Complex Project Timelines

[chrisjuno456]

Looking for best practice recommendations. We are somewhat new to Workfront. Initially we rolled out Workfront to our users with a very basic use case. We needed to get people migrated to the new system and had to get users to log time on Timesheets, so each Project is currently setup with just one Task to enter time on. We're looking to move to phase two of our rollout and start utilizing full project timelines. We have several templates built, some of them with many, many tasks. These templates are setup using schedule from Start Date and have Durations and Predecessors set, but we're having issues with some of the test jobs and the dates lining up the way we're expecting them to. A lot of the work we do is packaging which have very long timelines. We are given Launch Dates that we need to meet and we build our timelines backwards from there. There are several dates along the way that we need to hit as well. It seems like Project Managers will have to do a ton of fine tuning on their projects to get them to hit the dates they need to hit. Possibly an hour of finessing per project. We've been advised that it's best practice to use schedule from Start Date no matter what in Workfront. Anyone building timelines from Completion Date? Do any other agencies out there have experience with building complex timelines in Workfront or any other advice for us? Thanks in advance. Chris Jackson CheckMark

[Christina_Jarosz]

Scheduling from start date lets you have the adjust the end date of the project. We setup templates with each milestone having predecessors. The resource coordinator that converts the intake form to a project setups up the timing based off of whats in the intake form. If you have specific tasks due at certain times, you make them some of the tasks needed have the due date adjusted based on that deliverable. To that end, we also allow our marketing team members to have flexibility to adjust duration as need be to update the project more accurately. Christina Jarosz Ascensus

[wendymill2]

Hi Chris, You say you're given launch dates that you need to meet... are you actively promoting the estimated project time that a packaging project takes? Say 6 weeks start to finish including printing/shipping/delivery? You can export out your detailed project plan and share it with project managers so that they are very aware of the time it takes to deliver and hopefully use it to plan their launch. With reporting you can look back on the historical data of other packaging projects (if everyone is tracking time and marking tasks complete in a timely manner) and confirm your estimates are accurate and if not fine tune your duration and hours as well as predecessors or missing tasks. There are times when we have to meet a shortened timeline and I will still have it schedule from the start date but will put the last task on Must Finish by the requested date. I'll put RUSH in the project title along with the due date, switch the priority to high on all tasks and the project and ask that all team members make this project a priority, review their tasks and make adjustments in order to meet that date. I have a report that collects all of the Rush project requests so that we can circle back and communicate the need to give the team adequate time to do their work in order not to affect the quality of the work or risk errors due to rushing the work. Our timelines are complex with many different departments having a part in the project work and I even have our print vendor as part of the project - allowing them to see the timelines and post the print proofs to Workfront as well. Good luck! Wendy Millard Empire Life Wendy Millard Empire Life Insurance Company