Auto update project custom status based on task completion?

[Christina_Jarosz]

We're still struggling with team members and marking tasks complete. To that end, I was wondering if it's possible that a project status would update automatically as a milestone is completed. I know a project can update status to complete once ALL tasks are complete - can it update to a custom status based project progress?

[DavidCo3]

Hi @Christina Jarosz - I'm not aware of any way of doing this out of the box, but you can definitely do this if you have Fusion (or some other solution that can use Workfront's API). You would set it up to monitor for certain types of tasks which are complete (perhaps identified by a custom field, or template task ID), and once they are set to complete it could change the Project Status to whatever you want. You could setup multiple sets of these rules so you could have it changing to various statuses depending on which tasks had been marked complete. David Cornwell

[TracyPa2]

We are having the same problem. I spend so much time chasing people down to mark their tasks complete so the project keeps moving. I'm interested in what solutions others can offer. How can I set up a project to autocomplete once all tasks are complete? That could save me some time. Tracy Parmeter

[IsabelRi]

I have the same problem and am trying to figure the best solution without spending time chasing people down. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Isabel Ribeiro-Atwan McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

[ljanz]

@Christina Jarosz Oh, that is on our dream list! @David Cornwell Good to know. We can't afford Fusion right now, but perhaps we can figure out some other API solution. Leah Janz Metro Transit

[TerryHy]

Hi Tracy, to answer your question about a project autocompleting once all tasks are complete, the setting can be found by going to Edit Projects --> Settings --> Completion Mode. You can set this for Manual or Automatic. If you create Projects using Templates, you can set this at the Template level, so any Projects added will have the Completion Mode set to Automatic. Terry Hynd EBSCO Information Services

[VicAl]

I understand everyone's projects are different. But for me it's about process. I have a weekly status meeting on each of my projects to go over just these types of things (what's been completed, what's next, etc.). Using a Dashboard displaying just those tasks helps keep the meeting quick. In fact, this week I covered two of my projects in 15 minutes total. In that meeting (or after) we determine if a task is complete and if they haven't marked it, I either remind them or just mark it complete myself. Personally I'd be a little wary of auto closing tasks as it may close a task that isn't actually complete. In fact, I don't close a task myself until I've confirmed with the assignee. I'm a double-checker �� . For our type of projects there's something to be said of verifying that a task is truly done and the conversation that might ensue. Just another viewpoint.

[GregoryLa]

@terryhynd Hi Terry - Thank you for this tip. I did not know you could do this. I have a couple of questions before I make this change to our templates: Can you please confirm this setting to automatic will change the project to complete AFTER all tasks are marked complete? I instruct our project managers to make sure they enter all of their time before closing a project. Will this change have any negative effect on them doing this? Have you encountered any other challenges using this setting that I may not be thinking about? Thanks! Greg Lawville Head of Creative Services AAA Club Alliance

[TerryHy]

Hi Greg, SO...we actually use Manual Completion Mode for projects, not Automatic. We started that way when we launched as a double check of sorts for our Project Owners to review the project to make sure everything was 'done' for a project before moving it to Complete status. And, we just left it this way. I toy with the idea every now and again of moving it to Automatic, but I think everyone is just used to the way we did it currently and it really does not take them that much time to quickly review and mark project Complete. Now, having said all that...someone who does use the Automatic setting may be able to chime in here and confirm but for for your first question, Workfront indicates the following about the Automatic mode: "If a project's Completion Mode is set to Automatic, then the project will automatically change the status from Current to Complete after the project's percent complete bar is 100%." So, if all of your Tasks are marked complete, then that should roll up to the project being 100% complete, which if set to Automatic, the project would be marked complete. If your project managers did not enter all of their time before the percent bar is 100%, then the project would automatically close out without their entered time. Although if you allow the ability to enter time after a project is marked complete, then they could still go back to the project and do this even if the project automatically closed out. As to your last question, I'll leave that to anyone who uses the Automatic project completion mode for anything to be aware of if you switch over to that mode. Hope this helps out a bit. Terry Hynd EBSCO Information Services

[Heather_Kulbacki]

Hi Greg, We also use the Auto-complete for projects. All tasks and any issues under the project must be complete before the project will auto-complete and any approvals on tasks must be also be complete. Time can still be entered after the project is closed. The only challenges we've run into is the occasional project manager not knowing why their project isn't closed even if all the tasks are complete - it's usually a task approval that wasn't completed - since the percent complete still says 100% even when it's pending, or an open issue under the project.