Multiple Teams on Single Task

[#1]

It would be great if I could assign multiple teams to the same task. Currently, I allow my supervisors (resource managers) for their own teams chose who in their team is assigned a task, or someone in that team can take ownership of a task. I have tasks that require input from multiple teams, but I can't assign more than one team to the same task, so for those tasks it's not "business as usual", and I can't allow all the resource managers to chose whom to assign to a task...

[#2]

+1

we've spent a few weeks trying to find a way that makes assignments workable and roles are the closest thing we can use.

Our problem is that I can't use the cost rates on roles because in order to keep assignments manageable (and not have umpteen levels of a discipline) we use more generic roles (eg "Project Mgr" that includes Jr, Sr) - which means cost rates need to be done at the USER level.

If I were able to create groupings eg "creative", "projMgmt" and "acctmgmt" and assign these to tasks, then the default role could drive billing/cost rates, while making assignments simple.

The resource pool idea is partly there - except I need it at the TASK level.

[#3]

It is disappointing that this is not being considered. We have multiple teams that work together and this has hindered project collaboration as now users need to be added individually vs assigning multiple team (not ideal as some of the teams are large). without the ability to add multiple teams, we have to ask project owners to add users manually onto the task which causes room for users to be missed and errors.

[#4]

I second this, we need to have this functionality!

[#5]

I second this. We want to work with more than one agile team on the same backlog for a complex product/market/solution as described in the Scrum Guide. That is necessary to keep the teams small but have all requirements in a single product backlog.

Therefore we need to be able to assign more than one agile team to a task/EPIC/Story/etc. Today we can assign only one single team to a story which means it isn't visible to the other teams anymore.

[#6]

I expect it might take quite some time to generate enough interest on the current “only one team per task” limitation for Workfront to then reconsider it (let alone approve and develop it), but if you are in dire need, I invite you instead consider the following workarounds:

1. Create common “combo teams” (eg “Team A and B”, with the superset of all users from Team A and Team B), which would then allow the As Designed visibility and Team based functionality. There might be a few practical limitations, so I’d suggest you set up a few common examples and follow them through to confirm the benefits warrant the extra work of maintaining combo teams over time (which, by the way, could be automated, if cost justified).

2. Alternatively, create a Teams multi-select dropdown custom parameter with one entry per team, using the Workfront name of each Team as the Label, and the ID of each Team as the Value. To then assert that a particular task is intended to be assigned via the Teams create a team called “multi-team”, optionally, with every user included if that is advantageous enough (eg for “full visibility”) to warrant the duplicate maintenance of the multi-team membership. When such a Task needs to be planned (on a Template, or a Project), multi-select the appropriate options in the Teams dropdown and assign it to the “multi-team” Team. To then assign the appropriate resources, create a Task report that filters for Team = multi-task with columns in the view for the Teams selected the Assignments (to monitor whom among those Teams has been assigned or does self assign). If those two columns are insufficient to mentally decide and monitor coverage, you might also consider further filtering by Team (ie where Teams contains a certain Team) in order to spot (or perhaps even pinpoint, using NOTEXISTS) those Tasks still lacking at least one assignee from a particular Team.

3. Or for another quite different approach, you could also set up one user 1:1 for each Team (eg first name Team, last name Team Name; with the Home Team set to the Team for which such a user is a proxy) and leverage the existing As Designed feature that allows multiple users to be assigned to a Task. Members of each Team could then filter for Tasks assigned to the “user team proxies” of interest to them, and optionally adopt the convention of replacing the appropriate proxy assignment with their own user in the assignment, thereby confirming the transfer of custody (ie “I will work on this, on behalf of my team), and the flip side of then reassigning the proxy back in order to pass it back to their team (and/or “call for backup”)

Regards,

Doug

[#7]

We also need this functionality. Although Doug's suggestions are great, why do we need work arounds?

We frequently assign multiple teams to one task and often there are different sets of teams. Too much effort to manage multiple group teams.

thanks

Jennifer

[#8]

Hi Doug,

Thank you for the feedback, but the options don't work for us and seem as though we are overcomplicating our process. For now as we are only missing one team that we are unable to add to assignments, our workaround is to add each member as individuals to a task. This is a bit time consuming, but it will also allow them to add their time for timesheet purposes.

Jennifer + All: Workfront responded that they can only add this to the roadmap if it receives enough "votes."

Please help me in spreading awareness and upvotes for this issue.

Thank you so much!!

[#9]

Would love this feature particularly for Kanban boards. I want to have my team see work in the kanban functionality whilst also allowing another team or individual have access to a task as well.

[#10]

I'd be interested to know why this is such a tough ask?

[#11]

I think in today's virtual environment this feature is especially critical for cross-functional collaboration. We can no long yell over a cube to get another team involved and hop in a conference room, we have to enable the technology to do the work and facilitate the completion.

This feature would enable a cleaner and more synced project task list because the only current workaround is to have duplicative tasks for something that requires cross-functional collaboration between two-teams to complete. Soon enough you have a 200 line task list that quickly becomes unmanageable.

-Sara