Change Request Workflow

Updated 9/26/2023

Please note, the Hub application is under active development. As such, text and screenshots may quickly become out of date. If you have any questions about current Hub functionality, please reach out to your Hub contact directly.

Initiating a Change Request

Once a change request has been drafted, it needs to be initiated in to the Change Request Workflow for approval.  To initiate a change request, select the project from the Initiation Workflow tab (or search for the project using the Quick Search or Advanced Search), and navigate to the change request on the Phase Tab. You will notice a green airplane icon next to the change request. Click this button to initiate the change request.

Change Request Workflow Action Inbox

You can access your Change Request in workflow by navigating to the Change Request tab under Workflow on the sidebar menu. Here you will be able to open the change request for a phase, so that you can edit, approve, or reject it. This step remains the same for all the users that will access a given change request(s) throughout it's lifecycle.

 

Workflow Steps

Note: Users with certain elevated roles will initiate a change request into an expedited workflow path. This expedited path skips the District Review, Division Review, Regional PM Review, and Programming Review workflow steps.

District Review

Once initiated, a change request on a District project will go to District Review. Users with supervisory privileges for a project's Responsible District can log in and review the change request.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

Division Review

Once initiated, a change request on a Division project will go to Division Review. Users with supervisory privileges for a project's Responsible Division can log in and review the change request.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

Regional PM Review

Once approved at District or Division Review, the change request will go to Regional PM Review. Users with a Regional Manager role (Regional Manager 01-05; Division Regional Manager) can log in and review the change request.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

SiteManager Change Requests

Construction phase change requests can be initiated through the AASHTOWARE SiteManager interfaces i.337 and i.338. For this to happen successfully, the following 3 criteria must be in place at the time the interface is executed:

1. A corresponding project must exist in the Hub
2. The existing project must have a CN0001 phase
3. The CN0001 phase must be Active

If all 3 criteria are met, then a Change Request will automatically be created in the Hub and placed in Regional PM Review.  The Change in Participating Amount, Change in Non-Participating Amount, Phase End Date, Contractor Name, and Comments fields will all be populated by the file received in the Site Manager interface. All other Change Request fields will be copied from the Phase-level information in Hub.

If any of the criteria are not met, the interface will create a rejection in the Hub's interface rejection log and the SiteManager interface will not create a change request. The Hub will automatically reprocess the rejected SiteManager file each time the interface is run, until the 10th rejection. If all 3 criteria are met upon the reprocessing, then the SiteManager change request will be created.

Programming Review

Once approved at Regional PM Review, the change request will go to Programming Review. Users with a Programming Technican role can log in and review the change request.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

Note: Once the change request has been reviewed and approved at Programming Review, the change request will either follow the Federal Change Request or State Change Request workflow path depending on the 'Federal Project?' checkbox.

Federal Change Request Workflow Path

Federal Phases follow the Federal Change Request workflow path as described below.

Federal STIP Review

Once approved at Programming Review (or if the change request was submitted by a user with elevated privileges), the Federal change request will go to Federal STIP Review. Users with a Federal STIP Coordinator role can log in, review the change request and add STIP information.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

Federal STIP Coordinators are required to add STIP details at this step. 

The following STIP information is required when adding a STIP record for the change request on the STIP tab.

• Phase Code - CR No.
• STIP Amendment
• STIP Administrative Modification

Change Request Information is merged after approval at this stage. See the section below for more information about merging: Federal Change Request Merging

For more information about adding STIP information, see the article: Adding STIP information.

FHWA Review 1  

Once approved at Federal STIP Review, the Federal change request will go to FHWA Review 1.

Users with the FHWA Technician role can log in, review the change request and add FMIS information and allocate funding line(s) for the change request.

Change requests cannot be edited at this stage. Merged change requests cannot be rejected at this stage. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request once required information is entered.

The following FMIS fields are required at this step:

• Project Type required
• Project Oversight required
• No GIS Reason required (If the 'No Route' checkbox is selected on the project)

The change request participating/non-participating amount will also need to be fully allocated before approval at this step.

For more information about adding FMIS Information, see the article: Add FMIS information.

For more information about adding Funding Lines, see the article: Adding Funding Information.

FHWA Review 2

Once approved at FHWA Review 1, the Federal change request will go to FHWA Review 2.

Users with the FHWA Manager role can log in, review the change request, add/edit FMIS information, add/edit funding line(s) for the change request. The change request can also be submitted to FMIS at this stage. 

Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Merged change requests can only be rejected to FHWA Review 1. Click the right arrow to submit the change request to FMIS. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

The Change Request needs to be authorized and submitted and FMIS approved before it can be approved at this stage in the workflow. 

For more information about adding FMIS Information, see the article: Add FMIS information.

For more information about adding Funding Lines, see the article: Adding Funding Information.

Submitting a Change Request to FMIS

To submit a change request to FMIS, click the green right arrow button .  Once clicked, the FMIS popup is presented. 

The below rules determine if a change request requires FMIS approval:

• Change requests that have a change to the FMIS Project End Date require FMIS Approval to proceed in workflow.
• Change requests that have a corresponding participating funding line on the Funding tab require FMIS Approval proceed in workflow.
• Change requests that have a change to the Federal Project Number require FMIS Approval to proceed in workflow.
• Change requests that do not have a change to FMIS Project End Date or a corresponding funding line on the funding tab do not require FMIS Approval to proceed in workflow.
• Change requests that will change the Phase Status will require FMIS approval to proceed in workflow.

At least one CR included in the FMIS submission of an estimated phase must be set to 'Authorized', i.e. an authorization request is required to submit an estimated phase for FMIS approval. Once FMIS approves the change request then it may be approved to the next step in the workflow.

Note:

When any CR for the Phase or the Phase itself is in process being interfaced to FMIS, the Hub will not allow a new CR to be marked as 'Ready' for FMIS. Additionally, all CR's currently in these processes are not be allowed to be updated. These rules will be applied if the FMIS status of any CR is in one of these statuses:

1. Submitted
2. Pending
3. Reject-Unsign
4. Reject-Unsign-Submitted
5. Reject-Delete

 

Submitting a Change Request to FMIS for Review

There are times when the funding for a project is complex or there are other questions that need to be reviewed with the FHWA team before submitting a phase or change request for approval. In such cases, users will want to submit a phase or change request for review. In these cases, the phase or change request is sent to FMIS without signatures. This allows the FMIS team to review the phase or change request without the risk of accidental approval or rejection.

To do this in the Hub, open the FMIS popup, select the phase or change request to be reviewed, then select the "Review Required" checkbox. After these steps are done, click the "Submit" button to submit the request for review. 

Once the request is submitted for review, the FMIS Status will update to "Ready for Review". Once the FMIS interface runs and FMIS accepts the phase or change request, then the status will update to "Review in Progress". 

Users should coordinate with the FHWA representatives on the review.  Once the review is complete, the phase or change request can then be submitted with signatures for FMIS approval. To do this, open the FMIS popup. Select the phases or change requests that have a status of "Review in Progress". Then, unselect the "Review Required" checkbox and click submit. The FMIS status will update to "Ready". When FMIS accepts the phase or change request, then the status will update to "Submitted".

Federal Change Request Merging

After approval at STIP Review, when the phase is still estimated and not yet sent to FMIS, all data except for the Estimated/Authorized fields will merge to the Project Phase. This includes data such as CR dollars, dates, and other data.

Once merged, these change requests can not be rejected prior to FHWA Review 1 on estimated phases, to ensure data integrity.

After approval at STIP Review, edits to the Phase Change Request data are locked. For estimated phases, a new change request will have to be added to update phase data. For authorized phases, CRs can be rejected in workflow to STIP or prior steps for edits.

Merged change requests will be marked 'Yes' in the 'Merged' column on the Phase Change Request grid.

An example of this data flow is shown below:

Example of a Federal Change Request Merge

The final approval for the participating change request is final programming. Users with Programming Technician privileges will be able to approve this change. The final status will be request approved. Note that for previously Authorized phases, it is at this time that the change request will be merged to the phase.

State Project Workflow Path

State STIP review

Once approved at Initial Programming Review (or if the change request was submitted by a user with elevated privileges), the State change request will go to the State STIP Review. Users with a State STIP Coordinator role can log in, review the change request and add STIP information.

Click the pencil icon to open and review the change request. Edits can be made if desired. Click the red thumbs down  button to reject the change request. Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request.

State STIP Coordinators are required to add STIP details at this step. 

The following STIP information is required at this phase.

• Phase Code - CR No.
• STIP Amendment
• STIP Administrative Modification

For more information about adding STIP information, see the article: Adding STIP information.

Change Request Information is merged after approval stage. See the section below for more information about merging: State Change Request Merging.

State Change Request Merging

After approval at STIP Review, when the phase is still estimated, all data except for the Estimated/Authorized fields will merge to the Project Phase. This includes data such as CR dollars, dates, and other data.

Once merged, these change requests can not be rejected prior to State STIP Review on estimated phases, to ensure data integrity.

After approval at STIP Review, edits to the Phase Change Request data are locked. For estimated phases, a new change request will have to be added to update phase data. For authorized phases, CRs can be rejected in workflow to STIP or prior steps for edits.

Merged change requests will be marked 'Yes' in the 'Merged' column on the Phase Change Request grid.

Example of a State Change Request Merge

Final Programming

Once approved at Federal or STIP Review the change request will will go to Final Programming. Users with Programming Technician privileges can approve change requests at this state.

Click the green thumbs up button to approve the change request. Change requests can not be edited or rejected at this workflow state.

State Change Request

For a CR-0 that is still 'Estimated', when a user approves CR-0 at Final Programming review, any merged CRs are included in this approval approval.

 

At least one merged CR must be 'Authorized' for CR-0 to be approved at Final Programming Review. On approval of CR-0 at this step, ProjectPhase is set to 'Authorized'.

 

Change requests must be fully funded for approval at Final Programming Review. For an estimated phase, all merged CRs must be fully funded for the phase to be approved at Final Programming Review

 

Federal Change Request

Users with Programming Technician privileges can approve change requests at this state.

 

Additional Notes:

FMIS Approval Bypass

Users with the hub user role, hub.cr.fmis.bypass, will see a 'Bypass FMIS Review' toggle on change requests for authorized federal phases which have been successfully established in OASIS through a CAS or CAM. This toggle can only be used when the change request is not modifying or reallocating participating funding and when no changes are being made to the FMIS Project End Date.

If this toggle is 'on' for a change request, then the request will not require FMIS approval before Hub approval at FHWA Review 2. Instead, the request will appear in the 'FMIS Approval Not Required' grid of the FMIS Review pop-up, where users can mark it FMIS Status 'N/A' and proceed to approve the change request through workflow.