Happy Friday, I'm a posting ma-cheen today. I may've created some monsters here. Every time a few items change in a process, my team wants a new template created. "Oy vey, just take out the two tasks for these three instances and move-on" - is what my head says. But what I end up doing is creating a new template for them. Do any of you have criteria set for what determines the need for a new template? If so, can you share what it is please?
Thanks! Jennifer Franz SAE International
Hi Jennifer, the only time I create a new Project Template is if we have a new Project Type (e.g., Email, Blog, Brochure). Each of these Project Types has its own Template. We are currently working on adding our Speaking Opportunities workflow/process into Workfront, so a new Project Template is needed for that, as we do not have one already. However, say we have a workflow/process change to Emails…I don't create a whole new Project Template for Emails, I just modify the Project Template that we already have for it (i.e., delete these 2 tasks, add these 3, etc.). Terry Hynd EBSCO Information Services
I'm with the Ma-cheen. For us, a template is just a starting point. It's not meant to represent every project ever commissioned and having too many templates could cause more confusion. I inform my PM's that the template is meant to be changed. Take it and then add, delete, and change tasks to meet the needs of your individual project. That being said, we don't have repetitive projects that we execute all the time (for different clients or something). Based on some of the posts here I believe some others have projects that they do over and over and the tasks are pretty cookie cutter. So I can see having a few different ones in that case. But even then, I have to believe there are still variables (estimates) that have to be changed for each project. So as always, it's a judgement call �� .
When we teach and talk about templates in our Training classes, we talk about them as starting points for a project. I tell my class attendees to make a template for how a project will be 90% of the time, then just modify the project for that other 10% -- add tasks, delete tasks, adjust durations, update planned hours, etc. I personally hate a long list of templates to scroll through when I'm making a project. If it takes me longer to scroll through the list than it does to add/remove a few tasks in the project plan, then I have too many templates. It's just not practical to have a template for every single scenario. Allison Lippert Workfront Training Manager allisonlippert@workfront.com
Like you, I just tell them to remove the tasks. If you create a new template every time, you'll have a mess with keeping track of what is the right one. I always tell them that they can add or subtract to any template but keep the main one. Paula Mitchell Creative Services DXC Technology
I also made reports to monitor how often our existing project templates were used & how often they were modified.
How often template is used: To see if any of our templates were only used a few times, and thus don't need to be templates
Project Report
Grouping: Template name
How often template is modified: To see if templates are changed consistently enough to justify a new template (ex. 50% of the time Template A is used, Tasks 1 & 2 are removed/modified the same way)
Task report
Show "Template Task: Name" and "Project Template" in your columns
May require some Excel/Tableau manipulation to get your totals
Doing this helped us remove some of our infrequently used templates, and modify our existing templates to fit the most common use cases. Vincent Goodwin The Capital Group Companies
Hi Jennifer, Our rule is the template must be used at least 5 times (hopefully more). If it's a one-off or limited use then they have to edit the project tasks. Once it's proven that the new tasks are consistently being used and a new template is really needed we'll make it. Aileen Aileen Taylor Cell Signaling Technology
