cFolders - Document approval workflows using status profiles

[ravi_ekambaram]

Hi All,

I am in need of your expertise in the area of document approval in cFolders using status profile.

We have following business scenario in approval of documents in cFolders.

Scenario1 : 

There are multiple document categories which needs approval from different users but at the same time, some of the user who are uploading the document in a category is responsible for approving the document at the other category as shown below. There are 2 options for creating the status profile and its drawbacks/constraints.

Document	Uploader	Approver
Document A	User1	User2
Document B	User2	User3

Option 1:

Create an single status profile for 'Document A' categories in which user1 is given authorisation to assign status profile & user 2 is provided with status transition authorisation

Drawback: User2 is able to change the status of 'Document B' since he is having status transition authorisation for the profile which is used in both the documents.

Option 2:

Have 2 separate status profiles for each of the document categories A & B.

Drawback: Tedious job to create status profile if we have more document categories and  maintenance of user authorisation is an confusing task if user 2 has to be replaced with some other user.

Your views on this & any other options if you have, please let me know.

Scenario 2:

Every document in a category will undergo 3 different levels of release i.e. Level 1, Level 2 & Level 3. Each level is having one uploader & one approver as indicated above.

If we create a single status profile for all three levels of release, we do not have any problem since uploader & approver are same.

Drawback: In notifications, we are not able to identify the level of approval since the notification is same for all 3 levels.

The other option is again to create different profiles for different levels & document categories but this will be an huge task and maintenance is also tough.

Please suggest your views on this.

Regards,

Ravi

[ravi_ekambaram · Accepted solution]

Kindly throw some light on this...

[ulf_petzel · Accepted solution]

Hi Ravi,

Scenario 1: why don't you go with roles or user groups to minimize potential changes with user's role in the document approval process? I would also introduce a user-defined action in the status profile that contains a little check that, if a user is uploader, he should not be able to be the approver at the same time. Or, you make sure as part of the prior transition to approval status, that you set the object authorization of the document for this user to "Read" with a user-defined action - hence he can not execute the status transition and approve his own document! I think this is the better way.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_ppm60/helpdata/en/57/909b400c1fa160e10000000a1550b0/content.htm?frameset...

Scenario 2: If you have 3 levels of approval, you should also have 3 status (one for each level), and for each status (transition) you can of course have it's own notification indicating the approval level.

Regards, Ulf.

[ravi_ekambaram · Accepted solution]

Hi Ulf,

Thanks for you reply.

It is a good suggestion to try user defined action for scenario which makes me to use option 1.

In Second scenario, it is actually 3 level releases of document and in each level there is an approval flow of  Uploaded-->Approved.

Document A - Level 1 (Concept Release) - 2 approval stages(Uploaded-->Approved)

Document A - Level 2 (Initial Release) - 2 approval stages (Uploaded-->Approved)

Document A - Level 3 (Final Release) - 2 approval stages (Uploaded-->Approved)

Regards,

Ravi

[ulf_petzel · Accepted solution]

Hi,

thanks for your feedback.

Still, why don't you use one status profile, as you can create/upload a new version of the document in each approval stage, as the status profile is assigned to the document itself, not the version?

Regards, Ulf.

[ravi_ekambaram · Accepted solution]

Hi Ulf,

I agree with your point but the problem is that, in notification templates we will not be able to maintain the level (i.e. concept/initial / Final) which may lead to confusion for the approver that the document which has come for approval is related to concept or initial.

Regards,

Ravi

[ulf_petzel · Accepted solution]

Hi,

no, of course you can distinguish if you model a status profile containing all 3 levels of approval, with both the status and the transition already indicating the level, and of course for each level you would leverage your own notification template as well?

Let's say:

Status:                                   Status Transition

1 - Concept Approval            Concept Approved

2 - Initial Approval                 Initial Approved

3 - Final Approval                  Final Approved

Regards, Ulf.

[ravi_ekambaram · Accepted solution]

Hi Ulf,

Thanks for your constructive responses.

Above suggestion was a very good idea, we tried with one single status profile but the only problem here was, we could not maintain versions of document under one level(i.e. concept) itself.

Still considering all the above suggestions & feedback from you, we found the below one as the best solution for our scenario 2.

1) Maintain 3 status profiles, each one for concept, initial and final levels of release.

2) Create 2 user groups for uploaders & approvers and add all users from all document categories.

3) Control status change through status transition authorisation and notification recipients through collaboration folders authorisations.

For scenario 1, status defined actions is the best solution.

Once again, thanks a lot to

Regards,

Ravi

[ulf_petzel · Accepted solution]

Hi,

glad I could help!

Thanks much,

Ulf.