Quality management system workflow
Contents:
Overview
The Quality Management System Workflow is a four-state compliance review-focused workflow. Reviewers are managed in the app space settings and automatically assigned to each approval.
Workflow states
This workflow is ideal for teams to demonstrate compliance with guidelines, rules, or standards. This could include ISO standards, FDA regulations, or even internal corporate standards. The workflow utilizes multiple states.
Workflow State | Description |
---|---|
Draft |
All reviewers must have Confluence edit permission for the page. |
In Approval |
Assigned reviewers are emailed when the state changes to In Approval. These custom email notifications are created by a JSON trigger in the workflow. |
Published | It is the final stage of the workflow.
|
Obsolete | The content of the page is considered as Obsolete. Any update transitions it back to the Draft state. |
Adding or removing a label or attachment does not action the updated transition when the content is in the In Approval, Obsolete or Published state. This transition only occurs if the content is edited and published (changing the Confluence page version).
E-signature in the QMS workflow
This workflow requires registering for approval using your email and a one-time password (OTP) to confirm your identity. Approvals (content reviews) are disabled in the workflow dialog until the email and a token are entered.
Reviewers are prompted to set up a personal code when they first visit a page in the content review state and access the workflow dialog. All the approvals in the default workflow (in both the Draft and In Approval states) require each reviewer to confirm their identity using their email and a third-party-generated token.
To validate yourself, follow the steps below:
Click the setup a personal code link on the workflow dialog.
As a reviewer, to electronically sign for Document Approvals, you need the following:
a device with a Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) app installed and
email address that you use to log in to Confluence
Enter your email address and click Validate. You will then receive an email with a link to set up your approval signing token.
Click the link you received in your email. Then, scan the QR code using your device's authenticator app. The signing token setup is now complete.
This setup only needs to be completed once per instance. However, the 2FA app tokens generated by the OTP provider are time-sensitive and expire after a short period.
The global administrator can configure the app used for the OTP provider and, if required, mandate that all users using an e-signature reset their user approval tokens. If the e-signature requirement is not required, the QMS workflow can be copied and customized. The custom workflow can be edited to configure the e-signature requirement for either or both approvals (or any other changes using workflow builder). This new custom workflow should be enabled in your space.
Set approvers using space parameters
The QMS workflow automatically assigns reviewers to the content review in the In Approval state.
A space administrator can set a list of users or groups as controlled document approvers for the content review by adding values using the Edit Parameters option in the document management dashboard. This setting cannot be changed per page, allowing admins to manage who can approve the documents before they reach the Published state.
As a space administrator, you can set the parameter values using the @ Parameters button option for the space document management dashboard workflow.
The @ Parameters button option is only displayed when the current workflow has one or more parameters defined and is enabled as the active space workflow.
To assign approvers using space parameters,
Click the @ Parameters button to open the Parameters dialog box.
Set the workflow parameter value(s) in the space using the Parameters dialog box.
Add one or more usernames to the Document User Reviewers parameter and/or one or Confluence user groups to the Document Group Reviewers parameter. A workflow parameter value set in the dashboard is only retrieved by the workflow on a workflow event, such as creating a new page.
The individual users listed (and/or users who are members of a listed group) are automatically assigned to the approval in the In Approval state.
All assigned reviewers must undertake the content review and agree to Approve or Reject the content for the workflow to transition to the destination state for the approval decision.
When the QMS workflow is applied to an individual page or blog post, the users assigned to the review in the In Approval state are added as page parameters. They can be amended using the Manage Page Parameters option in the page tools menu.
Workflow custom email notification
The workflow has a trigger that activates when the workflow state changes to In Approval. When this happens, a custom email notification is sent to each user assigned as a reviewer for the In Approval state.
The following users receive an email notification when a page transitions to the In Approval state:
Individual reviewers: Users added to the Document User Reviewers workflow parameter.
Group reviewers: Members of Confluence user groups assigned to the Document Group Reviewers workflow parameter.
Users must be assigned to one of these workflow parameters when the page moves to the In Approval state to receive a notification.
Next steps
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