Designate Multiple Project Sponsors to a Project

[PavlinPa1]

Hello Community,

Currently, Workfront allows for designating one project sponsor to a given project.

Does anyone have an idea on how to add/designate multiple Project Sponsors to one project by using the built-in field?

(A custom form would be a solution...)

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you! Grazie! Danke! Merci!

Cheers,

+Pavlin

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Pavlin,

I invite you to consider leveraging the (similar) silver-bullet technique that mentioned for tracking Stakeholders in this post.

Regards,

Doug

[EricaLo]

Hi Doug, I'm facing a similar issue as Pavlin but needing the ability to assign multiple Project Owners to projects. I read through the post you linked, but if I understood it right, that's for creating a separate field using the new typeahead field, and wouldn't display directly in the Project Owner native field. Any advice? Thanks! Erica Erica Lorenzo

[TimGr1]

Hi Pavlin,

I have the same need as well. Other than custom fields / form that you mentioned, the way I found around this is that you put in one owner and one sponsor for the project, but you consider others as "executive stakeholders" on the project. They're usually nearly solid dotted lines as far as reporting back to them but it also doesn't muddy the waters for "chain of command" in a project. I find it's cleanest to have one sponsor but that sometimes just isn't reality. When I was able to give someone a job role though and consult with them on decisions for executive stakeholder and they work it out with the main sponsor to make a final decision it has worked well.

From a WF point of view, currently it's the one name in the field that I've seen. Maybe suggest it as a new feature and we'll see how it votes up or down. I'd vote up to it.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Erica,

You understood right, but alas, I explained wrong, and have just recanted (see Brick Wall) on that thread: both the native Project Owner field and the new Typeahead User field allow only a single entry.

Regards,

Doug

[PavlinPa1]

Hi Erica,

Here is the solution I've implemented and my team is very happy.

(Credits to Doug Den Hoed and Dagmara Garwell)

Steps for adding multiple Project Sponsors to a single project -

1. Create a custom project form called Project Info. (I've found that useful to be able to add multiple custom fields that would enhance the project categorization and overall project related parameters.)
2. Create/Add custom fields Sponsor1, Sponsor2, Sponsor3, etc. to Project Info Custom form.
3. Use Typeahead field format, b/c that will grab the $$USER.ID for any user/sponsor in the system.
4. Update any project with any number of Sponsors, e.g. their names. For instance, if you have five (5) custom Sponsor fields in your custom project form, you'd be able to add up to five (5) names.
5. In any view/report, all you need to do is add ALL five (5) custom fields in separate columns and merge those into one column. Please see the screenshot below for more details. Let me know if you need help with the merging part of this solution. Happy to help!

Thank you. Enjoy!

[PavlinPa1]

Hi Tim, Please check out my reply to Erica above. Hope it'll help you, as well. Cheers, +Pavlin Pavlin Panayotov Littelfuse, Inc.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Ahhh! Well done, Pavlin! I'd been considering a few other angles, trying to leverage naturally occurring 1:many project (or portfolio) to user relationships (e.g. Assignments, Notes, Subscriptions, etc.), but for various reasons, they're all falling short. In the long term, adding a Stakeholders (plural, with a multiple user based Type Ahead input) strikes me as the most elegant approach. However, your practical approach hits the mark neatly, so I am going to move my other musings to the back burner, and update my "brick wall" post with a link back to this one so others can follow your technique. Thanks again -- great work! Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore

[TamBo64]

Hi Pavlin, I'm one of the people who need this report for our "stakeholders" and do not know how to merge columns. Any advise? Thanks for your solution tip here. Tammie Bouchard National Safety Council

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Tammie,

I'd suggest you review Narayan's WFPro Shared Columns tips.

Regards,

Doug

[TamBo64]

Thank you, Doug.

[PavlinPa1]

Hi Tammie,

First, let me share the source where I got some great ideas about column merging; please review this discussion thread here. Once you get there, just scroll up and get to the second entry in the sequence, e.g. 2. RE: merging custom field from 5 different reports into a single column view, by Dagmara Garwell. It's a really great discussion thread.

Second, another way to skin this cat is to look directly in my report/view code for the column called Sponsors (it's a combo of multiple sponsor names and $$USER.ID behind the scenes.)

How to use the attached file?

1. Create three custom fields (Sponsor 1, Sponsor 2, Sponsor 3) in a custom project form as I described it in my previous discussion entry in this thread.
2. Add the custom project form to all or some of your projects.
3. Update an existing project view/report or create a new one by adding a column called Sponsors.
4. Click update the project view/report. Go to column Sponsors. Click Switch to Text Mode window.
5. Copy paste my code and it's supposed to work for you.

Hint: If your preference is using Stakeholders vs. Sponsors, feel free to create your fields as Stakeholder 1, ...2, and ...3. Also, make sure that you complete a Find/Replace of my values with your values in the attached file.

Let me know if you need any help after your review.

Cheers,

+Pavlin

[MoritzHe]

Question: is a feature like the one requested (ability to select multiple names in typeahead) currently in development?

None of the links in this thread seem to lead anywhere but the forums start page, but from what I understand reading the posts here, none of the solutions will satisfy my needs. I'm working on a request queue for personnel changes which could encompass anything between 1 and n users at a time and providing a set number of fields "Name1" "Name2" seems neither very elegant, nor appropriate for an IT solution in 2020.

Thanks, Moritz

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Moritz,

As an alternative while you're waiting for a multi-select typeahead custom data user enhancement, consider using the "Assigned To" (which already supports multiple users, and Type-Ahead) as the container for the staffing needs usecase you are trying to model.

With certain conventions in place (e.g. make the person who is responsible for organizing the staffing needs the Primary Assignee at 100% , and add all the people to which the staffing needs pertain as other assignees at 0%), you might be able to satisfy your current business requirements.

Regards,

Doug

[MoritzHe]

Thanks for your answer Doug. I'm not sure I expressed myself properly. I'm using a custom form where a requester should be able to select/indicate any number of employees in the system by name. Can the "assigned to" field somehow be pulled into a custom form?

Cheers, Moritz

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Negative Moritz,

However, instead, what I'm proposing is that you instead use the built in Assigned To field on the request, which would allow the requester should be able to select/indicate any number of employees in the system by name, as you seek.

Regards,

Doug