I have work Items the require multiple 'Levels' of Approvals.  For instance, Dev Team, then PMO, Then Executive.  I want to create a query that shows work items in these buckets based on approval status.  So, I create three approvals, One for DevTem One For PMO and then One for Executive.  Here's the fun part.

Query All Work Items Pending DevTeam Approvals (Works)

Approval Descriptors>Name IS 'DevTeam' AND Approval Descriptors>Cumulative State IS pending

Query All Work Items Pending PMO Approvals (Does Not Work)
This query should only report the PMO Approvals is Pending AND DevTeam Approvals is Approved

(Approval Descriptors>Name IS 'DevTeam' AND Approval Descriptors>Cumulative State IS Approved)
AND (Approval Descriptiors>Name IS 'PMO' AND Approval Descriptors>Cumulative State IS pending)

If we just reuse the first query and change the DevTeam to PMO it does not give use what we want.  The PMO team does not want to see pending approvals until the DevTeam approves the work item.  This happens because the three approvals are added when the work item is created.

I believe the workaround could be only add the Approvals after each team completes their approvals.  Trying to avoid that workaround.

Any Suggestions?