Can I set a lag (type) on the first task of a project?

[CathyKe1]

“Assign Design” is often the first task on a project.

We would like to set the default end date of all Assign Design tasks to a day of the week (Tuesday).

Is it possible to add a lag type to the first task of a project, utilizing “3w” somehow?

We would prefer to achieve this without having to add a task prior to “assign design”

If it’s not possible, I think we’ll have to ask our PM’s to manually set the duration to make that task end on a Tuesday each time they create a project.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi @CathyKe1,

I suspect (valid) resistance from PMs instructed to manually adjust a certain task to always end on a Tuesday (particularly if your plans then shift enough to negate that change), so instead, invite you to (buckle up and) consider:

• creating a Schedule called "Tuesday Only", with only business hours on Tuesdays enabed
• creating a User called "Tuesday Bot" (or something similar), to which you'd then assign the "Tuesday Only" schedule
• assign that Tuesday Bot user as the Primary Assignee on those tasks in your Projects (and if you like this approach, eventually in your templates) but with zero percent on the task (and/or perhaps, a zero FTE on the user...if possible; untested)

By doing so, if I'm imagining correctly, and assuming the task in question is <1 day in duration (trickier otherwise), Workfront will recognize the Tuesday Bot for that task as the primary assignee, and then look to it's schedule (Tuesdays Only) to schedule the work, and as a result, automatically "bump" the planned date to the first available Tuesday...even when your plans change, with no extra work on behalf of the PMs.

Regards,

Doug

cc: note to self @Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore 

[CathyKe1]

Thanks for this interesting suggestion, @Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore . I finally have a little time to get my head around it. 

A few follow-up questions to the points you laid out above:

• creating a Schedule called "Tuesday Only", with only business hours on Tuesdays enabled Got it
• creating a User called "Tuesday Bot" (or something similar), to which you'd then assign the "Tuesday Only" schedule  Would the "Tuesday Bot" user require an actual (paid) Workfront license?
• assign that Tuesday Bot user as the Primary Assignee on those tasks in your Projects (and if you like this approach, eventually in your templates) but with zero percent on the task (and/or perhaps, a zero FTE on the user...if possible; untested) 
• I created a job role (for the Tuesday Bot user) called Tuesday Bot. As the only assignee on the task, it defaults to the task being due on the first Tuesday after the project start date (yay!).
• However, when I assigned a secondary person (the one who will actually be assigning the designer), it changes the task start date to the first day the project begins, even though Tuesday Bot is the primary assignee on the task.
• I'm probably not understanding what you're saying about the "zero percent on the task."

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?