Project Simulation Mode

[#1]

One difference between desktop PM software and online PM software is that with desktop I could do all sorts of changes in a project plan to see potential project impacts and easily back out by not saving the file. If you need to simulate project impact based on potential future scope changes or resource changes you really can't do this online. The sandbox environment could potentially be used for this but this capability should be part of the core product. I'd like the ability to simulate scenarios within Workfront without permanently changing my project or sending out alerts.

[#2]

Hey Eric, this is Kelly; we met at the Conference...y'all (yes I'm from TEXAS) had a great session.

This is also a pain point for us, but we'd like to see if in the production environment! The legacy gantt was the closet thing you could get to maintaining a project schedule, viewing the outcomes, and publishing the changes to your users (all without creating a plethora of emails to the project team). This "what-if" / "publishing" capabilities is one of the big things currently missing on the task tab with the new inline edit capability. Of course Legacy Gantt is still available, but it wasn't very user friendly. On one of my trips to the Experience Zone at the Conference, I proposed that maybe they have 2 Task tabs.

Essentially, the regular Task tab would remain as is and would be used for reference by the team members. The additional or duplicate Task tab could be used by people that can manage the project; like a "scratch pad". This way they could make changes to their tasks / timeline without the ill-effects of emails, etc. This would give the ability to analyze the impact of their changes before actually committing to the changes. Once their "scratch pad" version looks good, have a button to commit the changes to update the real Task tab. To take that thought one step further, it would be nice if this "scratch pad" Task tab could be displayed side-by-side to compare to the actual Task tab!

[#3]

Good suggestion even if you are from Texas, ha ha!!!

[#4]

LOL! I'll take that as a compliment....considering you're from Colorado! :)

I forgot to mention another benefit of the "scratch pad" Task tab...you don't have to deal with the work around of changing the project status from In-Flight to Planning. Workfront had provided the status change as a work-around a few years back in order to suppress the emails. It suppresses the emails just fine....However, it creates some confusion on the My Work tab for team members because the task is grayed out and a message is displayed that the don't need to work on the task any more. Additionally, it adds a button so they can "conveniently" remove it as one of their assignments (not good).

[#5]

Hi all,

I would like to support the idea submitted by Eric, and the suggestion from Kelly sounds really good to me!

A lot of our Project Managers are complaining that the lack of "version control", but more so the lack of possibility for them to "play" with their plan is a real pain for them, and removes some of the control they have on their plan.

As such, I agree this functionality should be added to Workfront, and exploring Kelly's suggestion definitely seems like a good idea to start with!

And this is a compliment from a Belgian to you Americans :)

[#6]

Thanks, Thomas! :)

[#7]

What if scenarios would be useful to have the ability to create.

[#8]

bumping this thread...

I agree with this idea. We have received similar feedback from our end-users. As a workaround, we have asked them to export the plan into MS Project, run through their scenarios, and then copy them to the final plan in Workfront if the change request is approved.