10.9. Managing Lifecycle Signoff Requests

Engineering Knowledge Manager

Administration Guide | Chapter 10: Defining and Configuring Lifecycles |

10.8. Demoting a Lifecycle Stage |  | 10.9.1. Approving a Lifecycle Signoff Request
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## 10.9. Managing Lifecycle Signoff Requests

An object can require multiple levels of review and approval before it can be promoted (or demoted) to the next stage. Two options are available: either all members in a level can be asked to review and perform a signoff; or any member can. This behavior is defined in the lifecycle XML file and is displayed in the transition table in the lifecycle display as "All of” and "Any of" respectively.

In the example lifecycle, a promote signoff process has been defined for three stages: Thermal Analysis, Stress Analysis, and Lifetime Calculation. The first two stages require a single level of signoff by all members of the Design Review Team and the Project Manager. This is a Level-1 Signoff. The Lifetime Calculation stage requires an additional level of signoff from the VP Engineering (Level-2 Signoff). This example lifecycle does not have any demote signoff levels defined. This means that the stage can be demoted without approval from anyone.

If a signoff is defined for a stage transition, a separate Signoff process is automatically initiated by EKM whenever the request is made to promote (or demote) the stage. The pending stage on the lifecycle display graph will change color to indicate that a signoff is pending.

Objects under lifecycle control will be displayed in the List display as “locked” by the `ekm_lifecycle_user` while the signoff process is active, and the tool tip will indicate that the objects are exclusively controlled by that user. This will ensure that no one else can modify the objects while they are under review. `ekm_lifecycle_user` is a system account used by EKM to manage lifecycles.

Email alerts are sent to all members of the signoff committee (as defined in the lifecycle template) notifying them that their action is required. The signoff will be listed in each committee member’s My Tasks page in the Processes section. The signoff process can be displayed by clicking the Signoff link in the task as shown in Figure 10.13: Level-1 Signoff Task on My Tasks Page. The review is started by clicking the start button on the toolbar. Once the objects have been reviewed, the committee member can approve or reject the signoff request using the action menus. The user who initiated the signoff request or the system administrator can also cancel an active signoff request.

Figure 10.13: Level-1 Signoff Task on My Tasks Page

Here are some rules for signoff requests:

- If a signoff requires “Any” committee member to approve it, then the first member to approve it will cause the object to be promoted or demoted to the next stage (or advance to the next level of signoff). If any member rejects the request, then the signoff process is cancelled and the stage is not promoted (or demoted).

- If a signoff requires “All” members to approve it, then when any member rejects the request, the signoff process is cancelled without promotion or demotion.

A signoff process is ended when one of the following occurs:

- All approvals are obtained from the last approval level

- A request is denied by one of the signoff committee members.

- The process initiator or system administrator cancels the signoff while the request is still pending.

When a signoff has ended (through approval, rejection, or cancellation), the process and all associated tasks are deleted from the My Tasks page.

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