26.3 Managing a Review in Live Mode

This section provides the tasks required to run and complete a review. As the owner or an administrator of an active review, you can perform any or all of the following tasks:

  • Start in preview mode and go live, or start the review in live mode and monitor the review

  • Change the review end date calculated based on duration settings in the review definition to a specific date and time

  • Customize the review definition and the column display for the review items

  • Change the end date of the review

  • Review details including related micro certification progress in the review definition area based on your column display options

  • View the review status in Reviews

  • View quick info details about a catalog item

  • (Conditional) View decision support information if the decision support options in the Configuration > Analytics and Role Mining Settings menu have been enabled

  • Change Reviewers within the review

  • Send reminder emails to Reviewers using the Nudge option

  • Override Reviewers’ decisions

  • Change the Review Owner or add more Review Owners

  • Change the Escalation Reviewer or Auditor

  • Resolve access policy violations in the review

  • Download list of all reviewers and their queue summary, list of review items in a selected reviewer’s queue, and list of all review items to CSV files

  • Complete a partial review

  • Terminate the review before completion

  • Approve Reviewer decisions

  • Run reports against the review

If you assign a new owner to a review, both the previous and new owners can access the review. The previous owner continues to see instances of a review run before the ownership change. The new owner sees only the instance of a review run after the ownership change.

If you assign a new Review Owner while a review run is in progress, the review definition does not change, and the new review owner is in effect for only that review run. The next review run that starts from the same review definition assigns the review owner specified in the review definition.

For example, a review definition specifies Mary Smith as the review owner. During an instance of the review, or a review run, the global administrator realizes that Mary is on vacation. To keep the review moving, the administrator changes the review owner to Sam Butler, who approves that review run when reviewers have submitted all their final decisions. Both Mary and Sam can see the details of this review run. The next time a review run starts from this review definition, Mary is assigned as the review owner.

For more information, see the following sections:

26.3.1 Checklist for Managing a Review in Live Mode

Checklist Items

  1. Ensure that you understand the review process. For more information, see Section 26.1, Understanding the Review Process for Review Owners.

  1. Start the review run if needed and optionally change the review date and time.

    In addition to manually starting a review, you can initiate a review by schedule or micro certification. For more information about manually starting a review, see Section 26.3.2, Starting a Review Run.

  1. (Optional) Modify the duration for the review.

    For more information, see Section 26.3.4, Modifying the Settings of a Review Run.

  1. Check the progress of each Reviewer.

    For more information, see Section 26.3.5, Managing the Progress of Reviewers.

  1. Approve the actions taken by the Reviewers.

    For more information, see Section 26.3.6, Approving and Completing the Review.

  1. (Conditional) Check the status of manual fulfillment activities. If the process is automated or uses external workflows, Identity Governance sends the changeset to Identity Manager for processing.

    For more information, see Section 26.3.7, Viewing Fulfillment Status.

  1. (Conditional) If you have authorization to view fulfillment status in the fulfillment page, confirm the completion of all fulfillment tasks.

  1. (Conditional) If a review run generated a changeset, collect and publish all identities and the application sources related to the review run.

    You might not have the authorization in Identity Governance to collect and publish. Someone with the Global Administrator or Data Administrator authorization can perform this action.

  1. (Conditional) If you are the auditor, check the status of the review audit.

    For more information, see Section 26.3.8, Managing the Audit Process.

  1. (Optional) View run history.

    For more information, see Viewing Run History

26.3.2 Starting a Review Run

In Identity Governance, you can see all review definitions assigned to you, including the date that the Review Administrator specified the review should be run.

  1. In Identity Governance, select Reviews > Definitions.

  2. (Optional) Click the gear icon to change column display options. For example, to add the micro certification column to your display drag Micro-Certifications in progress to the list of selected columns. You can then view the number of micro certifications and view the run history of the micro certification review.

  3. In the Actions column, select Start Review on the row of the definition that you want to run.

    NOTE:For micro certification reviews, this step is not required and the Actions column is unavailable. Micro certification reviews are triggered automatically based on remediation setup and do not require manual action.

  4. (Optional) Change the end date calculated based on your review definition duration settings to a custom date and time.

  5. Select Start and Go Live.

26.3.3 Managing a Review Run

You can view the status of the review runs in progress, send reminder emails, change the assignments for reviewers and the auditor, override or approve reviewer decisions, complete or terminate the review run, and approve the completed review.

  1. In Identity Governance, select Reviews > Reviews.

    Identity Governance displays a list of runs in progress and their status.

  2. (Optional) Click the gear icon to view additional column options and customize column display. For example, you can drag Started by to the list of selected columns to view whether a review was started on demand, on schedule, or by micro certification process.

  3. Select the review you want to manage.

  4. To see the status of each of the review items, select Review Items tab.

  5. (Optional) Download list of reviewers, a reviewer’s queue or review items to a CSV file.

    1. Select the Reviewers tab and click Download reviewers to download list of all reviewers with their queue summary.

    2. Select the Reviewers tab, select the number of items in the In Queue column of a reviewer, then click Download all as CSV to download the reviewer’s queue details.

    3. Select the Review Items tab and click Download all review items as CSV to download all review items in the review.

    4. Select the Your Review Items tab, to download all review items assigned to you for review, selectively download review items by selecting a grouping option or searching for values for columns included in Configuration > Review Display Customization menu. For example, if you want to review only items in exception queue, you can select Group by exceptions. If you want to include items whose decision you had previously submitted, you can select the filter icon and include submitted items.

    NOTE:Type a meaningful description for your file, and save the file to the central download area of the application. Click the download icon on the application title bar and then download the file. For more information about downloading options and examples, see Section 21.2.7, Downloading Reviewers and Review Item Lists.

  6. Act on review items either individually or by using the bulk selection options. Actions you can take depend on settings in the review definition and might include:

    • View activity to see review item details

    • Override a Reviewer’s decision to make a decision final and remove it from all reviewer queues

    • Change reviewer to transfer the review item to another reviewer

    • Approve to move the decision to fulfillment while allowing the review to continue

    • View fulfillment status to view the status of review requests such as removing a permission, or assigning a new user.

  7. To complete the review in its current state, accepting all final decisions and marking items without final decisions as No decision or as other decision specified in the review definition’s expiration policy, select Complete in the review completion overview at the top of the review.

  8. To move all final decisions to fulfillment while allowing the review to continue, select Approve in the review completion overview at the top of the review.

  9. To cancel the review, select Terminate in the review completion overview at the top of the review.

Why would I override a Reviewer’s action?

As the owner of the software application being reviewed, you might disagree with a Reviewer’s decision that grants user access to the application. Alternatively, you might see the need for a user to have access where the Reviewer did not. For example, you know that a manager in Human Resources requires administrative permissions to the application.

Why would I complete or approve an in-progress review?

As the owner of a review, you might want to implement decisions that have been made without waiting for all reviewers to complete their tasks. Approving individual review items or the overall review sends final decisions to fulfillment while keeping the review running. Completing an in-progress review accepts final decisions, ends the review, marks items without decisions as No decision or other decision specified in the review definition’s expiration policy, and sends items with decisions to fulfillment.

26.3.4 Modifying the Settings of a Review Run

As the Review Owner, you can edit the review time frame and escalation timeout; change the Escalation Reviewer, the assigned Auditor, and the Review Owner; and add multiple Review Owners. Depending on your authorization assignment, you might also be able to modify the full review definition. Any changes you make to the review definition when a review is in progress will apply only to subsequent review instances. However, this section explains how to perform simple modifications to an active review run.

  1. In Identity Governance, select Reviews > Reviews.

  2. Select the active review run that you want to modify.

  3. To determine whether the number of review tasks can be performed in the specified time frame, complete the following steps:

    1. Under the review name, select more, and then select the edit icon.

    2. Observe the number of review items to be completed.

    3. Compare the estimated number of review items with the date in Review end.

    4. Change the end date for the review if needed.

  4. Change or add review owners if needed.

  5. Modify the appropriate settings, then select Save.

Why would I modify the review’s time frame?

When Review Administrators create a review, they can estimate the number of users, permissions, accounts, and review items affected by the review. Then they set the time frame for the review. However, that estimate is based on a snapshot of the Identity Governance catalog at the time that they created the review definition. Depending on when you run the review, the number of accounts might have increased or decreased considerably. The time frame might no longer match the current state of the catalog.

Why would I change the Review Owner?

In general, the Review Owner is the owner of the software application with user accounts that the review run affects. However, your authorization in the organization might have changed. You can assign ownership of the review run to an individual more suited to the task. You might also want to assign multiple Review Owners.

Why would I change the Auditor?

If the assigned Auditor is not available to perform the tasks for the review run, you can assign a different individual as the auditor.

26.3.5 Managing the Progress of Reviewers

To ensure that the review run stays on schedule, you can view the progress of each Reviewer. You can also reassign tasks to a different Reviewer and override a Reviewer’s action for a review item. Reviewers can change the reviewer for any items unless otherwise specified in the review definition.

  1. In Identity Governance, select Reviews > Reviews.

  2. Select the active review run that you want to manage.

  3. Under Reviewers, select the name of the Reviewer that you want to manage.

  4. Observe the actions taken by the Reviewer.

    You can view the items that have not been completed or all review items. You can send reminder emails, using the Nudge option, for items not yet reviewed. You can also change sorting of the items based on the selectable column headers.

  5. (Optional) Click Nudge to compose and send a reminder email to the Reviewer or select multiple reviewers and click Actions > Nudge.

  6. (Optional) To assign a review item to a different Reviewer, select Change Reviewer or select multiple reviewers and click Actions > Change Reviewer.

  7. (Optional) To review a Reviewer’s decision, select View Activity for the task.

Why would I reassign a review item?

If the Reviewer is not able to perform one or more tasks for the review run, you can assign a different individual to the authorization. For example, the Reviewer might be sick or on vacation. Also, some Reviewers might complete tasks faster than others. You might want to reassign items from the slower Reviewers.

What if I have multiple reviewers?

If the reviewer is listed as Multiple Reviewers, then more than one reviewer shares the responsibility for making a decision on the review item. You can see the members of the shared queue and send reminder emails to all of the members or delegates, if a mapping exists. When a reviewer of a review item in a Multiple Reviewers queue is changed, the item is no longer under shared responsibility.

26.3.6 Approving and Completing the Review

Review Owners can complete, terminate, review, or partially approve the decisions at any time during a review run. If you want to modify or remove a review item, all access change requests are sent to fulfillment, which is the step where approved changes are implemented. The approval process allows the Review Owner to confirm the actions taken by all Reviewers. After approval, a review can be optionally routed to a Review Auditor for legal acceptance.

  1. In Identity Governance, select Reviews > Reviews.

  2. Select the active review that you want to manage.

  3. Observe the actions taken by the Reviewers.

  4. (Optional) Override actions as needed.

  5. To approve the decisions made in the review run, select Approve next to a review item or select multiple review items and select Actions > Approve.

  6. (Optional) Add a comment.

  7. (Conditional) If the review run included changes to user accounts, ensure that the affected data sources are collected and published.

    After the administrator collects and publishes the data sources, Identity Governance updates the status of the fulfillment items.

26.3.7 Viewing Fulfillment Status

The review and validation process that begins with data collection and publishing concludes with change request reconciliation. Identity Governance can track the status of change requests fulfilled manually or through automatic or workflow-based provisioning. As the Review Owner, you can View fulfillment status for review items, with decisions like Remove or Modify, that generate a change request. You can see the fulfillment status for each review item as soon as the review run is partially or fully approved, and the status continues to be updated until the completion of the fulfillment process.

For more information about the fulfillment process, see the following sections:

26.3.8 Managing the Audit Process

Some review definitions require a Review Auditor to certify the results of the review run. Review Auditors are individuals who have read-only access to a review run. They cannot modify or delete decisions. They can:

  • View the review definition used for the review run

  • View reviewers and decision statistics

  • View review items and related activity

  • Download list of reviewers and their respective queue statistics as a CSV file

  • Download list of all review items as a CSV file

  • Accept the review

  • Enter comments for rejection and reject the review

    NOTE:All decisions and run history are retained even if the review is rejected.

Usually, Identity Governance sends an email notification to the Review Auditor when a review run is waiting for acceptance. The Review Auditor can then log in and can review all details and Accept or Reject the review. The Review Auditor must enter comments when rejecting a review.

26.3.9 Viewing Run History

Identity Governance tracks all the reviews and maintains a history of review runs associated with a review definition. The run history is searchable and sortable, and displays:

  • Start and end date of a review run

  • Status including certification percentage

  • Review owner

  • List of review items and associated actions including change reviewer and modify actions, and remove comments if any

  • Fulfillment status of review items

To view the run history:

  1. Select Reviews > Definitions.

  2. Search for the review definition and click the review name, or directly click the review name.

  3. Select View run history.