Almost every approval workflow we saw before building Nuclear Software was addressed to a person, not a role. That works fine until the person is on vacation, out sick, or has simply changed teams and nobody updated the automation. The request just... waits.
Route to the role, not the person
Approval routing in Nuclear Software is defined against roles and locations, not individual names. A shift-swap request from the downtown location routes to whoever currently holds the "location manager" role there — automatically, without anyone maintaining a list of names.
When someone changes roles or leaves the team, routing updates itself. There's no stale automation quietly pointing at someone who can no longer approve anything.
A visible trail, not a black box
Every approval carries a visible trail: who it routed to, when it was picked up, and who ultimately signed off. That trail is what turns "I thought someone approved this" into an actual, checkable fact rather than a guess.
- Requests escalate automatically if they sit unapproved past a set window.
- Delegation is explicit and time-bound, not an inbox rule someone forgot about.
- Every decision is timestamped and attributed, for audits and for peace of mind.
The result is fewer requests stuck for days waiting on someone who's out of office, and a much shorter list of "who approved this?" conversations at the end of the week.