Approval Workflow
An Approval Workflow is the sequence of review and decision steps required before access is provisioned or changed.
Definition
An Approval Workflow is the defined set of routing, review, escalation, and decision steps that determine whether a requested access change should be fulfilled. It may involve managers, application owners, role owners, compliance stakeholders, or automated policy engines. Approval workflows can include serial or parallel approvals, conditional routing, risk-based routing, emergency paths, and time-bound validity. In provisioning systems, approval workflows are not only operational controls but also governance evidence that access changes were reviewed according to policy.
Why it matters
Approval workflows ensure that access provisioning is not merely automated but also controlled and accountable.
The Ariovis perspective
Delegation should move decisions closer to the people who understand the resource without diluting accountability. Owners, backup owners and escalation paths must remain explicit.
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Common pitfalls
- A common pitfall is building workflows so complex that users bypass them or approvers mechanically approve requests without meaningful review.
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