Modernizing a multi-year approval workflow

Overview

The team manages 50–100 specialized technical tools used across multiple teams. Each tool repair request requires a four step approval process, and requests often remain active for several years before approvals are complete. The legacy system was built on InfoPath from with 5 form views, SharePoint 2010 impersonation workflow and 2013 workflows. Item level permission breaking, creating a fragile environment that was difficult to maintain.

The Form for the Process at the Start of the Modernization Project

The goal of this project is to modernize the entire workflow using Power Apps, SharePoint Online, and Power Automate, while eliminating the dependency on legacy technologies and reducing administrative work.

Pain Points

• Multi year approvals that outlive the technology

• Item level permission breaking for every request

• Every submitted request breaks inheritance and assigns permissions based on the tool being requested.

  • This model used:

    • 2 SharePoint groups per tool

    • 100–200 groups total

    • Constant maintenance as users changed roles

    • Frequent permission breakage

• InfoPath and 2013 workflows are end of life

• User experience was inconsistent and difficult to navigate

Solution

SharePoint Online, Power Apps and Power Automate: Role & Status Driven System

• Sub lists used to organize technical system data, teams, and admins. The primary team access list will replace the use of 100s of Permission Groups by leverage Power Automate to streamline the process and save the team time and maintenance nightmare issues.

  • Access list broken down by:

    • Tool, Teams, with one team that will be based off workload selection and will auto populate to save the site owner data entry time. This allows the system to dynamically display:

      • who can see each request

      • who can approve each stage

      • who receives notifications

      • who has admin privileges

• Status driven workflow instead of Power Automate approvals

Each button:

• updates the Status field

• stamps the approver and timestamp

• triggers a Power Automate flow to send HTML email notifications

• The form dynamically shows or hides:

  • sections

  • fields

  • approval buttons

  • admin tools by using Power FX and status values, as well as User values.

  • This creates a clean, intuitive experience for every participant

Custom SharePoint Integrated Power App with Modal Components, Displaying information based on Status instead of multiple views.

Power Automate

On the backend of this system it is using 3 flows:

1. On new item creation the permissions are broken and the users associated with the tool are granted edit permissions.

2. On new item creation of the technical tool and the associated teams, 1 of the teams is consistently 1 of 2 groups depending on what tool is selected, Power Automate tests that and will assign the correct team.

3. The final flow is when the item is created or modified, it will check the status value and contact the appropriate teams with a clear HTML email that provides a link to the item for approval. There are 5 status based emails and 1 based off of the admin team pinging the correct to review the information again, as the workflows are multi-year approvals.