Approval workflow

Specification of DMSF approval workflow.

Management

Here we define how to create, edit, execute or delete an approval workflow.

An approval workflow can be assigned to a document or a folder.
The state of the approval workflow is indicated by a workflow state as follows:
- None – No approval workflow has been assigned.
- Draft – An approval workflow has been already assigned but the workflow hasn’t been started yet.
- Approval step 1 – The approval workflow has been started.
  …
- Approval step n – The last approval step.
- Approved – The document or the folder has been approved
- Rejected – The document or the folder has been rejected
The state is indicated by an icon in the main DMSF view.
The default approval state is None or Draft if an approval workflow is assigned.
A document or a folder approval workflow is started by a button Start approval workflow after an approval workflow is assigned.

Approval workflows are defined either globally or per project and can be executed multiple time within it. It means that a single approval workflow can be assigned to multiple documents or folders. Global workflow can be used all over KDP.
An approval workflow is defined by a logical name and by assigning users – approvers in a particular order with a given dependency.
Each approval workflow consists of one or more approval steps.
Each approval step includes one or more approver and their dependency. It means that we can assign a new user with a dependency AND or OR. So to proceed to a next approval step it is required an approval by one all approvers. Consequently we are able to define serial or parallel workflow this way.
Users included in a project approval workflow must be members of the project.

Here we describe step by step the whole process.

Approval workflows are available from a document or a folder. Project and global approval workflows are available.
There will be a new form for approval workflow definition.
First we define a logical name for the new approval workflow.
There in the new approval workflow form will be a link New step and a list of all project members/all users. It will be allowed to add new approvers from the member/global user list with AND or OR dependency.
A maximal reaction time for approving or rejecting an approval step is preset and hard coded on 2 working days.
It will be possible to add, modify and delete approval workflow steps and to reorder them.
Project approval workflow definition will be available for project managers in the project settings.
Global approval workflow definition will be available for administrators in application settings.

Each project member with the permission to update a document or a folder will be allowed to assign and to start an approval workflow by the document or the folder.
Project and global approval workflows are available for assigning.
If an approval workflow is assigned the state is changed to Draft, the document of the folder is locked and it is not possible to change it.

An assigned approver has three options: to approve or to reject the document or to delegate approving to another user.
If an approver approves the document, it is forwarded to the next approver in the approval chain,
If an approver rejects the document, the state is changed to Rejected.
If an approver delegates the approval, the state remains unchanged but it is forwarded to the delegate.
In case of rejecting or delegating the approver must comment it. The commenting is optional in case of approving. A clear reason for rejection or delegation must be provided.

If a document has been approved by all required approvers its state is changed to Approved and it remains locked.
If the document has been rejected the state is changed to Rejected, the document is unlocked and a new revision must be uploaded and the approval workflow restarted.

Notifications emails are distributed to all participants of the approval workflow, to the approval workflow owner and to other members of the project.
The emails always contain a link to the document or the folder that is the subject to approving.

ID	Event	Receiver(s)
e1	The approval workflow is started	All approvers of the first step
e2	An approval workflow step is finished	All approvers of the next step and workflow owner
e3	The document has been approved	All members of the project
e4	The document has been rejected	All participants of the workflow and the workflow owner
-	Due date has been reached	All approvers in the given step who haven’t approved yet. These notifications are resent every working day.

Only the last document revision is the subject to approving.
A document is in Approved state when the last revision is approved.
Neither a document nor a folder can be updated during the approval workflow process.
Subjects to approving are locked, read only in other words during the process.
Approval workflow state is visible to all document and folder that are being approved.
Approval workflow state and history will be available to review in an info window. This window will be available for all approval participants and the workflow owner.