‌‌🎯 MarCom Gantt [VIDEO + DISCUSSION]

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

BACKSTORY

Have you ever wanted (or Been Told by someone who wanted) a way to easily make Program level long range plans so that you can rough out your timelines within Workfront? It's pretty common across all industries: Marketing/Agencies need to plan campaigns, BioTechs need to plan clinical trials, Manufacturing Companies need to plan capital projects, and so on.

A Gantt Chart is a great way to show such long range projects...but setting them up actually takes a fair bit of effort: Portfolio > Project > (placeholder) Project > (placeholder) Tasks to represent Phases > Predecessors > Dates...oh, and woe be to yee if an actual date sneaks in there that trips you up trying to adjust things!

To tackle this challenge, we've just release our MarCom Gantt solution which -- in a format similar to this How to Monitor and Manage MARGINS post -- I'd appreciate sharing and asking feedback.

Here's a glossy that illustrates the highlights:

VIDEO

We've boiled the current full functionality down to a 2 minute video, which includes the following chapters:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:04 Deploy AtAppDemo MarCom Gantt Package...
• 00:09 Navigate to the Standalone dashboard...
• 00:12 Select Program Filter...
• 00:23 Set the From and To Date...
• 00:30 Accept the Settings tab defaults...
• 00:33 Click View Report...
• 00:35 Phases are colorized according to the key dates...
• 00:41 Along with all current projects (in yellow)...
• 00:45 And all complete projects (in grey) for comparison...
• 00:50 Toggle off the Current and Complete options...
• 00:57 To gain additional perspectives sort by phase...
• 01:01 Pre Planning...
• 01:01 Planning...
• 01:03 Execution...
• 01:05 In Flight...
• 01:07 Measurement...
• 01:09 Completion...
• 01:11 Export the data to PDF, PowerPoint, Word, Image, or Excel...
• 01:17 To adjust the Program phase dates and other key data...
• 01:20 Scroll down to the bottom of the dashboard...
• 01:23 Expand the Portfolio of interest...
• 01:25 Update the data directly in the grid...
• 01:27 Then scroll up and View Report to instantly see the results

DISCUSSION

At your earliest convenience, I invite you to watch the 2 minute video (or chapters, above) and then share your thoughts below whether they are questions, answers, comments, or ideas. I will reply similarly, and will also periodically make targeted post for each chapter as a conversation starter (starting with the QUESTIONS below).

Thanks for your interest, and especially (in advance) your participation. I look forward to further discussion in due course!

Regards,

Doug

TIP: click the three dots above and then click "Follow" to be alerted when others add to the conversation

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QUESTIONS

1. Do you use Portfolios and Programs to organize your Projects?
2. Do your Programs have a special name in your industry or organization (e.g. Campaign, Commission, etc.)?
3. Do your Programs run for a finite period of time?
4. Is your Program planning broken into Phases? 
5. Do you need to adjust the timing of those Program periodically?
6. Do you have any cool techniques that make it easy to quickly make such adjustments?
7. Do you track Program Level % Complete (e.g. 80 of 100 Projects Complete = 80%)?

[RandyRoberts]

I really like the dual pane approach so you can edit the data and then see it reflected in the above chart. So much easier when you can see everything at once.

1. Do you use Portfolios and Programs to organize your Projects? Yes
2. Do your Programs have a special name in your industry or organization (e.g. Campaign, Commission, etc.)? We stick with the standard name just 'cause it's easier to call it what it is.
3. Do your Programs run for a finite period of time? Some do, some don't
4. Is your Program planning broken into Phases? Some yes, some no
5. Do you need to adjust the timing of those Program periodically? All the time
6. Do you have any cool techniques that make it easy to quickly make such adjustments? Just manage the individual projects and their timelines.
7. Do you track Program Level % Complete (e.g. 80 of 100 Projects Complete = 80%)? In a very basic way. We just list the projects in a Program with percent complete visible. It's more of an eyeball/guesstimate liknda thing.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks @RandyRoberts,

Agreed! We actually added the editable grid at the last minute just to illustrate how easy it is to edit the data and then refresh the MarCom Gantt in real time, whether from the Standalone Dashboard, or from within a Portfolio or Program (noting that the latter two automatically "self-select" only the appropriate child Projects therein). Since those lower grids are in fact standard Workfront reports, though, for those with enough monitor real estate (or two monitors), a SysAdmin can easily create a Dashboard with just the grid on it to make it easier to then adjust the data and see the effect "side-to-side", saving some scrolling.

To your responses: all good answers (including "Some do, some don't"...classic). Your "eyeball" method using the Project % Complete to estimate the midpoint gave me an idea, too: if you sort by % Complete, note the number of Projects (e.g. 100), then jump to the middle row (e.g. 50), statistically speaking, that would give you the Median which should be pretty close. Those with Fusion could also create a job that periodically calculates the overall Average % Complete across all projects (weighting Closed ones as 100%, vs excluding them As Designed in Workfront), and store that value at the Program level in a numeric custom parameter, too. We considered that in our original design, but decided to calculate it "fresh" on the fly (although we might resurrect it, whenever the MarCom Gantt is run).

Regards,

Doug 

[Chris_Thygersen]

This is great Doug.

1. Do you use Portfolios and Programs to organize your Projects? Yes but is very flat structure.
2. Do your Programs have a special name in your industry or organization (e.g. Campaign, Commission, etc.)? We use Custom field for Campaign Type
3. Do your Programs run for a finite period of time? Yes
4. Is your Program planning broken into Phases? Sometimes. Our templates have a custom field for Phases and have trained on use
5. Do you need to adjust the timing of those Program periodically? Yes
6. Do you have any cool techniques that make it easy to quickly make such adjustments? No
7. Do you track Program Level % Complete (e.g. 80 of 100 Projects Complete = 80%)? Yes. By a custom field