How group and approval process changes affect assigned approval processes
Last update: Tue Jul 26 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
This article explains what happens when an approval process is already associated with tasks, issues, projects, templates, or template tasks and a Workfront administrator (or a user with administrative access to approval processes) does one of the following:
- Changes the approval process (group-level) from one group to another
- Changes the group associated with the project
- Changes the approval process from group-level to system-level
- Changes the approval process from system-level to group-level
The article also describes what happens when moving or copying tasks or issues associated with a group-level approval process between two projects from different groups.
For information about the 3 types of approval processes you can use in Workfront, see Approval process overview.
If the project, or its tasks or issues are already associated with a group-level approval process using group-level custom statuses, changing the group might create a conflict between the approval statuses of the previous group and those existing at the system level.
For example, if an approval process contains two paths, one for a system-level status and a second one for a group-level status that equates to the same system-level status, changing the group of the original project will result in Workfront having trouble understanding the group-specific status that might not exist on the second group. In this case, you will encounter an error.
Consider removing the group-level approval processes on the project, or its tasks or issues before updating the group of the project.
Changing a group-specific approval process from one group to another
The following scenarios occur when a group-specific approval process is already being used on an object and someone reassigns it to a different group:
Area or object where the approval process was attached
Approval object
Change in the approval process for the object or area
Project or template approval
Project
Becomes a single-use approval process
Task or template task approval
Task
Becomes a single-use approval process
Issue approval
Issue
Becomes a single-use approval process
Tasks area in the Edit Project or Edit Template box
Task
The Task Default Approval Process field is reset to N/A.
By default, no approval processes are associated with new tasks on the project.
Queue Details section of a project or template
Issue
The Default Approval field is reset to N/A.
By default, no approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project.
Queue Topic section of a project or template
Issue
The Default Approval field is reset to N/A.
No approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project by default.
Changing the group associated with a project
When someone changes the group associated with a project to different group, the following occurs:
Area or object that has the approval process already attached
Approval object
Change in the approval process of the object or area
Project or template approval
Project
Becomes a single-use approval process and the status associated with it updates to match a similar status for the new group.
Task or template task approval
Task
Becomes a single-use approval process and the status associated with it updates to match a similar status for the new group.
Issue approval
Issue
Becomes a single-use approval process and the status associated with it updates to match a similar status for the new group.
Tasks area in the Edit Project or Edit Template box
Task
The Task Default Approval Process field is reset to N/A
By default, no approval processes are associated with new tasks on the project
Queue Details section of a project or template
Issue
The Default Approval Process field is reset to N/A
By default, no approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project
Queue Topic section of a project or template
Issue
The Default Approval Process field is reset to N/A
By default, no approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project
Changing an approval process from group-level to system-level
When someone changes the Group option in a group-specific approval process to “All groups,” the approval process becomes system-wide and the following occurs:
Area or object where the approval process was attached
Approval object
Change in the approval process of the object or area
Project or template approval
Project
No change
Task or template task approval
Task
No change
Issue approval
Issue
No change
Tasks area in the Edit Project or Edit Template box
Task
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new tasks on the project
Queue Details section of a project or template
Issue
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new issues or requests on the project
Queue Topic section of a project or template
Issue
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new issues or requests on the project
Changing an approval process from system-level to group-level
When someone changes the availability of a system-wide approval process from “All groups” to a specific group, the approval process becomes group-specific and the following occurs:
Area or object where the approval process was attached
Approval object
Change in the approval process of the object or area
Project, task, issue, template, or template task that belongs to the group of the approval process
Project, task, or issue
No change
Tasks area in the Edit Project or Edit Template box for a project or template that belongs to the group of the approval process
Task
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new tasks on the project
Queue Details section for a project or template that belongs to the group of the approval process
Issue
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new issues or requests on the project
Queue Topic section for a project or template that belongs to the group of the approval process
Issue
No change to the approval process but, by default, it is associated with new issues or requests on the project
Project, task, issue, template, or template task that belongs to a group other than the group of the approval process
Becomes a single-use approval process
Tasks area in the Edit Project or Edit Template box for a project or template that belongs to a group other than the group of the approval process
Tasks
The Task Default Approval Process field is reset to N/A.
By default, no approval processes are associated with new tasks on the project.
Queue Details section for a project or template that belongs to a group other than the group of the approval process
Issues
The Default Approval field is reset to N/A.
By default, no approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project.
Queue Topic section for a project or template that belongs to a group other than the group of the approval process
Issues
The Default Approval field is reset to N/A.
By default, no approval processes are associated with new issues or requests on the project.
Moving or copying a task or an issue to a project with a different group than that of the approval process
Moving or copying a task or an issue from a project to another might affect existing approval processes on the task or the issue depending on the groups of the two projects. The following table illustrates the scenarios that might exist:
Original task or issue approval process
Groups of the two projects
Changes in the approval process after the task or issue is moved to another project
Single-use approval process associated with a system-wide status
Projects are in the same or different groups
No change
Single-use approval process associated with a group-specific status
Projects are in different groups
The approval remains a single-use approval process and the status associated with the approval updates to match a similar status for the new group.
System-wide approval process
Projects are in the same or different groups
No change
Group-specific approval process
Projects are in the same group
No change
Group-specific approval process
Projects are in different groups and the groups have different group-specific statuses
The approval becomes a single-use approval process and the status associated with the approval updates to match a similar status for the new group.
Group-specific approval process
Projects are in different groups and there is a status with the same key in the new group as the status associated with the approval process from the first group
No change