Understanding the Work Order Approval Workflow Architecture
To ensure that all work orders have proper authorization, the system is able to dynamically route work orders to the appropriate people for approval using business rules that you establish for your organization, based on your particular business needs. This section discusses:
Terminology.
Architecture.
Work order approval workflow modifications.
This table provides definitions for the work order workflow terminology that is used throughout this set of topics:
Term |
Definition |
|---|---|
Ad Hoc Approver/Reviewer |
Technician or approver can add another user ad hoc to approve or review the current work order only. The process definition is not modified, so it does not affect other work order approval routings. |
Approval Map |
The graphic representation of an approval instance with stages, paths and steps. |
Approval Path |
A path is a group of sequential, related steps, such as approval steps based on a single department hierarchy (for example, manager, director, VP, and so on). |
Approval Stage |
A stage is a collection of paths. Stages come in a single sequence (stage 1, stage 2, …) A stage runs when it's immediately preceding stage finishes. When a stage runs, all the paths within it run simultaneously. The stage is considered complete when all paths within it have finished. |
Approval Step |
The basic unit of approval. A step has one or more approvers, whose actions are tracked. A step can be configured to require a set number of approvers to act and has criteria that govern whether or not the step is to be active for the work order. |
Approver |
Manager or maintenance planner who is responsible for approving the work order. |
Criteria |
A criterion is an entity, which evaluates to true or false. Criteria are used to determine which steps and paths are to be considered active for a particular request undergoing approval processing. Criteria can be configured by the functional analyst or can be canned queries, SQL objects, app classes, and so on. |
Reviewer |
The application routes work orders to reviewers for informational purposes, but reviewers do not need to take any action for the approval process. |
User List |
Approvers, reviewers, and other actors are grouped by roles and other means. The PeopleSoft Enterprise Components Approval Framework provides an abstraction across such aggregates, called Userlists. |
Work Order Approval Process Definition |
A set of rules to govern how the works order approval process should flow for a business unit (SetID-based sharing) based on the business requirements. Within the process definition, stages, paths, and steps can be defined with different criteria and approver designations. |
Work Order Approval Process Instance |
A running instance of the approval process for a particular work order with criteria evaluated and specific approvers known (routed or not routed). |
The work order approval workflow uses the workflow framework provided by PeopleSoft Enterprise Components, rather than the standard PeopleTools workflow, which requires advanced technical skills in PeopleTools. Consequently, the PeopleSoft Maintenance Management workflow is easy to create and maintain. All the steps in the work order approval workflow are defined using PeopleSoft pages and are designed so that functional users can easily set it up.
PeopleSoft Maintenance Management delivers the work order approval workflow engine preconfigured. Oracle recommends using the delivered configuration as is, making minor modifications to suit your particular business practices. The work order approval is delivered as system data, using the WM_WORK_ORDER approval process ID. You can modify the definition to suit your implementation by defining your own phases, steps, and criteria. These definitions control who should approve the work order, the order in which they approve it, and the method by which the system routes it to approvers. The approval process is keyed by SetID, and by using SetID sharing, each business unit can either have its own independent work order approval process configuration or share the same approval process configuration with other business units. Oracle recommends that you understand the workflow technology before making any changes.
See documentation PeopleSoft Approval Framework
Work orders are routed to approvers so that they can act on the work orders to approve or deny them. If the approver approves a work order, then it is routed to the next approver, if any. A submitter or approver can add ad hoc approvers for the current work order as well. After the work order is fully approved (or no approval is required), it is available for a scheduler to schedule technicians to perform the work. If the approver denies a work order, than the approval process is terminated. The submitter is notified of the denial and can optionally revise the work order and resubmit it. The technician can choose to cancel a work order; and if an approval process is in progress, it will be terminated.
The following elements are used in the work order approval process definition and are among the items you would modify to suit your business requirements:
Stages.
A stage is one part of an approval process that can contain multiple parallel paths. The system executes stages in sequence where one must complete before the next one begins. A stage consists of one or more paths.
Paths
A path contains a sequence of steps. Within a stage, paths execute in parallel. Path entry criteria determine whether a path executes for a given work order.
Steps
A step represents one or more approvers or reviewers. Steps within a path execute in sequence. Separate criteria for each step determine whether or not that step executes. Each step can also have a set of reviewers, who are notified about transactions pending approval by email, if configured, and through the Worklist. But the workflow proceeds without waiting for reviewers to act.
Note: While the approval process configuration may require any number of approvers to approve a step before it advances, any single approver can deny a work order. After a work order is denied, the system stops routing the work order, the approval process terminates, and the entire work order is denied.
The system notifies approvers of a pending approval by using Worklist and email. You need to define the individuals or roles that comprise a user list, and the authorized approvers. You can specify approvers by roles, queries, fixed lists, or by using custom application classes. Once the required number of approvers have approved a step, the approval workflow advances past that step.
The following diagram illustrates the overall process flow for the work order approval workflow process. Workflow Approval is selected for the work order business unit. A work order is created in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management and the Approval Status is Initial. You enter the work order header data and work order task requirements and save the page to start the Approval Workflow Process. The approvers are notified by email that the task needs approving. If the task is approved, the Approval Status in the work order changes to Approved.
This diagram illustrates the overall process flow for the work order approval workflow process.
To make adjustments to the delivered work order approval workflow process, complete the following tasks, which are discussed in detail in the remainder of this set of topics:
Update the work order approval process definition by using the Approval Process Setup component (Enterprise Components, Approvals, Approvals, Approval Process Setup).
The approval process definition specifies the stages, paths, steps, and criteria for the workflow approval process.
(Optional) update the method of notification that is used for approvals in the Notification Options Register of the Register Transactions page (Enterprise Components, Approvals, Approvals, Transaction Registry, Register Transactions.)
The transaction definition contains the metadata which describes the transaction make up to the workflow approval engine. PeopleSoft delivers the transaction registry for work order approvals; you do not need to create it. As delivered, the system is configured to use emails and worklists.
Add or update user lists in the User List Definition page (Enterprise Components, Approvals, Approvals, User List Setup, User List Definition.)
Add or update work order approvers in the Approval Authorization page (Enterprise Components, Approvals, Approvals, Authorize Approvers, Approval Authorization).