Ticket Workflow Approval Step requiring 2 votes to approve went to next step with only 1 vote

I'm in the process of creating a new workflow.  It contains an approval step using Vote approval mode.  It requires 2 votes to approve and 1 to reject.  In my test the ticket was assigned to a responsible group but did not have a responsible individual assigned.  The approver roles were set to responsible's manager and responsible's primary group manager.  Only one approved this step but it advanced to the next step.  Is it somehow treating this person as 2 people?  

Tags workflow approve vote responsible group
Asked by Kimberly Lawrence on Wed 1/9/19 11:10 AM
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Answers (3)

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Kimberly Lawrence Sun 1/13/19 9:20 PM

Mark,

Let me know what you think.

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It kind of looks like the one approver role of " Responsible's Primary Group Manager" would not apply here because you say the ticket was assigned to a group and not a person directly. Or they may evaluate to the same person in this instance, which could be causing it to recognize that as one vote being needed to fulfill the condition of the approval. - Mark Sayers Mon 1/14/19 11:27 AM
That's what I was trying to figure out. The group that it's assigned to has a manager and it was the group manager who approved it. When he approved it the ticket workflow went to the next step without requiring a second approver. So maybe the Responsible's Manager is the one that isn't working because since it's assigned to a group and not an individual there wouldn't be a manager. Do you think that's what's happening? Any thoughts on a workaround?

One thing we've done is added a task at the start of the workflow for the responsible individual/group (whatever the case may be) ensures that the ticket is assigned to an individual before marking that step complete. What are your thoughts on that? Can you think of any other prettier ways to ensure that we get the two votes?
- Kimberly Lawrence Mon 1/14/19 11:49 AM
I don't think the "Responsible's Manager" role is the one that isn't working. When the group is assigned to a ticket that role would evaluate to the manager of the responsible group.

It's the "Responsible's Primary Group Manager" role that wouldn't have anything to evaluate to in the case where a group is responsible for the ticket.

If this step is going to be reliant on roles based on who is responsible, and that value could be a group, you're really only going to be able to use either the "Responsible" role or "Responsible's Manager" because the others don't apply to groups. Otherwise, your step to first set an individual as responsible should do the trick.

Just remember, you *can* have more approver roles selected than the necessary number to vote to approve/reject the step.
- Mark Sayers Mon 1/14/19 12:26 PM
So who is the Responsible's Manager when the primary responsible on the ticket is a group? I was looking at who was set as the manager of that group and I thought that was the Responsible's Primary Group Manager but you're saying if the group has primary responsibility then it's using the Responsible's manager? - Kimberly Lawrence Mon 1/14/19 1:28 PM
"Responsible's Manager" would be the group's manager when a group is responsible for the ticket.

Since a group *can't* have a Primary Group, that "Responsible's Primary Group Manager" role wouldn't make sense to use on tickets that will be assigned to groups.
- Mark Sayers Mon 1/14/19 1:38 PM
That makes sense Mark.

Would this be considered a bug since it went to the next step without 2 votes?
- Kimberly Lawrence Mon 1/14/19 2:24 PM
I'll check on that for you since I don't know. Let me get back on that. - Mark Sayers Mon 1/14/19 2:25 PM
Kim,

Based on this KB article ( https://solutions.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/KB/ArticleDet?ID=50087 ), and after looking at your scenario again, I think the following happened:

1. Your approval roles evaluated out to only 1 person/group: the Responsible's Managers, and since the responsible was a group, this means that any manager of that group could cast a total of 1 combined vote towards this step.

The other role didn't have anything to evaluate to, so we're left with 1 possible vote to be cast.

2. That manager cast their vote towards the "Approval" vote of the step, and the voting ended because all possible votes had had been cast.

Based on the total number of possible voters (1), and that vote having been cast towards the Approval side, there were no longer any votes remaining to reject the step. Therefore, even though the Approval requirement had not been met, the Rejection requirement could not possibly have been met, and the step was considered approved.
- Mark Sayers Mon 1/14/19 3:14 PM
Another solution that's been floating around in my head is to add the additional person as a manager of the group. So right now we are structured with group/team leads and managers/directors. My team lead is always my primary group's manager. My director is always my "reports to" on my TD user record. I was thinking I could add the director that presides over each group as a manager of that group so that the team lead and the director would both be included as managers of the group. That way wouldn't the approval step be sent to both of them and they could both approve the step which would give me my 2 votes even if the ticket is assigned to a group and not an individual. - Kimberly Lawrence Mon 1/14/19 4:55 PM
Unfortunately that wouldn't work in this case. Whenever something is sent to a group, or a group's Managers in this case, there is still only one vote that can be cast for that group. It doesn't matter how many members are in the group or how many people are managers of said group. They still can only cast one vote which counts as the group's vote on the step.

You would have to have at least two distinct persons or groups responsible for the approval step so their unique votes could be cast.
- Mark Sayers Tue 1/15/19 10:46 AM

John Parker Thu 1/10/19 9:18 AM

See the attached image.  Do you have either of these checked?

 

 

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I don't have either of those boxes checked. - Kimberly Lawrence Thu 1/10/19 10:09 AM

Mark Sayers Wed 1/9/19 11:53 AM

Hello Kimberly,

If the ticket were assigned to a group. It would have equated both of those role options to the Manager of the group I believe. In this case I don't know that it should cause that to count as 2 votes when the person votes one time, so I will need to check into that for you.

Are you able to show me screen shots of the configuration of this approval step?

Sincerely,
Mark Sayers
TD Support

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