Process of associating approval state with a product version. A product version begins its existence at a working approval state. When the version is at some level of maturity, its approval state is elevated to a higher approval state (that is, promoted). Then, further changes must be carefully controlled and generally require the data set demoted to a working state. One or more promotions can occur successively higher approval states (between working and approved) to represent various intermediate levels of review or progressive approval.