Cross Project Predecessors for Tasks - Pros & Cons | Community
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KierstenKollins
Community Advisor
KierstenKollinsCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
September 19, 2023
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Cross Project Predecessors for Tasks - Pros & Cons

  • September 19, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1043 views

Our operations team is exploring the Cross Project Predecessors feature for a possible use case.

 

I have taken a look at the pages below but wanted to ask this group if there are any pros/cons you have encountered using this setup.

 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/tasks/use-task-predecessors/cross-project-predecessors.html?lang=en

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront-learn/tutorials-workfront/manage-work/intermediate-projects/understand-cross-project-predecessors.html?lang=en

 

Thank you in advance.

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    Best answer by KristenS_WF

    Cross-project predecessors are a necessity for us for certain product lines.

     

    A few years ago, we split the development of our core annual learning products into front-end and back-end projects.  The front-end projects (or modules) contain content development tasks (writing, copyediting, etc.), and each project is akin to a book chapter.  The back-end projects (or deliverables) are the for-sale formats of a course and feature different workflows depending on the format.

     

    We use cross-project predecessors to link the modules and deliverables.  So, we may have course family AAA, with 8 module projects: AAA24-01, AAA24-02, etc.  The Course 1 deliverable might be made up of content from all 8 modules, while the Course 2 deliverable might include mods 1-3, 5.

     

    Having cross-project predecessors does enable us to know when the back-end deliverable projects can/should launch (the system we used prior to WF didn't have cross-project predecessors, and we had to manually track the mod/dev relationships to know when to launch the back-end projects).

     

    Reporting is a bit challenging.  Because we have multiple back-end projects relying upon the same front-end modules (and because those back-end workflows can vary), we can't use a single milestone path across the front- and back-ends.  One workaround we've used is to create a task report (consisting of the back-end launch tasks where the cross-project predecessors reside) and use a collection to show the cross-project predecessors and their respective completion percentages).

     

    1 reply

    KristenS_WF
    KristenS_WFAccepted solution
    Level 6
    September 19, 2023

    Cross-project predecessors are a necessity for us for certain product lines.

     

    A few years ago, we split the development of our core annual learning products into front-end and back-end projects.  The front-end projects (or modules) contain content development tasks (writing, copyediting, etc.), and each project is akin to a book chapter.  The back-end projects (or deliverables) are the for-sale formats of a course and feature different workflows depending on the format.

     

    We use cross-project predecessors to link the modules and deliverables.  So, we may have course family AAA, with 8 module projects: AAA24-01, AAA24-02, etc.  The Course 1 deliverable might be made up of content from all 8 modules, while the Course 2 deliverable might include mods 1-3, 5.

     

    Having cross-project predecessors does enable us to know when the back-end deliverable projects can/should launch (the system we used prior to WF didn't have cross-project predecessors, and we had to manually track the mod/dev relationships to know when to launch the back-end projects).

     

    Reporting is a bit challenging.  Because we have multiple back-end projects relying upon the same front-end modules (and because those back-end workflows can vary), we can't use a single milestone path across the front- and back-ends.  One workaround we've used is to create a task report (consisting of the back-end launch tasks where the cross-project predecessors reside) and use a collection to show the cross-project predecessors and their respective completion percentages).

     

      KierstenKollins
      Community Advisor
      KierstenKollinsCommunity AdvisorAuthor
      Community Advisor
      September 19, 2023

      This is very helpful! Thank you!

        Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore
        Community Advisor
        Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStoreCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        September 21, 2023

         

        Hi @kierstenkollins,

         

        To the reporting challenges around cross project predecessors @kristens_wf  mentioned, I invite you to consider our Timeline solution, which lets you choose one or more Critical Tasks, set their Path Colors, then view Timeline to "crawl" the resulting multiple Critical Paths through all cross project predecessor feeder projects.

         

         

        Regards,

        Doug

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