Task Approval Process For People Assigned To The Task

[MichaelPe2]

We are looking to create an approval process where once a task status is changed, a task approval gets sent to anyone assigned to the task. I see there are other dynamic choices such as Project Owner or Project Sponsor but nothing for task assignments. 

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Hi, is the goal simply to notify the people assigned to the task? If so, you can be sure they have this notification enabled...

If you're literally needing their approval to accept the task after a status change, you're right I'm not seeing task owner or assignment users as an option for task approvals. But that's why I'm asking the goal, bc you could use event notifications.

[MichaelPe2]

Thanks for the response! We are looking for something deeper than a notification. 

What we are doing is adding people to a task so they can collaborate on it. We have a custom form on it that task. When the form is completed by the project owner, we would like the person assigned to the task to get a prompt to review the data and acknowledge the data is good. 

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Got it. Yeah it's strange Assigned To isn't an option here in approval processes:

Is there a large amount of people that would be receiving these approvals? If it's manageable, you could create pre-set task approvals that the person completing the form and passing off to the person for data check just selects the correct approval flow? So 'Sarah Approval,' 'Ted Approval,' etc. Of course not a realistic option if you have too many people. 
Are your templates people specific? If X template will always need Sarah's approval, you could work it into the template task's approval flow. If Y template always needs Ted's, you include that in the other template, etc.

[MichaelPe2]

We usually have one person on the task but it could be quite a few different people... I am thinking, for this use case, I don't use the approval but rely on them changing a status. I am going to explore if I can make a status only available to one group, even if it is on a project owned by a different group.

[Heather_Kulbacki · Accepted solution]

Hi @MichaelPe2 statuses can be created for individual groups. But to use that status, the status needs to be created in the the group that is specified on the project, not the group that the user trying to use that status is in.

Took me awhile to wrap my head around that!

[MichaelPe2]

Thank you for saving me the testing

Too bad I can't use that as a work around.

[Regisschink]

Hi @Heather_Kulbacki 

I have a similar question.

Is there a way to change task status to "approved" when an approval process is complete? Take a look on this example. I can change a task status when it is rejected, but I can't change the task status when approved. Is it correct?

[Heather_Kulbacki]

@Regisschink  you are correct, you can't change the status to something else when approved, only when rejected.

Whatever you select there in the Start approval process when the status is set to will change that status with Pending Approval after it. Then just that status along if it gets approved.

So in your example, when the user changes the status to Pending Business Feedback the status will actually say: Pending Business Feedback: Pending Approval

And if it's approved the status will say just: Pending Business Feedback

Generally, in that field you'd choose the status in that you want to show after approval. So if you used something like Complete in that field, when the user is done with their task (or when they think they are done), they would select Complete and the status would change to Complete: Pending Approval

Then if the the business rejected, the status would change to Rework in Progress, or if they approved the status would change to Complete.

[Regisschink]

Thanks @Heather_Kulbacki 

I got your point.

Unfortunately, it won't work for my company. We are measuring the SLA/RSLA of the task, for that we count the days spent in each status. The agile board has statuses "in progress" (SLA), "Pending Approval" (RSLA), "Publish" (SLA) and "Complete".

The way you presented it to me, we'll not be able to measure the RSLA, because I'd have to leave the task in "Publish" until I get approval.

Is there another way to change the status using the approval process?