good morning Workfronteers! ^_^
I have a project template that, so far, consists of 4 tasks with 2 approval processes, and wonder if anyone has any ideas on turning this into a request instead of a project. The workflow just feels so simple that I would like to automate it more than what a project would allow.
So far, below is what I have. This is a two-day workflow.
0) The first task (or the zeroth task) is where the PM creates the project and sets it to current after filling in the project's custom form.
1) The first task in the project is for our design team to locate or create an image or set of images per the instructions in the custom form. When they complete their task, this would set up an approval "loop" where the PM would review the images and approve the task, or reject it and send further instruction through proofHQ or update status.
1) The other first task in the project is for the PM to upload the text content. This can be done at any time and is not dependent on anything.
2) The next task in the project is dependent on the text content. Once the PM is done, this task would activate, and is for the email team to take the content, turn it into an email, and send the email as a test to the PM to review. The task has an approval process on it such that when it is completed, the PM would approve the task if the email looks OK, or reject the task if the email needs more changes.
3) The final task is for the email team to send the email once the previous task is approved. Once the task is completed, the PM would archive the project.
I already created a request queue where the request is assigned to a third team consisting of design team and email team members (I have to assign to more than one person, and I cannot assign to more than one team so I had to create another team). My request's approval process goes to the Primary Contact (the PM), then the Email Team member, then the Primary Contact. The intent was that the Primary Contact would simply hold off on approval until all changes had been made to satisfaction. The Email Team member's "approval" is simply a heads up that they should create the email and once the email is created, they would "Approve". Then the Primary Contact "approves" the email thus closing out the request. The request queue idea was clunky and ended up being rejected because:
* I suspect only one member of the team (or only one assigned worker) is allowed to access the "Work on it" button, and that other people would have difficulty accessing the button or seeing it in their queue. I would have liked BOTH designer and email person to "Work on" the request and have it show up in their queue. This didn't seem to be happening reliably, or only seemed to happen in very specific ways (maybe one of the workers had to manually add themselves?)
* Ultimately I think my department want to see all their work in one place, and since most of our work comes through "tasks" it's a hardship for them to have to check "approvals" and to wrap their heads around an approval actually being an indicator that a task needs to be performed. I already have everyone working off a dashboard with reports that show approvals, tasks and requests/issues all on one page and I suspect that they just focus on the task report and ignore the other reports.
I've been able to automate a lot where the project template is concerned! If there's an elegant way to move it back as a request, would love to hear others' ideas! :) Primarily, this would help the PM not have to dictate 3 or 4 deadlines. It may even free up a planner license, since so far, this is all that they do.
