How to handle the situation in CoE starter kit when users are not deleting the flow even if they don't need it

[Dwarikanath1502]

Hello Team,

I’m implementing the CoE Starter Kit in our organization and I’m currently testing the Admin | Inactivity notifications v2 (Start Approval for Flows) feature.

As I understand it, this flow sends an approval request to makers to delete their flows that haven’t been used for the last six months(duration is configurable).

My concern is the following:

What happens if a maker keeps rejecting the deletion request, even if they don’t actually need the flow anymore?
After another six months, the same approval request will be sent, and the maker could reject it again. In this case, the environment will never be cleaned up and unused flows will remain.

Is there any recommended way within the CoE Starter Kit to handle this scenario (for example, auto-cleanup after repeated rejections, or a different escalation path)?

[Dwarikanath1502]

Hello @mohamrizwa ,

I hope you are doing well.

Could you please assist me with the following issue?

Thank you in advance for your support.

[Star-Donovan]

"As I understand it, this flow sends an approval request to makers to delete their flows that haven’t been used for the last six months(duration is configurable)."

Not quite.

• for Apps, it's if they haven't been used OR haven't been modified.
• for Flows, it only checks if they've been modified. Microsoft has said that is by design - see Inactivity process also picking up active scheduled flow #6094 (comment))

[Dwarikanath1502]

Hello @Star-Donovan,

Thanks for your response.

I understand this is the way how CoE starter kit functions. But my question is bit different let me explain it again:

What happens if a maker keeps rejecting the deletion request, even if they don’t actually need the flow anymore?
After another six months, the same approval request will be sent, and the maker could reject it again. In this case, the environment will never be cleaned up and unused flows will remain.

Question:

Is there any way/flow in CoE starter kit to handle this scenario?

[Star-Donovan]

I suppose you can manually change the rejection to an approval in the "Approval Response" (aka msdyn_flow_approvalresponse) table.

Sorry, I just latched on to that point because I hate that the criteria for inactivity differs between flows and apps.
I think was something mentioned in the December Office Hours about being able to finally capture flow last run (and thus potentially make it consistent between them, even if it would require a customization/unmanaged layer). Since the Office Hours have not resumed in March as previously promised, however, who knows the status of that change? Therefore it's important that anyone who didn't know that the "Inactive" label is determined differently for flows vs apps be made aware.