Approval service in a catalog service platform

• US 10,552,796 B1
• Filed: 12/19/2014
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Delacourt, Frederik Christophe, To, Quan Binh, Whitaker, Christopher, Newman, Benjamin David, Crowell, Zachary Thomas, Ellie, Julien Jacques
• Primary Examiner(s): Araque, Jr., Gerardo
• Application Number:
  US14/577,161
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

A service provider system may implement an approval service that manages approval requests received from other services on behalf of a customer organization and its end users. An administrator in the organization may create approval templates that define voting strategies at multiple approval levels and associate them with particular requests (individually, or by product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type). The administrator may create approval groups whose members are authorized to respond to particular requests. Each approval template (or approval level) may include a different voting strategy or be associated with a different approval group. The approval system may support pre-notification of subsequent approval levels, auto-escalation, or auto-expiration. The approval service may employ a notification service to manage actionable notification messages that include approval requests. Members of approval groups may retrieve requests and select from available actions (e.g., approve, deny, or request more information).

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of computing nodes of a service provider that collectively provide services to a plurality of clients of the service provider via a service provider network that is distinct from client networks of the plurality of clients, each of the computing nodes comprising at least one processor and a memory, and the services comprising a plurality of backend services provided for the plurality of clients;

wherein one or more of the plurality of computing nodes implement an approval service that receives and manages approval requests pertaining to provisioning, administering, or managing computing resources on behalf of the backend services, wherein at least some approval requests trigger messages between the approval service and one or more members over a network external to the service provider network on behalf of the backend services;

a backend interface of the approval service within the service provider network for the backend services for exchanging approval requests and approval results over the service provider network between the approval service and the backend services; and

an administrator interface through which a client'"'"'s administrator interacts with the approval service to manage approval requests transmitted via the backend interface to the approval service over the service provider network from one or more of the backend services provided for the client by the service provider, wherein the approval service is a different service than the one or more backend services that are sources of the approval requests;

wherein the approval service is configured to;

receive, through the administrator interface, a request to create an approval template, wherein the approval template defines one or more criteria for approval or denial of approval requests that are associated with the approval template;

create the approval template, wherein creating the approval template comprises storing a representation of the approval template on service provider resources for subsequent association with approval requests;

receive, through the administrator interface, a request to create an approval group, wherein members of the approval group are members of the client who are authorized to respond to approval requests that are associated with the approval group;

create the approval group, wherein creating the approval group comprises storing a representation of the approval group on service provider resources for subsequent association with approval requests;

receive, through the administrator interface, a request to associate the approval template and the approval group with one or more approval requests;

store information indicating an association between the approval template, the approval group, and the one or more approval requests; and

receive, over the service provider network from one of the one or more backend services, a given one of the one or more approval requests;

notify one or more of the members of the approval group, over the network external to the service provider, that the given approval request has been received; and

receive, over the external network from the one or more of the members of the approval group, a respective response to the given approval request;

determine, based at least in part on the received responses and the one or more criteria, a result of the given approval request; and

transmit, via the backend interface over the service provider network to the one of the one or more backend services, an indication of the result of the given approval request; and

wherein the one or more backend services are configured to;

trigger, based on receipt of the result of the given approval request, performance of an action associated with provisioning, administering, or managing one or more of the computing resources.

2. The system of claim 1,

wherein the one or more approval requests are related to a particular product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type;

and

wherein at least one of the approval template or the approval group is associated with one or more other approval requests that are related to a different product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the members of the approval group comprise one or more of:

an end user of the client,

a group of end users of the client,

a member of the client'"'"'s network having a particular identity and access management role,

an identity and access management group, or

another approval group.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the approval template defines a sequence of two or more approval levels, and wherein each approval level defined by the approval template is associated with a respective approval group.

5. The system of claim 1,

wherein the one or more criteria comprise a voting strategy, and

wherein to define the voting strategy, the approval template specifies one or more of:

a number of affirmative responses required to approve an approval request,

a percentage of the received responses that are required to be in the affirmative to approve an approval request,

a number of negative responses required to deny an approval request,

a percentage of the received responses that are required to be in the negative to deny an approval request,

a number of members of an approval group whose responses are required to be received in order to determine a result of an approval request, or

a percentage of members of an approval group whose responses are required to be received in order to determine a result of an approval request.

6. A method, comprising:

performing, by one or more service provider computers of a service provider network that implement an approval service that receives and manages approval requests pertaining to provisioning, administering, or managing computing resources on behalf of one or more backend services of the service provider for a plurality of clients of the service provider, at least some approval requests triggering messages between the approval service and one or more members over a network external to the service provider network on behalf of the backend services, the service provider network distinct from client networks of the plurality of clients;

providing a backend interface of the approval service within the service provider network for the backend services for exchanging approval requests and results over the service provider network between the approval service and a different service;

receiving, by the approval service, via the backend interface over the service provider network from the different service on behalf of a client of the plurality of clients of the service provider, an approval request, wherein the approval request specifies a service provider product or service for which an authorization to access or utilize the service provider product or service is sought or an action for which authorization to perform the action is sought;

receiving, over the external network, a respective response to the approval request from one or more members of an approval group, wherein the approval group is associated, by the approval service of the service provider, with the approval request received on behalf of the client;

determining, dependent on the received responses and a pre-determined criteria for approval or denial of the approval request, a result of the approval request; and

transmitting, over the service provider network to the different service, an indication of the result of the approval request, wherein the result of the approval request triggers performance of an action associated with provisioning, administering, or managing computing resources.

7. The method of claim 6,

wherein the pre-determined criteria comprise a pre-determined voting strategy;

wherein the method further comprises, prior to said receiving the approval request;

creating an approval template on behalf of the client of the service provider; and

associating the approval template with the approval request; and

wherein the approval template defines the pre-determined voting strategy.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the approval group or the approval template is associated with one or more other approval requests by the approval service.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the approval template defines a sequence of two or more approval levels, and wherein each approval level defined by the approval template is associated with a respective approval group.

10. The method of claim 7,

wherein the approval group is associated with a first approval level defined by the approval template;

wherein another approval group is associated with a second approval level defined by the approval template; and

wherein the method further comprises, in response to receiving the approval request;

notifying the members of the approval group that the approval request has been received; and

notifying members of the other approval group that the approval request has been received.

11. The method of claim 7,

wherein the approval group is associated with a first approval level defined by the approval template;

wherein another approval group is associated with a second approval level defined by the approval template; and

wherein the method further comprises;

notifying the members of the approval group that the approval request has been received; and

notifying members of the other approval group that the approval request has been received in response to a pre-determined amount of time passing without receiving enough responses to the approval request from members of the approval group to enable the result of the approval request to be determined; and

wherein said determining the result of the approval request comprises;

receiving a respective response to the approval request from each of one or more members of the other approval group; and

determining, dependent on the responses received from the one or more members of the other approval group and a pre-determined voting strategy defined for the second approval level, the result of the approval request.

12. The method of claim 7,

wherein said determining the result of the approval request comprises assigning a default result for the approval request in response to a pre-determined amount of time passing without receiving enough responses to the approval request from members of the approval group to enable the result of the approval request to be determined.

13. The method of claim 6,

wherein the client of the service provider consumes services provided by the service provider, including the approval service and the different service;

and

wherein the method further comprises, prior to receiving the approval request;

receiving, from an administrator of the client, a request to create the approval group on behalf of the client, wherein the request to create the approval group comprises information indicating that the one or more members of the client are authorized to respond to approval requests that are associated with the approval group.

14. The method of claim 7,

wherein the client of the service provider consumes services provided by the service provider, including the approval service and the different service;

wherein the method further comprises, prior to receiving the approval request;

receiving, from an administrator of the client, a request to create the approval template on behalf of the client;

creating the approval template;

receiving, from an administrator of the client, a request to associate the approval template with a specified product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type; and

associating the approval template with the specified product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type; and

wherein the approval request comprises a request for authorization to access or utilize a product or service that is related to the specified product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type or to perform an action related to the specified product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type.

15. The method of claim 6,

wherein the method further comprises notifying the members of the approval group that the approval request has been received in response to receiving the approval request;

and

wherein said receiving the respective response to the approval request from each of one or more members of the approval group comprises receiving the respective responses to the approval requests from each of one or more members of an approval group in response to said notifying.

16. The method of claim 15,

wherein said receiving the approval request comprises receiving the approval request in an actionable notification message that is managed by a notification service implemented on behalf of the service provider;

the method further comprising;

associating the approval group with a message inbox created by the notification service on behalf of the client of the service provider; and

wherein said notifying comprises posting the actionable notification message to the message inbox for subsequent retrieval by members of the approval group.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more computers cause the one or more computers to implement an approval service, wherein the approval service is configured to:

present a backend interface of the approval service within a service provider network through which one or more other services submit respective approval requests that pertain to provisionment, administration, or management of computing resources, the approval requests to be managed by the approval service on behalf of each of two or more clients of a service provider that provides at least the one or more other services for the two or more clients, wherein the two or more clients are consumers of the one or more other services, wherein at least some approval requests trigger messages between the approval service and one or more members over a network external to the service provider network on behalf of the services;

receive, over the service provider network from one of the one or more other services, via the backend interface, a given approval request, wherein the given approval request is related to a particular product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type;

provide a mechanism through which one or more members of an approval group that is associated with the given approval request submits, over an external network, a respective response to the given approval request;

determine a result of the given approval request dependent, at least in part, on the respective responses to the given approval request;

receive, over the service provider network via the backend interface, another approval request, wherein the other approval request is related to a different product, portfolio, project, action, message topic, workflow, or request type, and wherein the approval group is associated with the other approval request;

provide a mechanism through which one or more members of the approval group submits, over the external network, a respective response to the other approval request;

determine a result of the other approval request dependent, at least in part, on the respective responses to the other approval request; and

transmit, over the service provider network via the backend interface to the one of the one or more other services, an indication of the result of the other approval request, wherein the result of the approval request triggers performance of an action associated with provisioning, administering, or managing computing resources.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17,

wherein the given approval request is associated with a given approval template that defines a voting strategy for approval or denial of approval requests that are associated with the given approval template;

and

wherein the other approval request is associated with another approval template that defines a different voting strategy for approval or denial of approval requests that are associated with the other approval template.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17,

wherein at least one of the given approval request or the other approval request is associated with an approval template that defines a sequence of two or more approval levels;

wherein the approval group is associated with a first approval level defined by the approval template; and

wherein the approval template defines;

a voting strategy for approval or denial of approval requests that are associated with the approval template at a first approval level and a different voting strategy for approval or denial of approval requests that are associated with the approval template at a second approval level defined by the approval template;

or

a second approval group that is associated with the second approval level defined by the approval template.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17,

wherein, in response to the determination of the result of the given approval request or the determination of the result of the other approval request, the approval service is configured to initiate the performance of a particular action or workflow by the one of the one or more other services.