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Level 2
January 25, 2023
New

Workfront Delegations - Problems & Suggestions

  • January 25, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 582 views

I recently had a very frustrating time trying to figure out how we could use delegations when people are away. I see a few have posted on this subject. Here’s my two cents worth.

Current Method

User goes to Workfront Home/Worklist page. Click Delegations.

Enter a date range and delegate, Save.

This creates a delegation for the user's tasks that have a Planned Completion Date in the specified date range.

The delegate can now perform the delegated tasks, issues, approvals etc as long as they have the appropriate Access Level.

Problems

  1. Delegation delegates specific tasks to the delegate rather than just allowing the delegate to perform any of the delegator's tasks during their absence.
  2. The delegated tasks are those with a Planned Completion Date in the specified date range. The Start Date of that range cannot be earlier than today. Any tasks with a Planned Completion Date before the start date cannot be delegated. These would be the oldest tasks the delegator has outstanding and thus the most in need of delegation and work.
  3. The delegated tasks cannot be seen anywhere except in the Worklist. We don't use the Worklist at all. All users have a dash with reports of work that needs doing.
  4. The delegated tasks cannot be reported on. The only reference to delegations in the standard reporting system or API is the USRDEL object. This object can be used with an EXISTS filter to report ALL the tasks assigned to the delegator, viz:

EXISTS:1:$$OBJCODE=USRDEL

EXISTS:1:fromUserID=FIELD:assignedToID

EXISTS:1:toUserID=$$USERID

However there does not appear to be a method where that can be restricted to tasks that can actually be performed by the delegate i.e. those with a PCD in the range.

Suggestions

  1. Change the method of operation so that delegation provides the delegate with permissions to perform ANY of the delegator's assigned tasks/issues/approvals during their absence (given they have the appropriate access level). The date range should be when the person will be away - Planned Completion Dates then have nothing to do with it. OR
  2. If we must use the current method of delegating specific tasks by date range of Planned Completion Dates, allow the Start Date of the range to be in the past so older, urgent tasks can be included in the delegated work.
  3. Provide reporting tools so that delegated tasks can be included in reports of assigned and delegated work by user. How does the Worklist pick them up?
  4. Allow a user to delegate their work to multiple people, or perhaps a team, so the work can be spread around.
  5. Provide the facility for planners/managers to create delegations for others in their groups/teams.

 No doubt others will also have some suggestions.

2 replies

Madalyn_Destafney
Community Advisor
Community Advisor
May 11, 2023

I'll add to this that we need a way to bring delegation visibility into task views. The delegation feature is great, but needs to be fleshed out more in other places in WF to be able to use it more easily/get value from it. Want a column in a view for 'delegated to' or something like that.

If this helped you, please mark correct to help others : )
Level 1
May 27, 2026

Hi team, pretty new to WF journey - we are also facing issues where there is native delegation reporting, however interested to understand if Adobe has had any traction with this at a task level? 

The response I am getting from Adobe Support suggests that it’s not going to be available any time soon, however thought I would ask!

 

Thanks for reaching out regarding the report behavior.

Currently, task approval reports in Workfront only display approvals that are directly assigned to the user. Approvals that have been delegated to you are not included in standard reporting fields, which is why they are not appearing in your report.

Regarding delegation visibility, there is a User Delegation report available in Workfront that allows you to see delegation relationships (i.e., who has delegated to whom and for what time period). However, this report only provides delegation details and does not link or pull in the actual approval objects, so it cannot be used to report on delegated approvals within task approval reports.

As a workaround, you can review delegated approvals in the Approvals widget or Home area, where they are surfaced for action. However, for reporting purposes, including delegated approvals in task approval reports is currently a limitation.

If this functionality is important for your use case, we recommend submitting a feature request so the product team can consider enhancing reporting capabilities in this area.

Please let me know if you’d like help with that.