Speaker 1: Thank you for downloading Manage Engine Service Desk Plus. In this video, we will learn how to configure a visual change workflow using the new Change Workflow Builder. Users can now configure end-to-end workflows, scaling to meet their business requirements, dynamic approval within each stage of the workflow, conditions to decide the path of the change, and switch operations to shift the same. And the feasibility to perform field updates on change requests are some of the functionalities available with the new Change Workflow Builder. The Components of the New Change Workflow Builder With the new Change Workflow Builder, users can use multiple components to describe, automate, and determine the path of a change. Let's take a quick look at these components. When you click on New Change Workflow, the first component you look at is the Change Canvas. Over here, on the canvas, you can provide a workflow name, description, choose the type between General or Emergency, and on the left-hand side, you have options to adjust the resolution of the canvas. You can drag and drop the fields on the canvas. And on the right-hand side, from the drag and drop nodes, you can drag and drop elements right into the canvas and start configuring your workflow. Stage All the stage and status that you have created in the admin configuration will be listed under the stage. You can choose the stage, choose the status of that particular stage, and once all the status that is required is chosen, click on Save, and the stage element is added into the canvas. Condition You can define a condition, and based on which, you can route the change accordingly. So you can define what type of condition it is, and based on the condition that you have defined, you can choose the paths to connect between two stages, and using the decision, you can route the change accordingly. Switch Using a switch, you can provide multiple paths for a change to travel. So based on the switch conditions, or based on the switch values that is defined, the change can progress into the right directions accordingly. Notifications You can configure multiple notifications for a specific stage. You can also add more number of notifications for each stage or between multiple stages just so the communication between the stakeholders can be made effective. Approvals For each stage, you can configure an approval process, or you can have multiple layers of approvals for each stage. While defining an approval process, provide the name, choose wait for, over here, anyone to approve, anyone can approve for approval, if everyone rejects the change, then the change is auto-rejected. Everyone to approve, everyone has to approve, and if one rejects it, then the approval is rejected. First response action Whoever is first to approve or reject, that will be considered as a decision. Apart from this, you can select approvers. Well, the approvers are list of change roles, and addition to it, you have organizational roles and your CAB members will be listed over here. So choose the appropriate CAB and whoever is defined as a CAB member in the admin configuration, they will be listed as approvers. Use the dollar variable in subject and description or in the message segment to configure your change notifications. Use the dollar variables to also indicate the data from the change to be transferred into your notification. Field update Based on a particular value, you can set values to the specific field. So when field update is chosen, a value is set on the specific field that has been defined on the field update. To create a new change workflow, I go to the admin tab and under problem and change management, I click on change workflow, new workflow. When I click on new workflow, I'm at the canvas where I'm ready to define my change management process. So in our today's scenario, I'm going to define a data center workflow process and we are going to see the elements that we are going to use to define this particular process. So I provide the workflow name, then I can choose between general and emergency. So if I define a workflow as emergency, so all the emergency workflows that is mapped to the emergency template will be listed while I'm creating a change. So general workflows will be mapped against all general templates that we define during defining a change template. Now after giving the name, I'm just adjusting the resolution of the canvas so that I can move the elements of my canvas as per my requirement. Now once I've done that, I'm going to drag and drop the elements from the drag and drop node right into the canvas and I'm going to start defining my workflow. So for the data center process, the first part I'm going to do is add all the stages that is required. I drag and drop the stage. So the stage and status that's configured in the admin section will be listed over here. I have planning stage and I'm going to choose all the statuses that's part of the planning stage. Once I've chosen the statuses, I go ahead and click on save. Just as how I have added the planning stage, I'm going to add all the other stages right into my canvas. Now that I've added all my stages right into my canvas, the next is going to be connecting these stages and use the elements from the drag and drop nodes to complete the change workflow. Now once my change is created, I want to send out a notification. So from the drag and drop node, I can drag and drop the notification element right into the canvas. Over here, I can choose from the list of notifications available or I can click on new. Over here, I can go ahead and provide a notification name, choose to notify to recipients. I can choose between the change roles. I can choose between organizational roles and I can choose between my cabs into the notification segment. So for the data center process to notify, I'm choosing the cab members. Also I get to choose the users with email addresses right into my notification. Once done, I can use the dollar variables in the subject and as well as in the message segment so that I can choose values from my change ticket right into my notification. Once I've chosen all the elements, I can go ahead, click on save. So this way the notification template is saved and then I can choose the same notification. Now once the notification element is added and once my change is accepted in the submission stage, I can send out the notification and from the notification, I can send it right into my planning, planning and progress. So this is a notification that I can configure between each stages as well as I can add more number of notifications as per my requirement. Now under admin stage and status, we can define status notifications for each and every status. Now this is the default notification that will be sent out for every status updates on the change workflow. Over here you can provide the status name, you can choose to notify to, you can update the subject and the message segment of each status notification. To override the status notification, hover right on the particular stage and status elements and over here, click on the icon over here. Once you click on the envelope, you can choose to notify to, likewise by choosing the change roles, organizational roles, tab and users. And then you can use the dollar variables to add more comments and choose details from the change and click on save. So once you enable this icon, whatever notification you configure for stage and status under the workflow will be considered and not the admin workflow. Now we have defined the notification element into my change request. The next is going to be defining a condition. So if my change is a major change, then I need a decision to be taken. So based on the condition that I have defined, if it is a major change, my change goes right into the approval stage, approval pending. If it is not a major change, it goes to implementation, implementation in progress. Now this is a data center related change and if I'm going to work on a data center related process, there would be multiple services, multiple assets that is involved and there could be multiple categorization of services that needs different level of approvals to be secured. So I'm going to use two elements from my drag and drop node. One is switch and the other one is approval. So I'm going to define a switch based on different categories that is involved in the particular change. I want to secure different approval process. So during my approval process, I'm going to connect my approval right into my switch and this switch provides multiple parts for this particular change. So based on each of these categories, I'm going to define different set of approval process. So I'm going to drag and drop the approval node right into the canvas and I'm going to configure my approval. So for defining the approval, I provide the approval name and then I choose wait for. Under wait for, if I choose anyone to approve, anyone can approve for approval. If everyone rejects the change, then the change is auto rejected. Everyone has to approve and if one rejects it, then the approval is rejected. First response action, whoever is first to approve or reject, that will be considered as a decision. After defining my wait for, I can choose my approvers and again, approvers could be change roles that you define in the admin section, organizational roles that you define in the admin section, caps. Again, this is something that you could define in the admin section and choose who are the members for each and every cap. Choose the approvers, again, use dollar variables on the subject and message to add data from the change and click on save. Now this is level one approval for operating system changes. So likewise, I'm going to add a couple of level of approvals right into my change canvas. Now that I've added different level of approvals, I can go ahead and connect my switch to each and every approval. So from operating system, I go to OS level one approval. Once it's approved, I go to level two and once my level two approval is secured, I go ahead and consider this change as approved. Likewise, I can do the same for network and once the network is approved, I can just go ahead, connect it to my approval stage, approval status and this change is approved. If it is denied, I can go ahead, connect it right into my rejected status. So using switch and the combination of approval for my data center process, I'm using the switch to provide multiple channels and each of these channels go into different approval segment and based on the approval action that is completed, I consider the change to be approved. Now once the change is approved, I then move right into implementation, implementation in progress. Finally, my implementation, once it is completed, I move right into my review stage. So I connect my review stage and review in progress and once my review is successfully completed, I want to make a field update. So over here, I can provide a field update by creating a new field update process or I could choose from the list of existing field update process. And over here, if the change is successfully completed, I want to set the closure code upon approving the review. So once the review is completed, I want to set the closure code as close completed and from my closure code, it goes right into my completed status. So we have defined a normal data center workflow process which involves each and every stage from submission, planning, implementation, approval, review and close and we have used functions like conditions, notifications, switch, approval and field update and we are saving this particular change workflow. Now that we have created a normal change workflow, you can also define emergency change workflow by just using the elements from the drag and drop node such as submission, implementation, review and then close. So you can make it as simple as possible. Again, this is a default workflow that we offer as a sample. You can remove the nodes, you can add different nodes from the drag and drop node and configure your emergency workflow as required. Associate the newly created change workflow with the corresponding change template. So under admin, go to change template and you can edit an existing template and associate the workflow to the corresponding template or you can create a new template and map the workflow. I click on add change template because I want to map my new change workflow into a new template and on the template, I can provide a template name and I can choose the workflow that I have created. Once done, I can update the template as per my requirement and click on save. Now once the change workflow is mapped to a new change template, now let's go ahead create a new change using the same template and follow the workflow path. Now I click on new change and I choose my data center template. Once done, the corresponding workflow will be mapped right into my template. Once the details of the change is completely filled in, click on save. The newly created change has all the details that has been filled during the change submission. It points exactly where the change is starting and each and every stage has to be accepted in order for the change to move from one stage to the other. Upon accepting in the submission stage, the change moves from submission to planning. The submission stage is locked, nothing can be updated over here and it is only planning that could be worked on. Upon accepting in the planning stage, the change moves to approval, approval pending. So this is the stage where the approval process of the change has been determined. So each and every stage has to be accepted but the approval on the approval stage determines the approval or the rejection of the entire change. So as per the workflow, there has been multiple level of approvals that has been configured based on the category of the change. So this is our data center workflow process. Now once my entire level one has been approved, immediately the level two approval would be triggered. So once all the level of approvals are secured in the approval stage, the change moves from approval to implementation in progress and likewise approval on each and every stage will result in the completion of the entire change as per the workflow defined. And if you're lost in between your particular change process not knowing how to proceed further, go to view, click on workflow. This will provide you a complete schema of the workflow that is mapped to this particular change request using which you can determine the path and the variables that needs to be updated in order for you to move from one stage to the other. Once you have upgraded to the latest version of Service Desk Plus under admin, change workflow, you can expect the following changes. Existing workflows will be automatically transferred into a new visual workflow. Transferred workflows that do not have a mapping between the stages will be marked as invalid workflows in the list view as shown. Removal of admin values that are used in switches, field updates or conditions in a change workflow will result in invalid workflow.