Best Practices for Required Form Fields - Project Level

[SarahJu1]

WF Community, I'd love your suggestions for how to get users to complete filling out a custom form at the project level. We use a system in which project owners submit job requests using a broad custom form. A project manager then creates a project and attaches an additional custom form or forms to the project to capture more specific details from the project owner. Right now, the project-level form fields aren't required fields, but we're having trouble getting project owners to actually complete the forms (i.e. they will fill out 8 of 10 necessary fields). Would it be better to make all necessary fields required on the project-level forms? (Our initial decision was not to, since users would have to fill out the entire form in one go, and we decided to give them the flexibility of saving their progress midway.) Is there a more elegant way to prompt users to complete forms (short of cash incentives)? Sarah Juckniess Cal Alumni Association

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Oooohhh! SUCH a juicy topic, Sarah! I might even post twice. Let's start with a Bugs Bunny homage: "In THIS corner, wearing the red trunks, and weighing in at 210 pounds... The Enforcer , who will beat his opponent (your users) into submission with required fields, ensuring that no form is accepted without all fields being filled in. Deadly with his left cross, his one weakness is the obvious fine-then-I'll-just-put-junk-in-then kidney shot, which in the long run, could be his undoing!" "Annnnnnnd in this THIS corner, wearing the gold trunks, and weighing in at svelte 190 pounds... The Pragmatist , who lulls his opponent (your users) into a false sense of security by allowing them to start a form, and -- recognizing that Interruptions Happen -- submit it so they don't lose any of their data entry. Butterfly-like on his toes, his Achilles heal is the glaring side effect that his style can lead to premature activity on incomplete information, which could prove costly for all concerned!" "Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd in THIS corner (wait: what?), wearing the blue trunks, and weighing in at an even 200 pounds... The Motivator , (aka "https://motivosity.com">www.motivosity.com ) who draws his opponents (your users) in to dancing His Way by rewarding them for good behavior. Spotted in the dodgy side of Salt Lake City and then cleaned up and trained by the legendary Scott Johnson, his unorthodox style is nonetheless gaining popularity, but only time will tell if it's enough to win the match!" The first round's about to start: place your bet! Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[DavidTa1]

Sarah, As much as cash or chocolate incentives are great, they are not sustainable and I do like Doug's analogy but I do feel there is a character between the Enforcer and the Motivator (The Enforcivator! ��). I have found that a Dashboard with project reports that show all the custom fields works great. What increases the motivation for filling out the fields is to utilize conditional formatting and turn each empty field RED. This helps the person required to fill out those fields remember and quickly see which ones they still need to answer. Plus, they can just inline edit and not go back into the project custom form to get to the fields. A Dashboard when they first log into Workfront is a great way to jog their memory! I hope this helps as you think of options! Thanks, David
DAVID A. TAYLOR Founder & Managing Consultant

[VicAl]

Ah the good ole days of Ravishing Ronald and the Hairy Tooth (never remember its name) (see attached). Battling philosophy aside. Keep in mind that a Required field simply means something must be in there. If the field is Freeform they can simply enter anything in the field (TBD or even just a space) if they want to continue and fill that in later. If the field is a dropdown or another presented choice field, you can add a TBD type selection so they can fill it in for now and add a better answer later. Of course you'd have to train them on this, but it might be the compromise you're looking for.

[VicAl]

Ooooooo I like that!

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Sage advice David, I concur, in this (my aforementioned second post), and as mentioned in "https://community.workfront.com/discussions/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=6578c6a8-783f-41bf-9fd2-48280b5dfa32&CommunityKey=aaafaff0-5e4e-4e38-8903-f1f990935567&tab=digestviewer#bm6578c6a8-783f-41bf-9fd2-48280b5dfa32#bm6">this post and "https://community.workfront.com/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=4d5ae0cc-acd5-41cb-9514-7b3bac1d62cc">this presentation . Regards, Doug"https://community.workfront.com/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=4d5ae0cc-acd5-41cb-9514-7b3bac1d62cc"> Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[SkyeHa]

hey Sarah, it sounds like you are having the project owner submit as a request? If so, would it be possible to have this stay as a request for a while longer? Attach the custom forms to the request and set the status to "awaiting feedback" for the project owner to fill in. When they are done, they can set the status of the request to ... I don't know... "form completed". If the form isn't adequately completed, don't even start the project. Just set the request status to awaiting feedback. This way there is a clear delineation between "I was able to create a project" vs "naah, you still have work to do here." Beyond this, I feel like this may be a bigger conversation. 1) Are all fields being missed, or are there specific fields being ultra-missed? If it's one or two fields that are more missed than any other, it's definitely an option to make these required. Definitely don't make all the missing fields required. 2) Are all project owners at fault or are there specific people who are worse? Is this a training issue where you need to go 1:1? Could you maybe set up a weekly status meeting (or daily standup -- I don't know how fast your timeline is) and make it clear that it's mandatory attendance for everyone whose name shows up on report X that is mailed out the day before (automatically by Workfront)? Then just run a report of missing fields and email it out to everyone. 3) Is there something else going on I don't know about? Why is field X being left blank? Do they not have this information? if not, who does? Are they just forgetful -- filling in the form halfway and then forgetting to come back to it, and not being able to tell which projects still need the information? (this is where that dashboard that everyone recommends might work well) In other words, are you trying to treat the symptom (missing fields) and if so, what's the actual cause? Beyond these, this is the exact reason I have/suggest a "governance" style committee meeting every X weeks. A representative from each group in our workfront instance attends these meetings, and I go straight to that group rep/s with this issue, and they take it back to the group and solve it there. Sometimes multiple groups solve it different ways (and I do see the missing fields scenario sometimes break down to specific groups having different solutions that work specific to them) I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck. -skye

[SarahJu1]

Everyone, thank you so much for your input. This is all really helpful. I do like David's suggestion for the dashboard report - that sounds like a potentially easy way for people who like to get an at-a-glance view. In the end, I really went with an approach more like Skye's (although we do a good deal of enforcing AND motivating, in a pragmatic way). I or the PM who's receiving the campaign request will review the request, and if there are incomplete or missing fields, we will change the issue status to "Awaiting Feedback" and ask the requestor to provide the additional information. What I still need to do is training for the requestors in how to respond to those requests - since I can't prompt them by tagging them directly on the field in question, we rely on them knowing where to find the form and following directions to complete the information. So, I like the idea of a monthly or bimonthly IRG where we can pass that knowledge on to users. Thank you again for your help. Sarah Juckniess Cal Alumni Association