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Adjusting due dates in a project

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Level 10
we are new to Workfront and I'm hoping to get insight into how people manage due dates within projects. We work toward very hard completion dates that cannot shift, but the 30 tasks within a project are always early or late, which shifts all the projected due dates based on the durations from the plan, but then they are not aligned with our strict completion date, ie we wind up with tasks that have projected dates after our unmovable completion date. It seems that every time one task is late, we need to readjust subsequent durations in the plan to a tighter schedule to meet the hard deadline. With dozens of projects going on this is very cumbersome, and the worker licenses don't have the ability to change planned durations so that the plan can readjust itself properly. Also, it seems that the notifications that go out to the next task after the predecessor is done has the planned due date, not the projected due date (or I don't know how to change the notification) so how do we rely on notifications to let people know when their task is due? also, as an aside there is this problem of commit dates, which seems completely untenable to allow someone to determine their own deadlines! Without upgrading all the 10 managers working on their projects to a planner license, how do you manage informing the subsequent task owners what their new, real due date is for their task? How do you reconfigure the project to meet the hard deadline with a worker license? I feel this must be simple and I'm overlooking something very basic, but our implementation manager we've been assigned wasn't able to guide me on this. I really need help, I am stuck and would really appreciate some advice. Jill Ackerman
19 Replies

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Level 2
I agree it is cumbersome and the #1 barrier to adoption for us. I see my teams use mostly Fix Dates to get around this, which then of course misses the functionality of dependencies and such. It would be nice if Workfront had more AI help with this- you could input a "target" due date and all dependencies, and it would automatically add and remove lag or adjust duration (as long as it's equal or more than planned hours) as appropriate, with warnings if a timeline becomes unfeasible. Michelle Mathewes Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital

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Level 10
Oh no, not the answer I was hoping for! I hope to get more insight into how people work around this. Workfront has such positive feedback, this basic thing seems to me to be a huge barrier that I feel like it can't possibly be right. Jill Ackerman

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Community Advisor
Hi Jill, We've addressed the need to set a Target Date (at the Project Level) and monitor it as the Task's plans then invariably slip and creep towards it using our "http://store.atappstore.com/product/ubergantt/" UberGantt solution. Here is a "http://store.atappstore.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/AtAppStore_B_UberGanttt.png" screenshot to illustrate. If you'd like more information, i invite you to email me at doug.denhoed@atappstore.com Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 10
Hey there, So yes as Michelle mentioned you can set Fixed Dates to get around this but it negates all your dependencies and honestly negates any truth to your project plan. So I don't recommend Fixed Dates. Everyone has "hard" dates that can't be missed. But your project plan is an early warning system to alert you when you're in trouble. And the sooner it alerts you the more opportunity for you to adjust and course correct. You mentioned every time a task is late you have to change the subsequent durations to make the plan back on track. That's actually a good thing (that's the truth in your plan and what you want). The plan is telling you you're late, now go figure out how you can catch up. As opposed to locking the dates and not finding out how late you are until you've reached your deadline. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but that's project management �� . But at least you're making a conscience decision on which tasks to shorten (or add resources or whatever solution you decide). As opposed to randomly neglecting tasks because you're in a crunch at the last moment. Now to get to your communication item. The way I've come to understand it is; a Commit Date is set to the Planned Completion Date initially, until the Assignee changes it. This is their date to inform you of their commitment. It's ok that they can change this, it doesn't impact your schedule or Planned Completion Date. Think of it as a way for them to communicate. You'll get an email that they changed the Commit Date and this allows you to either accept that date and change your Planned Completion Date, or go have a conversation as to why their new date doesn't work and adjust accordingly. So the way we look at it is, the Commit Date is the Assignee's, the Planned Completion Date is the Project Manager's and ideally the PM should, one way or another, ensure they match. The Projected Completion Date is telling you where you're tracking based on % Complete etc. So ideally this should also be close to the Planned Completion Date. It's another early warning sign if these dates are significantly off. I don't know if that helps, but sometimes changing the angle of your viewpoint can help (at least it has for me). Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss further. I can show you ways to view your plans that might make it easy to manipulate. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 1
Completely agree, Vic. That is Project Management. Our PMs number one role is to monitor the timeline. We give tasks out with the planned completion date with the expectation that if the individual needs more time, they will update the task with their reasoning and then change the commit date to a later date. Workfront will then notify the PM that the assigned committed to the task after the planned completion. Workfront will then show you if it will affect your overall project and ask if you want to change the planned completion. We use this process as an approval system. If the later date doesn't impact the project completion date, it is approved. If it does affect the project, the PM analyzes the timeline to see where adjustments can be made and notifies the Project Sponsor, and accountability steps are taken. Changing the entire timeline when a task is late is cumbersome. The nice thing is how Workfront allows us to monitor. If you are constantly readjusting the timeline, I wonder if you have a resource management problem. Marcie Long Members First Credit Union

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Level 10
Hi Thanks for all the feedback. You are all describing what I thought, but I have many people who have to manage deadlines for projects, but are Worker licenses. They can't change the Plan Dates. Sigh... Jill Ackerman

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Level 10
Ahhh, ok. I have a solution for you! There are two ways to accomplish this. In the Edit Project settings you have that Access section where you can set up anyone assigned to a Task has Manage access. Then when you assign a person they get those rights and will have access to change the Planned Completion Dates on their Tasks. But that won't allow them to change other people's tasks in the plan. So option 2, which I suspect is more what you're looking for. Set them up in a WF Team (or use a team they're already in). Perhaps you create a team of all the people that manage deadlines. Then in the projects under Sharing you can give the team Manage access to the project. This will allow them to make date edits etc. It works. I just re-tested it to make sure. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. IT Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 10
OMG I'm trying this now. If this works you will have saved my life, my children's life and all of humanity from here to eternity. Thanks!! Jill Ackerman

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Level 10
LOL I'm confident that wasn't an overexaggerating. Let me know where the parade will be �� Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. IT Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 1
Good afternoon, We are experiencing a serious problem with Dates Management best practices when projects become late (past their original deadline), and our Project Managers could use some wisdom from other Workfront users. We can't figure out how to properly predict future projected completion dates of tasks without changing the project's original deadline. Managing/editing dates/making negotiations for tasks, while we are still within the original timeframe of the project is all well and good, I have no objection to that. HOWEVER, it is when we've missed the original deadline, and the project is still in-flight, this is where we completely lose control of how to manage Due Dates in Workfront for my team. Imagine this scenario: a new flyer was requested by our Oncology business unit customer, so that he/she can distribute it as marketing material at a tradeshow on January 31st. It's January 17th, we send the draft copy to our Legal team for review... their feedback was due by January 21st, but they are completely backlogged with work. The review is de-prioritized by all of our managers, in order to serve the needs of other business units. We don't get feedback from legal until February 2nd. Legal says "approved, no changes, looks great". This project is completely utterly late. It is February 2nd. The graphic designer just received approved copy to place into layout. He receives his task. The due date for his task is January 25th. The project deadline is January 31st. Graphic designer has no idea how he should update his commit date, and has no idea if there's a new priority level. Even though the project is "late", it's not so simple as saying we're not going to do it anymore, or that there isn't a new deadline. We're going to finish the Flyer and upload the file to our Sales Team portal, so we can print it/email it/use it for future events. Now it's a "nice to have" by mid-February. What do you all do to the Planned Completion Date? How do I give my graphic designer a new due date, but still let the project reflect as "late"? Meanwhile, the Projected Duration for his task is 4 days. How do I tinker with the down-field projected tasks, get an accurate read on upcoming Planned Work, and set a new projected timeline for completion, without changing the Project's original planned completion date of January 31st? Please help. Nick Scarpello Illumina - Marketing

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Level 10
Nick That is what I'm thinking too. When you tinker with the plan you lose the original schedule so you can't analyze after where it all went wrong. I would prefer if the plan was locked in stone and then the Projected Dates operated like the plan (ie you can adjust durations to make a tighter schedule once someone is late) and have new Due Dates on the notifications to direct the team when they must finish their task, and at the end be able to compare the Plan to the Actual. Jill Jill Ackerman

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Community Advisor
Hi Nick and Jill, I was just finishing a similar (and somewhat intense) call about the sanctity of Planned Dates as your email alerts came in. The solution, in my case, ended up being to use "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217517647-View-Baseline-Variance-for-Duration-and-Planned-Work-in-a-Task-View">Baselines to establish the all important original line in the sand. I wondered if it might apply in either of your case, too, so thought I'd mention it. Nick, if that's not sufficient for the parable you relayed above, when the Feb 2 (too late) feedback confirming that the draft was approved and to carry on: Copy the original Project (perhaps with a " - Mulligan" suffix, if you're a golfer) with the appropriate (perhaps lower) Priority Cancel the original Project, leaving its Progress, hours, and percent completes right where they were at time of death Reschedule the remaining Tasks in the copy as need be, allowing those working on it to see the new, realistic dates (e.g. "mid-feb-ish") To me, this pragmatic option separates the unwinnable tie of trying to use one plan date for two purposes, preserves the history oft what really happened, but in a manner that allows what now needs to happen to do so in an unfettered fashion. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 10
Jill, if you or Nick need to be able to compare an actual project completion date to a date that you had planned to have it completed, I'd advise you to set up a custom form field that is a date field for your project's planned completion date. The explanation is a little lengthy to go into here, so I'll just mention that our projects are set to schedule from a start date so we can't even access the project's Planned Completion Date field. If we wanted to do any comparisons between an actual completion date and the date we had in mind, then this would definitely be our only option. Moreover, this usually works better for us since the date we usually have in mind is a distribution date about midway through the project. Nick mentioned flagging projects as late. I wanted to let you both know that this is something our PMs opt to do manually. Sometimes when a project is a little late, we don't want it to pop up in anyone's late report, because we know we can catch up and make the distribution on time. So we opt to have everything show up as being fine, and manually flag those ones that are in trouble. It seems to me that if you specifically want to show something as late, this would be the direction you choose to go. At this point, you can probably(?) run a report on completed projects flagged as late and show a comparison between your custom "planned completion date" field and the project's actual completion date. -skye

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Level 10
Hi Jill & Nick, I agree with Skye and Doug. You set your Target Dates by using a Custom Form field. And you only change it when you truly believe your date is moving (you have no way to make up the delays). You can do the same using Baselines as Doug said. I like the form because it's easier to show the project sponsors (along with other information). The key to remember (and apologies to those who have heard this rant already) is that Workfront and your project plan are just a tool to let you know you're about to step in shhhh... er something. It's an early warning detection system (if you create your plan properly). It should always be real and it should always be accurate (to the best of your ability). So you actually WANT that Planned Completion Date to move to show where you're really headed. Better to discover bad news early so you have more time to adjust. But that date moving is your warning sign. It's a good thing. Now you can make strategic adjustments. Doesn't mean you're changing your Target Date. Just means you're currently tracking beyond your Target, so you have some work to do. And the project plan will help you do that. So everything you mentioned Nick is pretty typical on all projects (dates shift). The PM's job is to know when a date has shifted, update the plan to reflect the shift, determine if that shift mattered, and either devise a plan to make a correction or honestly report when your project will truly be done. You can do all that easily if you keep a well maintained plan. To do that in Workfront I recommend the following: Create a solid project plan with realistic estimates (especially the durations as that's what will drive your critical path). Use predecessors and make sure your Task Constraint is set to As Soon As Possible as often as possible. Only used Fixed Dates when absolutely necessary. Your deadline should NOT be fixed in the plan (use the form as discussed above). You want this date to move (if tasks are late) so you know when you're in trouble and how much trouble you're in. NOTE: it's important to set proper preds because then when a task is delayed you only have to update that one task to see what happened to your project. Without them you're updating multiple tasks and leaving more room for error and wasting time. It'll make updating your project plan so much easier and saves you a ton of time. When a Task starts late, change the Start Date to reflect the new date. This should push any successor Tasks out as well. When an in-progress Task is going to take longer to complete, I adjust this by extending the Duration so I don't lose the Start Date and true duration. When a Task is completed I ensure the Planned Completion Date matches the Actual Date. Because your preds are driven off the Planned Completion Date, not the Actual. I update the plan once a week, every week (at least once a week). This is important because you identify issues or delays within the week and it's easier to adjust. If you wait 2 weeks or longer, things could have already gone out of control. And now you're scrambling. Plus, it's easier/faster to update in 1 week increments. I have a dashboard that allows me to see what Tasks were completed this week and what Tasks are scheduled for the upcoming week. This makes the Status meeting with the team go smoother and is easier for me to manage the tasks. It also gives you a good opportunity to sync up the plan for accuracy (a team member may say, hey I can't start that Task until Task A is done – cool add the pred). Sounds like a lot, but it's only 7 steps. Not quite like 7 minute Abs, but... Anyway, I'll stop now. I know others have great ideas and methods to run projects. But Workfront can really help you save time as a PM if you put the plan together well from the start. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is in the beginning), but after that it takes me no more than an hour to update my plan each week. Usually a lot less. Hit me up if you want me to explain or discuss further. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. IT Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT ------Original Message------ Jill, if you or Nick need to be able to compare an actual project completion date to a date that you had planned to have it completed, I'd advise you to set up a custom form field that is a date field for your project's planned completion date. The explanation is a little lengthy to go into here, so I'll just mention that our projects are set to schedule from a start date so we can't even access the project's Planned Completion Date field. If we wanted to do any comparisons between an actual completion date and the date we had in mind, then this would definitely be our only option. Moreover, this usually works better for us since the date we usually have in mind is a distribution date about midway through the project. Nick mentioned flagging projects as late. I wanted to let you both know that this is something our PMs opt to do manually. Sometimes when a project is a little late, we don't want it to pop up in anyone's late report, because we know we can catch up and make the distribution on time. So we opt to have everything show up as being fine, and manually flag those ones that are in trouble. It seems to me that if you specifically want to show something as late, this would be the direction you choose to go. At this point, you can probably(?) run a report on completed projects flagged as late and show a comparison between your custom "planned completion date" field and the project's actual completion date. -skye

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Level 10
Hi Vic Your 7 step plan is exactly what I was hoping to find here. It is excellent direction which we can use in the real world. I so appreciate your time in writing this out. I have copied it and am going to use it in my trainings with the staff who manage their deadlines. In fact, I think WF should put this in their help screen Tips & Tricks section, as there is no direction on how to manage a plan once you have created it. Thanks! Jill Ackerman

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Level 3
Hi Vic, Hoping you can help me explain to our PM on how these timelines work. Current State: If we have a delay in timeline, i.e. Leadership approval, our PM is going into the timeline and adding "task" with either fixed dates or must start on dates. We have been told that once you enter a "Must..." task constraint that the timeline no longer is calculated through Workfront, however my PM believes that the timeline still calculates. Do you know if this is true? Do you also know if this is true if you use "Fixed Dates"? I know our PM wants to illustrate on the project timeline the "delay," but do you have recommendations for the best practice on this? We saw an issue today where on the task constraints Workfront, the system, was changing task constraints from "As Soon As Possible" to "Must Start On" when re-calculating the timeline. I figured it was due to him having both a task with a "Fixed Date" and a task with a "Must Start On" date. Unsure now how the timeline is being tracked or calculated. Hoping you or someone else in community can help better explain what may be happening and some best practices. Erika Garrett Gulfstream Aerospace

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Level 10
@Vic Alejandro Love your 7 step summary!! i added it to our Project Scheduling Best Practices and sharing here (again!). Katherine Haven, PMP VP, Director, Business Technologies - PMO FCB

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Level 10
Awww, yayyy! Thanks Katherine!

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Level 10
Hi Erika, Sorry I just saw this. Basically if you change or set a date of a Task (whether it be Start or Planned Completion), WF will change your Task Constraint to a locked setting (i.e. Must Start or Finish On respectively). This will also tell WF to ignore any predecessors . You're locking in dates. You're basically telling it you want to start or finish on that date and it's believing you �� . So it's standard PM tool behavior. As to whether the timeline will calculate, that's a wider angle lens. The project timeline will still calculate and it may move or it may not depending on how you have this and your other tasks set up. But anything with a Must Start On or Must Finish On or Fixed Date will ignore the predecessors. Start No Earlier Than will honor the predecessor as long as it doesn't dip earlier than the date you've set. So you could have Task 1 set with a Must Start On 9/3/19 (and that's ok) ending on 9/16/19. But if Task 2 has a predecessor of Task 1, it should use a Task Constraint of As Soon As Possible. This will calculate a Start Date of 9/17/19 for Task 2. But once you change the Start or Planned Completion Date of Task 2 the Task Constraint will be changed to a locked date (Must Start On, Start No Earlier Than, etc.). Then WF will ignore that predecessor and listen to you. As for best practices, mine are in the thread below (I'm sure others have their own as well). I especially recommend following Rule #2, and set the Task Constraint to As Soon As Possible as often as possible. You'll use Must Start On for the beginning of your Task chain, and you'll use it when an un-started Task gets delayed, and for those truly hard dates like a scheduled training class or something. But I try to limit it to those 3 things. Again, the goal is to allow your plan to warn you as early as possible if you're in trouble . So you want to see what the delay of a task does to your overall plan. Locked dates can prevent that from happening. Let me know if that helps or if you prefer to have a discussion or something. Thanks.