Before you begin
- Atlas Flow on your plan (Atlas AVD) and turned on for the tenant
- To build the catalog: permission to manage Atlas Flow settings
- To submit a request: permission to edit Atlas Flow tickets
- To answer an approval: permission to view Atlas Flow tickets
Step 1: Add a catalog item
In Atlas Flow, open Settings and find Service catalog. Select Add catalog item, give it a name and a description people will see in the catalog, and choose the priority, category and team its requests open with. You can offer up to 200 items.
A request copies the item when it is submitted. Editing an item changes only the requests submitted afterwards. Requests already submitted keep the questions, approvals and tasks they were submitted with.
Step 2: Build the request form
Under Questions, select Add question for each thing you need to know. Questions use the same types as custom fields: text, number, date, picklist, multi-select, person and checkbox. For a picklist or multi-select, enter one choice per line. Turn on Required for the questions a request can't be submitted without. A question's type can't change once it is saved.
- Up to 30 questions per item
- Atlas checks every answer when the request is submitted, so a required question can't be skipped and a picklist only takes one of its choices
Step 3: Add approval steps
Under Approval steps, select Add approval step, name the step (for example Manager or Finance), tick its approvers and choose its rule: every approver must approve, or any one approver is enough. Steps run in order, up to five per item. Leave the item without steps when no approval is needed.
- When a request reaches a step, its approvers get a notification in Atlas and an email with a link to the request
- Approvers answer in Atlas, signed in as themselves, so a forwarded email can't approve anything. Approvers who can only view Atlas Flow tickets can still answer
- A rejection from any approver in the step rejects the request, whichever rule the step uses
- Once a step is decided, any answers still waiting in it are no longer needed and the next step starts
Step 4: Add fulfilment tasks
Under Fulfilment tasks, select Add task for each piece of work, such as Order the laptop or Add to the VPN group, and optionally pick the team that does it. When the request is approved, or straight away when it needs no approval, Atlas creates the tasks under the request's ticket. Up to 30 tasks per item.
Requesting an item
Open the Catalog tab in Atlas Flow and select Request on an item. Answer its questions, add a short summary for the ticket title and any notes, and select Submit request. If you are asking on someone else's behalf, tick I'm requesting this for someone else and enter their name and, optionally, their email. Atlas opens the request's ticket and takes you to it.
Requests waiting on your approval appear at the top of the Catalog tab, with the step they are on.
Approving and tracking a request
The request's ticket has a Request card with the answers, each approval step and every approver's answer and comment. If you are an approver in the current step, add a comment if you like and select Approve or Reject. The ticket can't move to an in-progress or resolved status until the request is approved. When the request is approved or rejected, whoever submitted it and the ticket's assignee are told.
The ticket's timeline and the audit log record each step sent for approval, each answer and the fulfilment tasks created. Webhook channels, such as Teams or Slack, can follow "Atlas Flow request waiting for approval" and "Atlas Flow request approved or rejected".
Archiving and deleting items
Archive an item to stop offering it without losing it, and restore it to offer it again. Deleting an item removes it from the catalog. Requests already submitted keep their answers, approvals and tasks either way.