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Level 2
Oct 7, 2021 2:49 AM UTC
Question

Hi there, just reaching out to see if anyone working for a Creative agency is struggling with the Workload balancer when it comes to creatives viewing the work they have on? I am unable to find a simplified or visual view.

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64 replies

Level 2
Oct 8, 2021 8:08 PM UTC

Your question jumped out at me because we are a creative agency within a university and we are really struggling with the time it takes to make the Workload Balancer anywhere near accurate. Our creatives want flexibility and don't want to be expected to work on projects in prescribed blocks of time. If we assign a task for 5 hours and give a 1-week duration, Workfront spaces it out with 1 hour per day for the user. But creatives don't work like that. Our project managers are spending a huge amount of time trying to keep up with what everyone is working on (or not) on any given day so they can move hours around in the project so that the Workload Balancer is as close to reality as possible. It's not uncommon for us to think someone has capacity, per the Workload Balancer, only to find out that they are swamped. Would really love to talk to someone else at a creative agency to see how they accurately account for creative time and if they are relying on the Workload Balancer to assess capacity and make assignments. Also, how the project manager(s) keeps up with what the creatives are doing day to day.

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Level 2
Oct 10, 2021 7:18 PM UTC

Hi @Tammy Weaver-Stoike‚ I would love to connect and have a discussion about this if that works for you. I really would love to connect with another agency to discuss our current issues and see if there are any solves. What would be the best way to book in some time to chat this through? Also thank you for replying its nice to know I'm not alone with this one.

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kynabaker16
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
Oct 11, 2021 9:35 PM UTC

I love that you guys are discussing things like this! Just so you guys know that if you don't want to share email addresses publicly in the community threads to set up time to meet, you can directly message another user on here by going to their profile and finding the "message" button toward the top.

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Level 2
Oct 11, 2021 9:41 PM UTC

Thank you so much Kyna that is really helpful!

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Level 10
Oct 11, 2021 10:19 PM UTC

I just hope you can come back to this thread with learnings, as we have a similar challenge and was looking forward to the info/discussion being in-forum. :-(

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Level 2
Oct 11, 2021 10:31 PM UTC

Thanks Kevin me too! If we come up with a solve will definitely put it in this post. Also happy to connect with you if you would like to possibly talk through any solves.

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RandyRoberts
Community Advisor
Community Advisor
Oct 12, 2021 7:28 PM UTC

We've struggled with it as well but we're not technically a creative agency. We have a large creative department but isn't just creatives that struggle with it.

Anyone, not just creatives, who has a 5 hour task with a week to do it will ever spend 1 hour a day on it like the balancer says. They may split it up over 2 days or just do it all in one day but never 1 hour a day for 5 days. I don't believe it reflects how people really work.

I think the balancer is an OK weather vane sort of tool. You can see which way the wind is blowing but not how fast, how hot or cold or how wet.

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Level 2
Oct 12, 2021 7:43 PM UTC

Thanks @Randy Roberts‚ for your comments. We find it holds a higher level view for producers, directors and resource managers however our creatives are struggling. There is no simple view that is easy to digest. A few of us are going to meet up to discuss these issues. If we come up with any type of solution we will share on this thread.

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Level 3
Oct 18, 2021 7:53 AM UTC

Hi, we are struggling with Workfront Balancer as well. Our creative studio refused to move from the Scheduler and we are looking at building our own scheduling tool or integrating WF with another resourcing tool. @Kyna Baker - inactive‚ can Workfront address those issues? I've raised this a few times with my account manager but nothing really happened. WF Balancer is ok but it feels like it's not fully developed yet, would love if Workfront could leave Workfront Scheduler alone instead of replacing it. We will miss the easy calendar view our users love.

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kynabaker16
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
Oct 18, 2021 4:48 PM UTC

Hi Marta,

I have passed this thread along to the product manager of the Workload Balancer! I know they are actively working on improvements, so thank you for passing along your feedback.

Kyna

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Level 3
Oct 18, 2021 2:48 PM UTC

Yes please! Any relevant solves or enhancements for this would be appreciated. My designers struggle with the same issues especially since our client services group is so small that we can't possibly be adjusting timelines to keep up with changes in projects.

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Level 2
Oct 18, 2021 2:58 PM UTC

Susan and Marta,

I've scheduled a Zoom call for a few of us who are struggling with the Workload Balancer -- it's today (Monday) at 3 p.m. (EST). If you'd like, I'd be happy to add you to the invite, please just provide your email address.

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Level 3
Oct 18, 2021 2:59 PM UTC

boses@gojo.com

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Level 2
Oct 18, 2021 3:02 PM UTC

Thanks Susan, I just sent you a meeting invite.

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MaryFox1967
Level 2
Oct 18, 2021 8:09 PM UTC

I missed most of this thread, but the Workload Balancer is NOT an effective way to schedule projects. Maybe I'm missing something but the way we have our instance structured, I can assign jobs within the project using scheduler by role. I'm finding the workload balancer, I have to assign each task which is very time consuming.

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animkrtchyan
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
Nov 1, 2021 8:13 PM UTC

Hi Mary, assigning users in bulk by role is coming to Workload Balancer with the upcoming release. Thanks.

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Kundanism
Level 10
Nov 2, 2021 9:53 AM UTC

Hi @Ani Mkrtchyan‚

That is good but the there is no feature to move the task in the users timeline like we do in Gantt chart of project. Also, I have session to test this Workload Balancer but there is no option to change the start date or duration. Which is extremely helpful for project / resource manager to manage balance between user about workload.

mvh

kundan.

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Level 3
Oct 18, 2021 8:20 PM UTC

@Tammy Weaver-Stoike‚ Unfortunately I was off-site today and missed your email. Please share if you came up with something on the call. It would be good to see if we are struggling with the same issues so maybe Workfront could address this for us. Many thanks

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Kundanism
Level 10
Oct 19, 2021 9:35 AM UTC

Hi @Tammy Weaver-Stoike‚

Its good that you organized a call on Workload balancer. From my belief a lot of improvement is required. Even assigning tasks in new update last week. The task can be assigned to from un-assignment to assignment based upon filters created. But still we are missing moving task in the same timeline which was available and very helpful in legacy Team task view (now removed). I agree with @Mary Fox‚ the usage was also good, but still scheduling misses the same thing and many more. In this regard, I also tried to communicated many times with Workfront including @Kyna Baker - inactive‚ and others.

Seems resource planning and management is still a second priority for Workfront. But from my experience and knowledge it is a really big challenge in each industry type.

Have a nice day!

Mvh

Kundan.

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Level 3
Oct 21, 2021 4:11 PM UTC

Following, as this is an issue for us as well.

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Level 2
Oct 21, 2021 4:21 PM UTC

Amy, send me your email if you'd like to be added to the Zoom call I've scheduled for next week. A group of us had a great discussion last week and decided to continue it with another call. It's Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. (EST).

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Community Advisor
Oct 21, 2021 8:02 PM UTC

We struggle with this as well. I'm balancing & re-balancing schedules constantly and it seems like a losing battle - you have everything perfect, then someone pushes out a date or enters time-off and you're back to the drawing board. I'd love the chance to participate in your Zoom call, but I have another meeting. Please share what you can in this thread, I'll be looking forward to hearing your feedback 😊

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