Implementation Notes for Testing Approval Timeout Behavior

Approval steps need tested timeout behavior because an expired approval that silently blocks or silently proceeds are both incidents waiting for a quiet week to end.

Every approval gate has three endings: granted, denied, and nobody answered. The third one is the least designed and the most common.

Timeout cases to test

• Expiry mid-review routes the work to a named fallback owner.
• The workflow records timeout as its own outcome, not as denial.
• Re-request after expiry requires fresh context, not a stale replay.

Use the architecture guide, examples, and audit schema to prove expired approvals land on a designed path.