Manage workflow options

A change request's workflow determines which lifecycle stages it will pass through. You can customize change request lifecycles, by creating new workflows, and by disabling or deleting the built-in workflows. Furthermore, you can modify the set of conditions determining when each workflow should be assigned.

You must define the parameters for integration with your external corporate Change Management System (CMS). AFA can connect to AlgoSec FireFlow, BMC Remedy, HP Service Center and Service Manager (formerly Peregrine), or any other system supporting Web-based access.

When implementing a requested change in the device, many organizations choose to specify a CMS change request ID in the relevant rule comment. AFA will automatically detect such CMS change request IDs in rule comments. Wherever a rule is displayed in the AFA report, its comment will include a link to the CMS system, pointing at the relevant change request. By a simple click on the link, a browser window with the relevant CMS change request will open, to allow further examination of the change (who requested it, who authorized it and when, etc.).

Do the following:

  1. In AFA, access the AFAAdministration area > Options tab.

  2. In the Options Menu area, click Workflow.

    The Workflow page appears.

  3. Select the Enable integration with external Change Management System check box.

  4. Do one of the following:

  5. In the Change Request ID Format area, define a format to which the device rule comments must comply, so AlgoSec recognizes them as containing a change request ID.

    Only properly formatted rule comments will be linked to the CMS change request. This is relevant for all the Work Flow systems. AFA will look for the following format in the rule comments:

         <Before><Ticket_id><After>

    Where <Before> and <After> are fixed strings, and <Ticket_id> is a Perl regular expression (see note below).

    For example, if: Before = 'Ticket #', Ticket id = '\d+', and After = '#'

    Then this comment will become a link: 'Ticket #1234#' but this comment will not: 'Ticket 1234#' , because <Before> is not equal to 'Ticket #'.

    Note: The required Ticket_id format should be specified as a Perl regular expression. You can find tutorials on writing regular expressions on the Internet.
    Here are some examples for the type of things you can accomplish:

    \d represents a digit, \s represents a space, \w - an alphanumeric character.

    Examples:

    • \d\d\d\d-\d\d- comments must contain a ticket number like 1234-56
    • \d\d-\d\d-\d\d\d\d- comments must contain a date like 01-01-2007
    • [A-Z]{2}\s*\d+- comments must contain two capital letters, then zero or more spaces, then one or more digits (e.g. “AK  123”)
  6. Click OK.

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