Customizing Milestone Reports

[SarahNau]

Hello - Is is possible to customize milestone reports? I would love to take off the start date (for some reason projects are appearing as late even if the tasks are started on time) and add a grouping. Thoughts? Thank you!

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Sarah, The Milestone view cannot be manipulated (or printed or exported to Excel, as I recall), but with some perserverence and conditional formatting, can be approximated via a task-based matrix report, filtered for milestone tasks only, and grouped by (numerically prefixed) milestone names, and you decide what goes red, and when (and can print and export to Excel). Regards, Doug

[BrookeEm]

Hi Doug, Would you be able to give me a little more detail on how to manipulate it like this? If you have any step by step instructions, or anything that would be amazing!! If not, no big deal.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Brooke. There's a good overview of Matrix Reports at https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217170837-Creating-a-Matrix-Report. The idea is to make a Task-based Matrix Report, grouped by Project horizontally and Task Name (or perhaps Milestone Name, which I do) vertically, filtered for only the Tasks that have Milestone ID's that are Not Blank, and -- if you like -- adding a chart. For best results, I add numeric prefixes in front of the Milestones (e.g. 01 - Planning, 02 - Design, 03 - Development, etc.) so they order logically. Regards, Doug

[LauraRa1]

Hi Doug Is there any way to achieve this without adding a number prefix to the milestone names? If not then what other reporting benefits are there from numbering the milestones? Thanks ‚ò∫ Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image001.png@01D2462D.8D686F30]

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Laura, Prefixing milestones (eg 01 Planning, 02 Design, etc.) is the simplest approach I've found to group and sort large amounts of task information across disparate projects. Where other options such as Task Name, Task Number and even custom data could be used, they've all disappointed me as (for one good reason or another) they change, move, or become missing over time, yeilding unorganized results. In contrast, milestones can be assigned to different tasks (and even better: template tasks) to give a holistic view of similar processes across a variety of project types. I've forgotten if there is an ordinal Milestone order -- if so, perhaps you could group first by that and then the milestone name -- but practically speaking, exposing the prefix is easier and logical enough to explain. As for an illustration of what you can then do using the prefix convention, I invite you to read my "http://store.atappstore.com/2010/05/one-chart-to-rule-them-all/">One Chart To Rule Them All blog post, which fans of Lean Manufacturing will quickly recognize. Regards, Doug

[tracy_fox]

[BenettaPe]

Doug, Old post - but I'm asked to do this today - so hopefully your response still works - giving all the updates to Workfront - in the last two years. Any updated information is greatly appreciated - if applicable. Thanks. Benetta Perry APS

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Benetta, Yep; an oldie but a goodie -- this approach of creating a Task based matrix report, filtering for only the Milestones of interest, and grouping by Milestone Name still works well. Regards, Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[JasPa1]

Hi there, I would like to add additionl fields/columns to a milestone view e.g. project status. task progress, custom calculated fields. Is there anyway to do this whilst using the format for the milestone view? Thanks, Jas Parmar Allianz

[NRYNR]

Hi Jas, Unfortunately, you're stuck with what is provided in the view as is. I've abandoned it and have embraced using collections in project reports. They give you more control in what you information you present. You also get the benefit of grouping. Here are a couple of examples of ""https://workfrontpro.com/textmode/text-mode-views-collections/#milestone-tasks">Milestones in Project Reports Using Collections " that you can start with. Narayan Raum "https://suntrustedo.my.workfront.com/dashboard/view?ID=5c1bf1f90046e70adeecf882731a47b9"> Workfront Center of Excellence Delivery Lead Enterprise Data & Governance Execution (EDGE) SunTrust Bank