[WORKFRONT COMMUNITY Q&A COFFEE BREAK] Monday 2/27/23, 8am PT: Get all your New System Administrator Questions Answered by Cynthia Boon of the Adobe Workfront Customer Success Team ☕

[jon_chen]

Join us for the first ever Q&A Coffee Break for the Adobe Workfront Community, taking place on Monday, February 27th from 8am PT - 9am PT

 

REGISTER NOW!

This new initiative was inspired by an identical program from other Experience League Communities (e.g. Adobe Target Coffee Break). The Coffee Break is a live, text-only 1-hour Community Q&A session where an Adobe subject-matter expert will be on call to answer any question you may have on a preselected topic theme.

For our inaugural session, we'll be joined by @CynthiaBoon, Customer Success Manager for Adobe Workfront, who will be signed into the Adobe Workfront Community to answer any and all questions you have about: being a New System Administrator for Adobe Workfront.

Some example questions you can ask Cynthia include:

• Recommendations for increasing adoption
• Best practices for defining standard practices
• Resources and links to help you get the most from Adobe Workfront

If you're a more advanced Workfront user, you're also welcome! Feel free to drop in and add your own thoughts and opinions! We'd love to hear your tips, tricks, and best practices for new system administrators.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

• Sign in to the Community, Reply to this thread with your questions related to the underlined Adobe Workfront topic above
• Stand-by during the hour as the expert weighs in ~ this way you can clarify your question or ask for more details directly 
• THAT'S IT!  *(think of this as the Adobe Workfront Community equivalent of an AMA, (“Ask Me Anything”), and bring your best speed-typing game) 

INSTRUCTIONS

• Click the blue “Reply” button at the bottom right corner of this post
• Begin your Question with Cynthia's Community Username: @CynthiaBoon
• Something already coming to mind or can't make the live Q&A? Feel free to post your topic-related questions in advance!
• Be sure to register so that you're sent an email reminder on the day of the Coffee Break.

Cynthia Boon is a Business Process Professional dedicated to process improvement, building efficiencies and implementing innovations to help organization achieve strategic goals. With 20 years of project support and implementation, she has had the opportunity to serve as technical writer, training facilitator, instructional designer, performance consultant, project manager, product owner and systems administrator.

REGISTER NOW! 

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks @jon_chen,

I'd like to learn more about the interaction between FTE and the new Work Time and what global preferences need to be set to put them to use.

I'd also like to confirm what drives how Out Of Office entries on users across different time zones then appear in Calendars (i.e. "leaking" across days, in certain cases).

Regards,

Doug

[CynthiaBoon]

Hey Doug!  

I've always looked for your guidance on my questions, so thank you so much for participating today! And if you have any favorite advice for New Sys Admins, please don't hesitate to share. You are a tremendous resource! 

For the 1st question, this is a new feature and is exciting, as it might solve an age-old challenge of realistic work hours for projects. It would be interesting to set users Work Time to 70% or 80% (.7 or .8) and see if their capacity is more realistic. 

It looks like it is scheduled to go into Production on March 2nd. It might be helpful to test in Preview first? 

There are some helpful details on the Release Page, but I think the video helps the most!  (It's less than 2 minutes so a quick watch.)

Introducing the Work Time field to accurately calculate user capacity 

For the 2nd question, this is definitely something we see in our own team. I checked this one is still on the Known Issues list. 

Calendars: Issues with Time Off Calendar 

We’re not seeing a target fix date. We’ll put this one on the list to ask our Product partners about. 

For anyone that needs it, here’s the link to the Known Issues Page.  

And for any New Sys Admins that have not tested new features in their Sandbox Preview. 

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks Cynthia,

Yes, I watched that video and appreciate how the % (e.g. 0.8) of Work Time then "lowers" capacity, but was wondering if anyone who's beat me to  the testing yet can confirm:

• does it (I presume) also then affect the work assigned (e.g. a 20 hour task assigned to a 1 FTE user on an 8 hr/day schedule with 0.5 Work Time would then take M/T/W/T/F @ 4 hours of work each day (1 * 8 * 0.5)?
• same idea, but with a 0.5 FT user on an 8 hr/day schedule...then M/T/W/T/F+M/T/W/T/F @ 2 hours of work each day (0.5 * 8 * 0.5)?
• under what circumstances would a project use the standard 8 hours per day vs the user's schedule?
• if the latter, and the user was 0.5 FT on a 5 hr/day schedule...would that then be M/T/W/T/F+M/T/W/T/F+M/T/W/T/F+M/T/W/T/F @ 1 hours of wok each day (0.5 * 4 * 0.5)?
• given the variety of combinations, what is (now) best practice for all of the above?

Regards,

Doug

[CynthiaBoon]

These are fantastic scenarios!  For the first bullet, that is absolutely my understanding, but just to be sure, I've found the Product Manager for this new feature and sent the scenarios over to him.  It's pretty late in his time zone, but as soon as I get an answer, I'll post it here. 

[RhondaTriggs]

A common question from new Sys Admins is how to get upper management to support the transition to the tool (ie accountability)  It is sometimes hard to get the message across that what you get OUT of Workfront is only as good as what everyone puts IN to Workfront. It is imperative that the users work to get acclimated to the interface and endure the learning curve of doing something different. Sometimes, an extra push from upper management is necessary to get everyone on board and building new work habits. Most old timers already know, the hard to convert users can end up being the biggest promoters once they see their own personal results. Sometimes they may need that extra bit of encouragement from leadership to get over the hump!

[danielle_john]

Hi Rhonda, 

Great question, and suggestion! There's a few parts to this answer. 

Forming a work management committee will be critical in ensuring successful user adoption. If you don't have an executive sponsor, you may need to find them. Your executive sponsor will not only be an advocate for users but will sometimes serve as a tie breaker in pushing users to use Workfront. Your executive sponsors will be able to help you align the overarching company goals to a Workfront strategy. Involving leadership and getting them in Workfront will help you gain executive sponsorship and motivate users. 

Another important piece is your group admins. Your group admins will be able to help you mitigate any risk in user groups and train users who feel like they are being left behind when using Workfront. If you're having a hard time getting users to adopt the tool even after leadership has been giving a push, an important part is to listen to their concerns, tell them that you understand where they're coming from, and work with your group admins to fix the problems that users are feeling. From there, make sure you're communicating back to the end users that you heard them, and you have made adjustments in Workfront to fix the problems they were having. 

Group Admin Information

Adoption Blog with a section on advocacy and leadership

We also have an event tomorrow titled Making the Case for a Full Time System Admin. That would be a great follow up to this question! 

Let us know if you have any questions from here.  

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

In my experience -- regardless of a person's level in an organization -- there is no substitute for demonstrating how Workfront genuinely solves a challenge and/or makes their work life easier for them. Waaaaay back, one of my mentors encouraged me to "find the way to make your biggest detractors your strongest advocates", which was great advice I try to continually keep in mind.

Regards,

Doug

[AndrewGr1]

@CynthiaBoon

What are some tips and tricks within Workfront to automate PTO requests so we don't have to use multiple systems and away messages? I know it currently says in the documentation "Adobe Workfront is not designed to replicate or replace your existing systems for managing, accruing, and tracking personal time off," but I am wondering if any companies have found a valid workaround.

I have seen some other forum users briefly mention creating projects and approvals, but no one seems to offer a thorough explanation/solution in the community.(https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-questions/time-off-functionality-and-repo...) 

Ideally we would like to have a project where users can easily add a task representing their PTO with their respective time off noted, which either notifies their manager in the system, or if preferred, goes through an approval process to the manager instead. Our internal departments currently use a mix of processes with either calendar PTO requests to their manager (but that can clutter up personal Outlook calendar), another work management system with projects with rules established to automate the request/approval/reminders, or just email requests.

Is there anything being developed in the Time Off module that might enhance that feature so approvals or notifications could be automated when time off is set up?

And  a company-wide report for all planned time off that can be easily sorted for leaders who want a quick glance at upcoming PTO?

And an individual report that users can quickly access to find their total PTO hours for the year, which they can easily compare and enter into the company's official time-management/PTO system or possibly automated with Fusion?

[CynthiaBoon]

Hey Andrew!

So the short answer on integrations, either with Fusion or the API is totally possible. I've chatted with our team to share some of our best practices when it comes to PTO and visibility.  

I personally love a PTO Calendar on a Dashboard.  It can be pinned, shared, added to a custom page. 

Also, a PTO Report that can sorted and grouped, and then scheduled to send every week, holds a special place in my heart. 

A project can work with an automated approval process, however, you don't want to miss out on the features of users entering their PTO in the calendar so that Projects will reflect their time off.

I'm wondering if the "Approval Process" could live in Workfront in the Project you mentioned in order to remove the necessity of the Outlook emails.  

This might be an amazing topic for one of our Connect events?

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

I'll take a run at this one, Andrew.

It is interesting (and telling) that -- to my knowledge -- no single "killer pattern" for tracking time off within Workfront has emerged. Over the years, I've seen:

• basic PTO calendar entries, as designed...but which don't always "float up" enough to gain visibility in other parts of Workfront, and lack some of the propose/authorize mechanics required by some organizations
• dedicated "Out Of Office" projects (as you described) with a Task for each employee to "block" their OOO time, which  can then be modeled more granularly (including splitting such Projects into departments, over years, with subtasks for different blocks, etc.), do then "float up", and can be overlaid with Approvals if desired...all of which does takes a bit more work (and training)
• integrations to push either of the above into Workfront from some other system of record
• automations (e.g. via our UberCalc solution or Fusion) to reconcile allowed vacation vs remaining vacation balance
• various attempts to calendarize time off consistently and easily

I suspect the root cause -- in a good way -- is that there are simply too many options to force a standardization; which, candidly, is why we (AtAppStore) have also not attempted to solve it, either. 

Regards,

Doug

[NicholeVargas]

@AndrewGr1 Here are some additional thoughts regarding your questions

Is there a company-wide report for all planned time off that can be easily sorted for leaders who want a quick glance at upcoming PTO?

I would recommend that you build a time off report that runs the report with the access rights of a Sys Admin. Add a prompt for Manager ID so that leaders can see the PTO associated with their team. 

Can I create an individual report for users to quickly access and find their total PTO hours for the year, which they can easily compare and enter into the company's official time-management/PTO system or possibly automated with Fusion?

Yes, you can view total PTO hours by user in Workfront. To do this, create a Time Off Report, add the filter for User ID > Equals > $$USER.ID, group the results by User Name, add a column for PTO Hours using text mode (see below). This column will show many hours this user has requested time off (based on their schedule). You may want to add another filter for Start Date/End Date > Equals > This Year to keep the data pretty clean and organized. 

Text mode for PTO hours: 

aggregator.displayformat=int 

aggregator.function=SUM 

aggregator.namekey=view.relatedcolumn 

aggregator.valueexpression=DIV(WORKMINUTESDIFF({startDate},{endDate}),60) 

aggregator.valueformat=int 

displayname=PTO Hours 

textmode=true 

valueexpression=DIV(WORKMINUTESDIFF({startDate},{endDate}),60) 

valueformat=HTML 

[AndrewGr1]

Thanks for these constructive and detailed ideas. The reports should be very helpful.

@NicholeVargas Would you know how I could add a column to that report using text mode that indicates delegated approvals (with full names displayed) as well? I had trouble figuring out how to do that. 

[NicholeVargas]

When a user enters their time off in Workfront, they do so via their profile and no approvals are associated. Based on your comment above, are you creating a project where users enter their PTO as a task, and that task gets routed to an approver? And that's what you are hoping to pull into this report - who approved the task? 

If that is the case, you wouldn't be able to pull it into this report as tasks and time off are very different objects. It may be possible through a task report using text mode columns to pull in user time off, but I would need to spend some time building that out. Let me know if that is the route you want to go, and we can connect offline! 

[AndrewGr1]

@NicholeVargas I plan on using both the integrated time off object/feature and a separate PTO request project/task/request system for approvals. So for a report based on Workfront's time off object, can I have a column showing if there happens to be a delegated approval already set? If nothing is set yet, then it can just be blank. I figured it might help to show this information if it's available, and so I can quickly see if anyone doesn't happen to have approvals delegated on the day(s) of their PTO. I am guessing it's a custom column using text mode in order to achieve this but the few fields I tried to get to display it didn't work. I am still learning how to use text mode and where to find all the options for that.  

I know I personally plan to probably set up the delegated approval for my soonest upcoming PTO ahead of time so it's one less step to do before I go on PTO that day.  

Thanks again for offering your support!

[NicholeVargas]

There is a User Delegation report built into Workfront that will show you the user's name, who they delegated approvals to, and the start/end dates of that delegation period. The step-by-step instructions can be found here:

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/reporting/reports/create-manage-reports/crea... 

You won't be able to add user delegation fields to a time off report, but you may want to consider adding them side by side on a team PTO dashboard to compare the details. 

Let me know if you have any questions! 

[VikramPo]

@CynthiaBoonAre there any tools to migrate data from JIRA to Workfront including custom fields?

Vikram Potdar

Cell:860-655-9075

[BereniceBl]

Hi Vikram, 

Very good question!

I have ran into a similar question/situation with a customer.

Their marketing team used JIRA for their marketing workflows, they had many of them and only a few users really knew how they were set up. When they purchased Workfront, they decided to migrate all their JIRA workflows to WF, and so the option they chose was to leverage their Fusion scenarios. One limitation I see with this solution is that to map out all the JIRA workflows they had to use so many Fusion scenarios and ended up having to purchase more of them. 

So, it depends on your situation: for what team/org is it? How much data do you need to migrate? 

Best, 

Berenice

[CynthiaBoon]

Hello!  Thanks for joining our Workfront Community Q&A Coffee Break!  We’ve got a team of Workfront Customer Success folks here to help answer your New System Admin questions. Let’s get started! 

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Cynthia,

Ehm...did I miss an email with a Teams/Zoom link, or is this session "text only" on this thread?

Regards,

Doug

[JennaJurgella]

Same ^^