How to Use Job Level Approval Rules when Gaps Exist in the Hierarchies (Doc ID 2555406.1)

Last updated on SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

Applies to:

Goal

How should Job Level approval rules be set up when gaps exist in the hierarchies, without unintentionally allowing users to approve workflows above their approval limits.

For the following example...

Hierarchies

Hierarchy 1: Job Level 1 (Starting Participant) > Job Level 2 > Job Level 3

Hierarchy 2: Job Level 1 (Starting Participant) > Job Level 3

*Note that for certain unspecified business reasons, a user/job with a Job Level of 2 does not exist in the second hierarchy

Approval Limits

Workflows between 0 and 5,000: Must be approved by a user with a job level of 1 or higher

Workflows between 5,000 and 25,000: Must be approved by a user with a job level of 2 or higher

Workflows between 25,000 and 50,000: Must be approved by a user with a job level of 3 or higher

Traditional Job Level Approval Rules (Level limits from THEN statements only)

Workflows between 0 and 5,000: At least 1 relative to absolute; At most 1 relative to absolute

Wofklows between 5,000 and 25,000: At least 2 relative to absolute; At most 2 relative to absolute

Workflows between 25,000 and 50,000: At least 3 relative to absolute; At most 3 relative to absolute

The outcome would be as follows:

Workflows between 0 and 5,000

• Hierarchy 1: The workflow would be assigned to the Starting Participant (which always occurs) and would stop at that user as the Starting Participant has a job level of 1 and therefore already satisfies the job level limits. 
• Hierarchy 2: Same as above. 

Wofklows between 5,000 and 25,000

• Hierarchy 1: The workflow would be assigned to the Starting Participant (which always occurs) and would then be assigned to the Job Level 2 user in the hierarchy.
• Hierarchy 2: The workflow would be assigned to the Starting Participant (which always occurs) and would then stop at that user as there is no user in the hierarchy with a job level of 2 (and assigning the workflow to a user with a job level of 3 would violate the "At most" limit).

Workflows between 25,000 and 50,000

• Hierarchy 1: The workflow would be assigned to the Starting Participant (which always occurs) and would then be assigned to the Job Level 3 user in the hierarchy.
• Hierarchy 2: Same as above.

As described above, the issue exists for the Job Level rule that is set up with an "At most" limit that points to a job level that does not exist in a specific hierarchy. Because of this limit, the system will refrain from assigning the workflow to a user above this limit. However, the practical outcome of this is that the highest approver in that hierachy will have a job level less than what was clearly intended by the customer (in this case, a job level of 2).

The resulting question is, therefore, how can this be avoided.
 

Solution

My Oracle Support provides customers with access to over a million knowledge articles and a vibrant support community of peers and Oracle experts.