Approval Process

A request for change may often require approval in order to be implemented. Sometimes the approval is a once-only approval, whereas more complex changes may require multiple approvals in various stages of the change process.

Approvals may be required for:

Overall change approval
Feasibility study approval
Technical requirements approval
Downtime and time-to-implement approval
Test deployment review approval
Financial approval
- others

Pre-approved

Some changes do not require a formal approval process. They are either trivial and don’t require approval, or they have simply been pre-approved in concept.

Approval required

Some changes do require a formal approval process. In such cases, one or more people must review and approve of the proposed change. They do this by registering a formal “vote” on the change. HelpMaster supports a range of different approval mechanisms and types.

Approval Voting Mechanisms

The following voting styles are supported by HelpMaster:

Everyone must approve

Everyone who is listed in the voters list must vote and agree with the change. eg. If 5 people are configured to vote, all 5 must vote, and unanimously approve the change.

Everyone who votes must approve

Not everyone has to vote, but those that do have to unanimously agree to the change.

Fail on denied count

Use this voting style when you want to reject the change if one or more people reject it. When this style is selected, you need to also specify how many “denied” votes will reject the change. If this number of “denied” votes is reached, the change will be rejected.

Majority Vote (by number of votes)

An outcome is determined by the majority of votes either approving or rejecting the change.

Majority Vote (by weight of votes)

This is a weighted voting system. Each voter in the approval board, has a pre-selected “voting weight” (a number between 1 and 10). This mechanism allows for some voters to carry more voting clout than others. The outcome is determined by adding up the individual weightings for each vote type (approved / denied), with the highest total determining the outcome.

Percentage target (by number of votes)

An outcome is determined if a specified percentages of approved votes are submitted.

Percentage target (by weight of votes)

This is a weighted voting system. Each voter in the approval board, has a pre-selected “voting weight” (a number between 1 and 10). This mechanism allows for some voters to carry more voting clout than others. The outcome is determined if a specified percentage of the individual weightings for each vote type (approved / denied) has been reached.

Vote race (by number of votes)

An outcome is determined when a certain percentage of approved votes, or denied votes is first reached. Unlike a standard “Percentage Vote” style that is determined when a particular percentage of “Approval” votes has been reached, a “Vote Race” can be “won” by a percentage of “Denied” votes. It’s a race between approved and denied. The first side to reach the specified percentage target will determine the outcome.

Vote race (by weight of votes)

This is a weighted voting system. Each voter in the approval board, has a pre-selected “voting weight” (a number between 1 and 10). This mechanism allows for some voters to carry more voting clout than others. An outcome is determined when a certain percentage (based on weight - not count) of approved votes, or denied votes is first reached. Unlike a standard “Percentage Vote” style that is determined when a particular percentage of “Approval” votes has been reached, a “Vote Race” can be “won” by a percentage of “Denied” votes. It’s a race between approved and denied. The first side to reach the specified percentage target will determine the outcome.

Other voting settings

Minimum votes required

Specify the minimum percentage of votes that must be cast in order to determine the result. e.g. If you have 10 voters, setting this value to 60% means that 6 people will have to vote one way or another in order for the approval to have a valid determination.

Allow abstained votes

Checking this options allows voters to abstain from voting if they so choose. Approvals with this option turned on will display an additional “Abstain from voting” option on the voting page. Abstained votes do not count in any of the outcome determinations.

End voting when a result has been determined

Checking this option will close the voting process if a valid result has been determined already. People who have not yet voted will be shown a “Voting has closed - an outcome has been reached” message if they try to vote. If this option is not used, this will allow more time for people to vote, even though a result has already been determined, but it allows you to gather feedback regardless.

Email to send on starting the approval process

This option allows you to specify an email template that will be used to send everyone in the approval board an email to inform them that they are part of the request for change process and provide them with a link to vote.

If web-based voting will be used, ensure that the email template contains the special email tag «Change_VotingWebLink». This special email tag will be replaced with a hyperlink that links to the HelpMaster web portal change request voting page. In order for this to work, you'll need to have installed and configured the HelpMaster web portal.

Pre-Approved Changes

Not all changes need to have a formal voting processes where others are involved. In such cases, the change owner can simply bypass the approval/voting stage of a change and approve the change manually. This is done by clicking the “Pre-approved change” button.

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