CAB approval chains
Who approves a change, in what order, per change type.
Administration → CAB approval chains
The default sequence of approvers a Change Request goes through when submitted for CAB approval — one chain per change type (Standard / Normal / Emergency).
Person vs. role steps
- Person — a specific member. If they leave the organization or lose access, that step has no one who can decide it.
- Role — whoever currently holds that role at the moment the change reaches this step, resolved fresh each time, not locked in when the chain was configured. If multiple members hold the role, any one of them can decide it.
Order and saving
Steps run in the order shown, one at a time — step 2 only becomes actionable once step 1 approves. Save replaces that change type's entire chain with what's currently in the form; empty steps are dropped automatically.
Self-approval
The Self-approval setting at the top of this page decides whether the person who raised a request may also decide its steps: Allowed (the default), Allowed, but flagged (marked as a self-approval in the audit trail) or Not allowed. Not allowed can leave a step undecidable when the requester is its only approver — common in a small team.
Manager approval on service requests
- A service catalog item can ask for the requester's manager to approve first (Administration → Service catalog). The manager is set on each person's record, by hand, by spreadsheet import or by directory sync.
- One who is a member decides in Approvals like anyone else. One who is not gets an emailed link — no account, no seat — that works for that one request.
- Someone with no manager on record is not waved through: the item's own approver decides, or your admins if it has none.
- When the manager doesn't answer (on this page): remind them after a set time — each reminder carries a fresh link that replaces the last — and, after a longer one, open the step to the item's approver or your admins as well. The manager can still decide.