🔁 Module 09: Automate Approvals with Workflows

Codename: OPERATION CHAIN REACTION
Time: 45 minutes
Scenario: Manager Approval for Software

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🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Create a Workflow from the Tools block using the new workflow designer
• Define input parameters and a Respond to the agent action (mind the 100-second limit)
• Build an approval gate: Get manager → Human review (Request for information) → If/else
• Run the human-review step and the "respond to agent" step in parallel
• Call the workflow from the software-installation-request skill and test a Visio request

🧭 Overview

Some software on the Contoso list needs manager sign-off. That's a multi-step process — find the manager, request approval, wait, react — and it can take longer than a single chat turn. The new Workflows designer handles it.

You'll build manager_approval_for_software, add it to Bit as a tool, then update the software-installation-request skill (from Module 07) to call it.

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🔁 Workflows, Briefly

A Workflow is the new flows format in Copilot Studio, with a revamped visual designer and testing. Attach it to an agent as a tool: the agent calls it, passes inputs, and the workflow can respond back to the agent.

⏱️ The 100-second rule. When an agent calls a workflow, the workflow must respond within ~100 seconds. A human approval takes longer than that — so we start the approval and immediately respond to Bit ("approval started"), running both in parallel.

🧠 Workflows include agentic actions too — call other agents, classify info with AI, use M365 Copilot, and more.

⚠️ Hyphens vs. underscores (again). Your skills use hyphens (software-installation-request). This workflow is named manager_approval_for_software with underscores — workflows follow different naming rules. Both are correct.

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🧰 Prerequisites

• Bit with the software-installation-request skill from Module 07.
• The Office 365 Users connector (to look up the manager) and an Outlook / Office 365 connection (the Human review step sends its request by email).
• A test user whose manager is set in the directory.

🏫 In the facilitated workshop, the connectors and a test user with a manager are pre-provisioned. If you're at the office, ensure your test account has a manager populated in Microsoft Entra ID.

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🧪 Lab 9.1: Create the Workflow

Create the workflow from Bit, so it's wired to be agent-callable from the start:

1. On Bit's Build page, find the Tools block → + Add a tool.

2. In the dialog, click the + Add button (top-right) → choose Workflow. This opens the new workflow designer.

3. Name it (click Untitled Workflow, top-left):

   manager_approval_for_software

🧷 Why create it from Tools (not the standalone Workflows area)? Starting here gives you a workflow that already has the "When an agent calls the flow" trigger and a "Respond to the agent" action — exactly what an agent-called approval needs. (A workflow created from the left-nav Workflows area starts with a generic Manual trigger instead, which is not what we want.)

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🧪 Lab 9.2: Define Inputs (What the Agent Passes In)

On the When an agent calls the flow trigger, use the Inputs panel → + Add an input (pick the type, then name it) for each of these:

Input	Type
applicationName	Text
requesterEmail	Email
businessReason	Text

💡 These are the typed inputs the agent passes to the flow — they show up in the trigger's Inputs panel (see the Lab 9.1 screenshot above). Choosing Email for requesterEmail validates the address Bit hands in.

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🧪 Lab 9.3: Get the Manager

1. Add a step using the Office 365 Users connector → Get manager (V2).
2. For the input (user/UPN), pass requesterEmail.

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🧪 Lab 9.4: Add the Approval Gate (Human Review)

In the new Workflows designer, a human approval is a Human review step — not the classic "Approvals" connector. Add a step → search Human review → choose Request for information. (Workflows prompt you to pick a connection the first time — set one up if asked.)

Configure it:

1. Title: Approval needed for [applicationName]
2. Message: include requesterEmail, businessReason, and applicationName so the manager has the context to decide.
3. Assigned to: the manager's Mail from the Get manager step. (First person to respond decides.)
4. Add an input → type Yes/No, named Approved. This captures the manager's decision and comes back as a parameter you'll branch on next.

🧩 Why "Request for information"? The new Workflows designer puts human-in-the-loop steps under Human review. Request for information pauses the workflow, emails the assignee via Outlook, and returns their answer — a Yes/No input turns it into a clean approve/reject gate. (The richer multi-stage approval action is currently agent-flow only — see the fallback at the end if you need it.)

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🧪 Lab 9.5: Branch on the Decision

After the Request for information step, add an If/else (Condition) on the Approved value it returned:

• If Approved is true → your approved path. For the demo, add a Compose action with the static value approved (in production: notify the team / provision the license / write to your system of record).
• Else (rejected) → add a Compose with rejected.

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🧪 Lab 9.6: Respond to the Agent — in Parallel

The Request for information step waits for the manager (maybe minutes or hours), but Bit needs an answer within ~100 seconds. So run them side by side:

1. Create a parallel branch alongside the Human review branch.

2. In the parallel branch, add Respond to the agent with a message like:

   Manager approval process has started. You will be notified once it completes.

So the workflow simultaneously: (a) sends the human-review request and waits for the manager, and (b) tells Bit the process kicked off.

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📢 Lab 9.7: Publish the Workflow

Publish the workflow so Bit can call it.

✅ Checkpoint: manager_approval_for_software is published and available to Bit as a tool.

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🧪 Lab 9.8: Update the Skill to Call the Workflow

1. Skills → open software-installation-request → edit instructions. Add:

   # If manager sign-off is needed
   If the requested app requires manager sign-off (per the Approved Software List),
   call the manager_approval_for_software workflow, passing the application name,
   the requester's email, and a short business reason. Then tell the user the
   approval request has been sent to their manager.

2. Save the skill.

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🧪 Lab 9.9: Test the Visio Request

1. Preview → new chat:

   I need Microsoft Visio installed for a project.

2. Bit uses software-installation-request, checks the Approved Software List, sees Visio requires manager approval, and calls manager_approval_for_software. He replies that the approval request was sent.

3. Watch the workflow run: it triggers, gets the manager, and responds back to Bit.

4. As the manager: open the Request for information email in the manager's mailbox (sent via Outlook), set Approved to Yes or No, and submit. The workflow then continues into your If/else branch.

In production the approved branch would notify the team to provision the license; here the Compose values prove the branch logic works.

✅ Checkpoint: Bit starts a real, long-running approval and reports status back to the user.

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🪂 Fallback: Prefer a Classic Agent Flow?

⚠️ Facilitator note. This lab uses the new Workflows designer with a Human review → Request for information gate. If your tenant doesn't have it (or you want the GA path), build the same logic as a classic agent flow instead: Get manager → Approvals: Start and wait for an approval → If/else on the approval Response, with Respond to the agent in a parallel branch. The 100-second constraint applies either way. Confirm which is available before the workshop.

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🧠 Key Takeaways

• Workflows are the new flows format — attach them to Bit as tools
• The 100-second rule — respond to the agent fast; run long work (approvals) in parallel
• Get manager → human review → if/else — a real, multi-step business process
• Skills call workflows — software-installation-request triggers the approval; you describe intent, the orchestrator passes the inputs
• Workflows use underscores; skills use hyphens — different naming rules

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🏗️ What You've Built

Bit can now run a manager-approval process for software that needs sign-off:

• ✅ A manager_approval_for_software workflow (get manager → human review → branch, with a parallel respond)
• ✅ The software-installation-request skill calls it
• ✅ Self-service apps install immediately; manager-sign-off apps route to the manager

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⏭️ Next Steps

In Module 10: Autonomous Event Triggers, you'll make Bit proactive — automatically escalating a high-priority ticket the moment one is created in the Tickets list, with no one having to ask.

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Course Navigation: ← Module 08 | Course Index | Next: Module 10 →