Automatic status change

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
December 14, 2017
10 replies
1637 views

Is there a way to have a status automatically change based on an action completed in a project? e.g. if a task is completed, can the overall project status change to something? Jazmin Allen-Collins Analog Devices, Inc.

Workfront

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VicAl1

Level 10

I don't know of a way to do that (outside of using the API). But I would wonder what the end goal is. Your Project Status itself doesn't typically change throughout the project. You normally use other fields to portray how the project is progressing. In your example, completing a Task would increase the % complete of the Project to display the progress being made. The Condition is another field to help indicate how things are going. And there are several others. Can you elaborate on what you wish to accomplish? 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

BarryBu2

Level 8

I agree with Vic - I don't think there's a way to do it automatically, and I would happily argue for hours it should not be allowed. At the end of the day any PPM tool simply holds a model of what's happening in the real world (i.e. the project) and someone (the project manager) ultimately needs to be responsible for ensuring the reflection is accurate. That's not saying you can't achieve what you need. Have you considered milestone views that do auto-complete as you mark of tasks?

LouiseRe

Level 4

We have only been able to do this via an API which was configured for us by Workfront Partner Dream2Design. We have the API managed several automatic status changes and this has saved a lot of manual admin effort. Louise Reynolds Premier Farnell Senior Global Marketing Workflow Specialist

JazminAlAuthor

Level 4

Hi all! Thanks for your feedback. Here's the use case we have: One of the purposes for our Workfront instance is to have the editor in chief of our technical magazine run his article creation/publication process through a request queue and then convert those requests to projects. Within the project, there are basically 3 main steps: Article creation Publication Compensation In step 2, he is needing to provide external agencies with a completed package that they can pitch to magazines for publication. Currently, this is still somewhat manual. But, some feedback we received recently from an external vendor was that, rather than spending the budget on searching through articles in a report, it would be good to just know when an article is ready for publication. This would ensure the content is fresh and that the agencies aren't having to dig through a very extensive library for one or a handful of articles. This notification process was actually in place before Workfront between the EIC and his agencies, but it was completely manual. So, with the automatic status change, the idea would be to take out even more steps for our EIC so all he has to do is complete a selection of tasks and the project will automatically shift and notify for him. Short story long, our end goal is more automation. Open to more feedback if you have a suggestion of a better way to do this. @AtTask Admin Premier Farnell , can you tell me more about the API you have configured? Jazmin Allen-Collins Analog Devices, Inc.

VicAl1

Level 10

melindal3825541

Level 5

This is one of the use cases for our automation platform CSConnect Basically syncing the current milestone task with the project status. -- Melinda Layten, Senior Consultant Work Management Improvement CapabilitySource Phone: (484) 505-6855 site: www.capabilitysource.com email: melinda.layten@capabilitysource.com Helpful? Buy me a coffee: https://www.patreon.com/mlayten - we simplify your work so you can run your business -

SkyeHa

Level 10

is it feasible to use Workfront's milestone feature? What you're describing just sounds like a set of milestones to me. -skye

DavidCo3

Level 10

I also suggest milestones to signify the major events. In terms of notification of the publication to the external agencies (assuming they don't login to your Workfront system): Without using the API you could create a daily milestone report which identifies publishing milestone tasks with an Actual Completion date of $$TODAY-1d (yesterday, or whatever you want). The report could be setup to email to the agencies. Otherwise, you could even share the report using a public URL and they can review the list of published items. If you wanted to use the API, you could create an immediate notification when a Publishing milestone tasks is marked complete. You could do this using a Journal query or perhaps a Task query, depending on your requirements. Regards, David Cornwell

LouiseRe

Level 4

We have various rules in place that will trigger when certain progress of tasks takes place. For example, when all tasks in a project are 100% complete, instead of the project status changing automatically to "Complete" it will automatically change to a status called "Live". Another rule we have in place is when the first deliverable of a campaign is 100% complete (i.e the first parent task to show 100%), the project status will automatically change to "Live Partial". Louise Reynolds Premier Farnell Senior Global Marketing Workflow Specialist

tracy_fox

Level 5

Hi Jazmin I can't add to the discussion as to how to do it today, but I know that Workfront is currently working on adding a Workflow feature in the future. I provided feedback to the Product Development team as this is something we would like to see in the future. More specifically I asked about workflows that would trigger a change in project status based on milestone completion as we use custom project statuses in addition to milestones to report on project stages. This is how I explained how we would see workflows being used in our organization in the future: when projects are using milestones you could also use those as triggers for workflows. Current < Custom > Project Status Milestone Completed New Project Status Scoping Scoping Current Current Development UAT UAT Testing Current Current Deployment Maintenance & Monitoring Maintenance & Monitoring Project Close Complete So it might be coming in the future Tracy Fox Project Manager / Workfront SysAdmin Sykes Assistance Services Corporation

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