Workflows
Review and approve
Decide a new project that runs over its template, a new baseline, or an activity approval: where each one waits, what you read first, and what your decision does.
- Approver
Approvers make the decisions that move work forward. A PM cannot start a project that runs longer than its template allows, or change an agreed baseline, until one of the approvers they named says yes. Some activities also wait for an approver's sign-off before the work moves on.
Everything waiting on you is on Approvals & Alerts. This page walks through each kind of decision, what to read before you choose, and what happens after.
Before you start
- The Approver flag. A PM can name only people who have the Approver flag as a project's baseline approvers, one to three per project. An admin sets the flag in User Management.
- Being named. You decide only what is addressed to you. Project and baseline approvals go to the approvers the PM named on that project; an activity approval goes to the person, or the team, set as its approver. Being able to open a project does not make you its approver.
- No other access is needed. Approvals & Alerts is in everyone's left menu, and each review opens from there.
| What waits on you | Where it appears | Your choices |
|---|---|---|
| A new project that runs over its template | Approvals awaiting you, with the days over (for example +16d) and Round 1 or Round 2 | Round 1: Approve or Request changes. Round 2: Approve or Reject. |
| A new baseline | Approvals awaiting you, marked Re-baseline, with how many activities changed | Approve or Reject |
| An activity approval | Pending Approvals, oldest due first | Approve or Reject |
Approvals awaiting you also shows on My Activities, above your projects. A project marked Pending approval on Projects opens the same review.
New projects that run over their template, and new baselines. Click a row to open its review.
How many days the submitted plan runs past what its template allows. A re-baseline shows how many activities changed instead.
Activity approvals addressed to you, with the project, the due date and, for a multi-level approval, the level it is at.
Decide an activity approval in its row. Reject asks for a reason.
All or Unread. Each notification links to what it is about.
Clears every unread notification once you have caught up.
Decide a new project that runs over its template
When a PM's calculated schedule is longer than the template allows, the project is not created. It waits as Pending approval for the approvers the PM named. There are at most two rounds, and one approver's decision settles a round.
- Open the project under Approvals awaiting you. The review shows the project, its ID and template, and the round it is in.
- Compare the days. The banner reads, for example, +16 days over template, with Template allowed and Submitted below it.
- Read who submitted it and why. Check Submitted by, the Submitter comment when the PM left one, and the Approvers it went to. In round 2, the round 1 decision and its comment are shown too.
- Write your comment. Use Your comment. It is optional for Approve and required for Request changes and Reject: the PM has to act on it.
- Decide. In round 1, choose Approve or Request changes. In round 2, which opens only if the revised plan is still over the template, choose Approve or Reject.
Decide a new baseline
A baseline is the plan everyone agreed to. A PM changes it only by submitting a new-baseline draft to the project's approvers. You decide it in one round.
- Open the Re-baseline row under Approvals awaiting you. The review is headed Baseline change · pending approval.
- Read the impact. The banner shows what happens to the forecast launch: Forecast launch unchanged, +N days later or N days earlier, and how many activities changed.
- Read every change. Changes lists each one old → new, for example Duration: 10d → 14d, or Predecessors. Activities on the critical path are marked critical path. Critical path changes names any activity that joins or leaves the critical path.
- Read the PM's reason. Reason says why the PM wants the change.
- Approve or reject. Approve puts the new plan live. Reject needs a comment and discards the draft. You cannot approve a baseline change on your own project, but you can reject it.
Decide an activity approval
- Open Pending Approvals. Each row shows the activity, its project and type, the due date (marked Overdue when it has passed) and its status, such as Pending approval. A multi-level approval shows Level 1 of 2, and so on.
- Look before you decide. Click the activity's name to open it and see its details and documents.
- Approve in the row. Choose Approve. The row leaves your list.
- Or reject with a reason. Choose Reject. In Reject approval, fill in Reason for rejection (required), then choose Reject.
Review tasks are done in My Activities
A template can also ask for a document to be checked or approved with a Check / Reject or Approve / Reject task. That task belongs to an activity, and the activity's owner does it from My Activities, not from Pending Approvals. See Complete your tasks.
What happens next
| Decision | What changes | Who is told |
|---|---|---|
| New project: Approve | The project is created and goes live. Its schedule is recalculated from the start date the PM chose, or from the day after your approval if that date has passed, and that schedule becomes its first baseline. | The PM, and the other named approvers (no action needed from them) |
| New project: Request changes (round 1) | The draft goes back to the PM as Changes needed, with your comment. When they resubmit, a plan now within the template is created without approval; one still over it comes back to you as round 2. | The PM and the other named approvers; the approvers again on resubmission |
| New project: Reject (round 2) | The project is cancelled. | The PM and the other named approvers |
| New baseline: Approve | The changes are applied, the whole schedule is recalculated and saved as the new baseline, so schedule deviation goes back to zero. | The PM |
| New baseline: Reject | The draft is discarded. The live plan stays as it is. | The PM, with your comment |
| Activity: Approve | A multi-level approval moves to the next level and its approvers are notified. Otherwise the activity is approved. A gate is approved once all its approvers have approved. | The activity's owners, when the approval is final |
| Activity: Reject | A gate is marked rejected. Any other activity sends the work back: to the activity the template set as the rejection route, if there is one, or else it reopens for its owners. | The activity's owners, with your reason; for a rejected gate, the PM too |
Where decisions are recorded
Every decision is saved with your name, the time and your comment, and written to Srishti's audit log. A round 2 review shows round 1's decision and comment. An activity approval also adds a line to that activity's Action log.
What can go wrong
| Problem | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The review says You can review this request, but only its named approvers can decide. | You are not a named approver on it (for example, you submitted it), or it is marked Changes requested and is back with the PM. | Nothing to decide. If you think you should be an approver, ask the PM. |
| Comment required | Request changes and Reject need a comment. | Say what must change, specifically enough for the PM to act on. |
| You cannot approve a baseline change on your own project. / You cannot approve your own project. | A PM cannot approve their own project's requests, even when named as an approver. Rejecting is allowed. | Another named approver has to decide it. |
| Predecessor "…" in this draft no longer exists. | The PM changed the live plan after submitting, and the draft refers to an activity that is gone. | Reject it with a comment so the PM can prepare a new draft. |
| This approval request is not awaiting a decision. | Another approver decided it first. | Nothing to do. The decision already stands. |
| This approval changed since you opened the page. | Someone else decided the activity approval, or the activity moved on. | The list refreshes itself. Review it again. |
| Your manager is reminded about an approval | An activity approval left for more than 24 hours reminds your escalation manager (L1), once a day, up to 3 times. | Decide it, or reject it with a reason. |