Every organization has at least one person who can steer things back on track when the unexpected happens to ensure that strategic plans are executed, and executed well. Whether or not that individual or team of people have the defined role of project manager, they are the ones responsible for bringing multiple departments and stakeholders on a journey, together, to turn project plans into action and to communicate all changes along the way. Outlined below are several features and solutions Workfront offers to make that job easier.
UTILIZING PROJECT TEMPLATES FOR QUICK SETUP
Having a strong process before Workfront is what makes Workfront work. With a well defined and clearly diagrammed process, you can reflect that in Workfront using templates.
Customizable project templates capture all of the repeatable processes, information, and settings associated with your projects in a single place. By using project templates, similar or recurring projects can easily be created, adjusted based on new variables, and sent to the appropriate resources with consistency and minimal error.
For many customers, project templates are used for new hire checklists to help expedite onboarding and promote quick end user adoption. The screenshot below provides a sample onboarding project template for a Planner, based on suggested content and sequence from the downloadable DIY Training Toolkits.

MANAGE TEMPLATE UPDATES IN A REQUEST QUEUE
As the company grows and processes evolve, original templates will need to be adjusted based on new demands. Rather than making updates on the fly, set up an opportunity log request queue to house all refinements and meet as a group, in scheduled cadence, every quarter to discuss. Create a custom view within the request queue issue tab to display only those with a status of New and use that as the meeting agenda to discuss any changes to the templates.
Want to see the last time a template was updated and by whom? In the template view, create a custom view and add the columns for Last Update Date and Last Updated By > Name.

INLINE EDIT TIMELINES BY RIGHT CLICKING
Did you know that if your task list is sorted in numerical order, you can right click to access the pop-up menu? This menu allows you to add tasks above or below your selected task, apply an indent or outdent, copy, move, delete or edit without having to spend time scrolling to the top or bottom of your project timeline. For further information on task inline editing, read this article.

ASSOCIATE PREDECESSORS TO ALL TASKS
By adding predecessors to all tasks within a project timeline, you can ensure that tasks are only marked as ready when they should be ready to start. For Healthcare Consultancy Group, each team member is shared a dashboard that provides visibility into new, in progress and upcoming work based on predecessor relationships. Individual assignees self-manage, but team assignments get picked up by the next available person. This allows work to flow from person to person with minimum handoff and no middleman to potentially wait on, especially for team members located in different time zones. There's no waiting for someone to react and assign the work, it’s just there when ready.
NOTE: If predecessor relationships are added to tasks, to see whether or not it is ready to start, from a task report, add the column for Can Start or apply the filter for Can Start > Equals > True.
HIGHLIGHT KEY STATUSES WITH CONDITIONAL FORMATTING
When creating a custom view within a project, add the column for Progress Status and apply conditional formatting to highlight certain cells, or rows. For the example below, select the column, Progress Status, add a column rule via Advanced Options and then apply a red highlight to those that are marked Late for a quick visual.

For Healthcare Consultancy Group, project manager status reports utilize conditional formatting to quickly highlight projects that are falling behind. To recreate this same type of report within your own instance, navigate to the Reporting area and create a project report. Add the column for Progress Status and then using the Advanced Options button, add a column rule to apply conditional formatting to make certain cells green or red if the project is On Target or Late.
COMMUNICATE WITH ONE CLICK
All communication should be stored in the update stream of the project for visibility, performing a project retrospective or even passing an audit. If a project changes scope or information needs to be shared with the entire project team, use the Update All feature found in the People area of the project to quickly notify everyone involved.
The Update All feature allows you to send an announcement to all members of the project team with a single click and the communication will be posted directly to the project Updates area. All team members are included in the communication by default, however, individual team members may be removed from the communication if desired. The communication will be posted into the Updates area of the project in addition to being sent to project team members directly.

To learn more or to read step by step instructions on how to use this feature, click into the blog, Communicating With Your Project Team From a Workfront Project.
For more information regarding best practices for effective project management in Workfront, read the blog published to Workfront One. Additional tips for project setup and execution can be found here.
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