Approve tasks not assigned to me

Question

I have created a 3-tier Approval workflow by sharepoint designer 2010 action "Start Approval Process" for a Service Request List.

The three approvers can be assumed as team lead, project manager, department manager.

Since there is a risk that the first approver may be Out-Of-Office and the Request will be blocked by him/ her for a long time, I have to grant high level apporver (department manager) proper permission that he/she can approve tasks assigned to low level approver.

My problem is, when the high level approver tries to approve the low level task, an error displays in page saying he/she is not the "Assinged to" person and cannot approve the task. I have tried to grant the high level approver with even "Full Control" permission of the Task List, but does not work.

Does anyone know which permission shall I grant for high level approver?

Answer 1

You can set yourself or SharePoint security group as owner using SharePoint Designer, then it'll be possible to approve such tasks. Read blog post for details.

There are also third party tools for task delegation on codeplex. Look at SharePoint Task Delegation Manager.