewers: Select the team members who will review the workflow.

6. Submit: Click submit to send the workflow for review.

7. Review and Publish: Reviewers can access the In Review tab, provide feedback, approve changes, and publish the workflow if it meets the standards.

Reviewing and Publishing the workflow is the same as "Reviewing and Publishing a Rule".

You can read the “version control & rollback” doc to learn more about this.

Conclusion

The Approval Flow feature in Nected provides a robust mechanism to ensure that all changes to rules and workflows undergo a thorough review process before being published. By implementing this structured approval system, organizations can maintain high standards of quality, accountability, and collaboration within their teams. The Approval Flow facilitates better governance by allowing designated approvers to validate changes, ensuring that only reviewed and approved modifications make it to the production environment.