How to design approval routes and structure governance in Wovex
Pathways and stages define how Value Cases move through approval and oversight in Wovex.
A Pathway represents an approval route.
A Stage represents a position within that route.
For example, a pathway might represent a standard business case approval process, while stages might represent checkpoints such as Outline case, Full approval, Delivery authorised, and Closed.
Together, they shape how cases progress, how approval confidence is reflected, and how governance conversations are structured.
Pathways determine how Value Cases appear in List View and Board View in Clarity.
List View groups Value Cases by pathway and stage and allows portfolio comparison.
Board View displays stages as columns and shows cases as cards moving through governance stages.
Once pathways and stages are configured, these views become the primary way governance discussions are managed.
This article explains how to design pathways and stages, create Value Cases, and manage their progress through governance.
Users configure pathways and stages in:
Settings → Advanced → Value Case Pathways
This is where admins define the governance routes and approval stages used by Value Cases.
Value Cases are available on Advanced and Enterprise plans.
Advanced supports one pathway per environment
Enterprise supports multiple pathways
Guest users cannot access Value Cases.
Or talk to Wovex about upgrading your plan.
Who can manage Pathways?
Pathways and stages are governance configuration tools.
Only Admins should create or edit them. Admins configure pathways and stages.
Standard users can move Value Cases between stages but should not redesign governance routes.
This separation keeps governance intentional rather than accidental.
Setting up for the first time
When introducing Value Case governance:
Create a Pathway
Add and order Stages
Assign realistic approval probabilities
Create your first Value Case
Place it in the correct Pathway and Stage
Only once this structure exists do Board View and weighted portfolio totals become meaningful.
The pathway defines the route.
The stages define the checkpoints.
The Value Case travels through them.
Creating a Value Case
Once pathways and stages are configured, you can begin creating Value Cases that move through them.
To create a Value Case:
Navigate to Clarity → Value Case
Select + New
Enter the core details such as name, owner, dates, and classification fields
Choose the appropriate Pathway
Select the starting Stage
The case now sits within your governance structure and will appear in both List View and Board View.
Using Pathways for Proportionate Governance
Not every piece of work deserves the same level of scrutiny.
A £20,000 internal improvement should not follow the same approval route as a £50m infrastructure investment. If everything follows the same path, governance either becomes excessive or meaningless.
Pathways allow you to apply proportionate governance deliberately.
For example:
A Light-touch pathway may have only a few stages, keeping oversight visible without slowing delivery.
A Standard change pathway may require outline and full approval before work begins.
A Major investment pathway may include structured decision gates before funding is released.
A Digital or IT pathway may include technical assurance and architecture sign-off.
A Regulated pathway may mirror external gateway or compliance reviews.
Each pathway reflects a real governance pattern. The stages inside it represent genuine decision points.
Because stages can carry approval probabilities, portfolio totals can reflect confidence as well as ambition. Early-stage ideas contribute less to weighted totals than fully approved commitments.
This keeps governance:
visible
proportionate
financially realistic
aligned to how your organisation actually works
1. Creating a Pathway
A Pathway defines the governance route for a specific type of Value Case.
You might create different pathways for:
Major investments
Standard business cases
IT or digital change
Contract management
Light-touch improvements
To create one:
Go to the Pathway configuration area
Select Create New Pathway
Enter a clear, descriptive Title
Set the Display Order
You can also choose which summary totals appear in List View, such as Financial Benefit, Cost, and Weighted Value. These settings shape how portfolio oversight is presented.
Once saved, the pathway becomes available across Value Cases.
2. Adding and Ordering Stages
Stages represent governance checkpoints within a pathway.
Each stage should mark a meaningful shift in approval status, scrutiny level, or lifecycle position.
Examples include:
Outline case agreed
Full approval
Delivery authorised
Benefits tracking
Closed
When adding a stage:
Give it a clear Title
Set the Display Order (left-to-right in Board View)
Assign an Approval Probability
Stage probabilities
Using stage probabilities is optional.
Where used, probabilities reflect the likelihood that a Value Case at that stage will progress to full approval or completion. Some organisations use them to reflect confidence in approval or delivery progress when reviewing expected value across multiple cases.
Where used, probabilities are typically expressed as percentages between 0% and 100%.
For example:
early idea stages may carry lower probabilities
approved stages may carry higher probabilities
Accepted is treated as full approval
Rejected carries 0%
Closed indicates completion rather than refusal
Weighted financial totals adjust automatically based on stage probability.
This allows portfolio views to reflect confidence as well as ambition, ensuring early ideas contribute less to expected value than fully approved commitments.
3. Assigning a Value Case
Every Value Case must sit within:
one Pathway
one Stage within that pathway
These determine the case’s governance route, approval confidence, board position, and contribution to weighted totals.
When creating or editing a Value Case:
Select the Pathway
Select a Stage within that pathway
If the pathway changes, the case defaults to the first stage unless another is selected.
Moving a case between stages updates weighted calculations immediately.
4. Governance activity in a Value Case
Alongside stage progression, governance activity is captured directly in the Value Case history.
Notes, Tasks, Decisions, Commitments and Meetings appear together in a structured timeline, helping teams understand what decisions were made and why.
5. Tasks
Tasks created within a Value Case can be assigned to Wovex users. Assignees can review their tasks in Extras → Tasks, which shows tasks assigned to them across the workspaces they can access.
Tasks are always linked to a Value Case and are not created independently.
6. List View
List View provides structured oversight across cases in a pathway.
It shows key attributes such as Stage, Owner, Financial Benefit and Cost, alongside automatically calculated totals, including weighted financial values.
This view is particularly useful for financial review and portfolio-level discussion.
7. Board View
Board View displays stages as columns in display order.
Value Cases appear as cards and can be dragged between stages.
Moving a case:
changes its approval probability
updates weighted totals
visually reflects governance progression
This makes it especially effective during governance meetings where stage movement is being agreed live.
8. Moving a Value Case through stages
As governance milestones are reached, Value Cases move between stages.
Cases can be moved:
by updating the Stage field in the Value Case record
by dragging the case between columns in Board View
Moving a case updates its governance position and, where stage probabilities are used, immediately updates weighted portfolio totals.
This makes stage movement a natural part of governance meetings where approvals or decisions are agreed live.
9. Creating Assurance Snaphots
At important governance checkpoints, teams may capture assurance snapshots from within a Value Case.
These preserve the state of the case and its supporting evidence at a specific point in time, helping support governance and assurance reviews.
Teams often capture assurance snapshots at key governance checkpoints such as approvals, sign-off meetings, or review stages.
View the Value Case and select Actions → Create Assurance Snapshot.
This summarises all the current field settings, attributes, and related data and reports as a Note.
10. Evolving Pathways
Governance models are not static.
Admins can:
Add or reorder stages
Adjust approval probabilities
Create additional pathways
Retire outdated pathways
Changes to stage probabilities immediately affect weighted totals, so adjustments should be deliberate.
Pathways should evolve to reflect real governance practice, not historic structure.
Designing Effective Pathways
When designing pathways:
Ensure each stage reflects a genuine decision point
Avoid unnecessary complexity
Align probabilities with realistic confidence
Use Accepted and Closed deliberately
The aim is clarity and proportionality, not administrative burden.
A well-designed pathway makes approval transparent and portfolio value credible.
Summary
Value Cases provide a structured way to organise approval, governance, and evidence around work that delivers value.
Pathways define the approval routes cases follow, while stages represent the checkpoints within those routes.
Together, they make governance visible, structured, and comparable across initiatives.
In practice, organisations typically:
• define pathways that reflect their real governance processes
• create stages that represent meaningful decision points
• assign Value Cases to the correct pathway and stage
• track governance activity, tasks, and evidence within the case
• move cases through stages as approvals and delivery progress
When designed well, pathways and stages make governance conversations clearer and help organisations maintain a consistent, defensible view of expected value across their portfolios.