Dynamic workflow approvals

Abstract

A dynamic approval system, capable of integration with enterprise software systems, where approval requests are generated from within application programs and processed using one or more dynamic approval rules comprising discrete rule steps and step criteria. For each approval request, only those rule steps applicable to the requestor and type of request are processed. Individual rule steps may be reordered, added or skipped, as appropriate, during an approval process. Typical rule steps include at least one request for approval or review. The party receiving the request may be a specific individual, a person holding a specific position, or a person having a relative relationship, such as supervisor, with the requestor.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A dynamic approval rule builder comprising:
 a rule design interface configured to receive input from a designer, the input characterizing the dynamic approval rule including a rule step for requesting approval from an approver, the input being for determining if an identity of the approver is dependent on an identity of a requestor or is independent of the identity of the requestor; and   a rule generator configured to produce data defining the dynamic approval rule responsive to the input.   
     
     
         2 . The dynamic approval rule builder of  claim 1 , further including a server configured to store the data defining the dynamic approval rule. 
     
     
         3 . The dynamic approval rule builder of  claim 1 , wherein the rule step includes step criteria for determining if the rule step is applicable to an approval request. 
     
     
         4 . A method of creating an approval rule, the method comprising:
 presenting a rule design interface to a designer;   creating a dynamic approval rule using input received through the rule design interface;   creating a rule step for inclusion in the dynamic approval rule, the rule step being for sending an approval request or a review request to an approver or a reviewer respectively;   defining rule step criteria characterizing conditions required for the rule step to be executed in an approval process; and   saving data defining the rule step.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further including associating the rule step with an approver using a relative relationship. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , further including assigning an external process to the rule step. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , further including assigning the rule step to a business object. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 4 , further including creating a second rule step for inclusion in the dynamic approval rule. 
     
     
         9 . An approval engine comprising:
 an approval interface configured for presentation to a reviewer or an approver, the approval interface including commands configured to add another reviewer or another approver to a current approval process; and   an approval rule processor configured to generate the approval interface responsive to a dynamic approval rule having a rule step associated with the reviewer or the approver.   
     
     
         10 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the approval interface is based on HTML/Java script protocols. 
     
     
         11 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the dynamic approval rule includes a plurality of rule steps executed in serial and parallel combinations. 
     
     
         12 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein an order of rule step execution is responsive to the addition of another reviewer or another approver. 
     
     
         13 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the approval interface further includes commands configured to approve a subset of the approval request. 
     
     
         14 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the association with the reviewer or the approver is a relative relationship. 
     
     
         15 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the rule step is a stop step. 
     
     
         16 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the approval rule processor is further configured to consider a plurality of dynamic approval rules to process an approval request. 
     
     
         17 . The approval engine of  claim 9 , wherein the approval rule processor is further configured to combine two rule steps, requiring response from the same approver, into a single rule step.