Level 3

Question

Emails when people are assigned tasks

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
September 12, 2016
14 replies
2635 views

Hi! We implemented Workfront in Jan. 2015. At the time, there were 4 of us on the core implementation team (down to 3 now). The 3 of us that remain are alll under the impression that when we originally were taught Workfront, we were told that any Task notifications (i.e. I've been assigned to a Task or Added to a Project Team) would go out once the project was made current. We were specifically told to mess around with our assignments, dates, etc. in Planning so that emails wouldn't go out, and then when we flipped to Current, emails would fly. As an Admin who is in the system all day, everyday, I've never really noticed when I do and don't get email notifications. Also, I rarely got assigned Tasks in my old role that I didn't assign to myself. However, I am in a new role now working with new people, and they are very atuned to things not working the way I said they should - so when they told me they weren't getting email notifications, I researched it and Workfront said that email notifications would only go out if the assignment was made when the project was CURRENT (all of their assignments were made when it was in PLANNING). It says that all over their help site, too so the messaging is consistent. My question is: Has this changed since we implemented in 2015 or were we just taught wrong? I've got one person who swears she always got notifications, I've got another user who said she hasn't gotten any "in a long time" and hasn't really noticed one way or the other, and one user from another company who said flat-out that this is a change and it didn't use to be this way. Basically I want to know if I am crazy or not (for Workfront-related reasons, I am plenty crazy otherwise). Bonus question: How do you guys function with this? We have a lot of templates that have built-in assignments and our projects are set to start off as Planning. So in theory, if we keep going the way we are, no one will ever get email notifications that wants them if they are part of a work group that primarily functions this way.

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DavidCo3

Level 10

Hi Angela. Count me as crazy too! Just a couple of days ago, I logged an incident with Workfront Support, querying exactly the same thing! We implemented Workfront starting around September 2015. My understanding up until now was the same as yours - i.e. that we should assign people whilst in a Planning status, allowing for us to adjust the plan and get everything right, and then change the project to Execution (Current) status and all the notification emails will go out. Whilst I was on holidays recently, my collegues received complaints that users were not receiving email notifications, so as a temporary workaround they decided to just do all the assignments whilst the project is in Execution. For a permanent solution, we will likely do one of the following: Option 1 - Do the resource assignments in Planning Status. Then, at the time of moving the project from Planning to Execution, send an update to the project team, advising that this project has now moved into Execution and to check their My Work screen to review their work requests. This update can be sent from Staffing -> People -> 'Update All'. Option 2 - We can create a custom 'Staffing' status which equates to 'Current' instead of 'Planning'. This means we can use the Staffing status so that people know that the project is in staffing, however the work requests will be sent out live as resources are assigned. The drawbacks of this option are similar to the current workaround where people may get multiple emails whilst bookings are being made and adjusted. Regards, David

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GregBe1

Level 9

Angela, For those people who said they never received emails vs. those who do, you may want to check their email notification statuses (have they been turned off?). We have, as a company, turned off email notifications when being assigned to a task. We felt that would be way too many emails going to people who, when they are on a project, know which tasks they should be working on anyway.

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PollyCo

Level 9

When you change the status of the Project from Planning to Current, the expectation is that each of your user will get a notification that lists all tasks/assignments within the project if you have " Current Project Status Change to Project Team " notification active. What was more important to us is that a notification would go out to the Task User/s if their tasks are ready to be started on. The notification that must be active for that to happen is " All Predecessor Task Completion to Task Dependents ". We implemented in the last quarter of 2015. There was a slight change to the second notification I think (if I recall correctly this was supposed to be Task is Active or something of the sort) and we lost that notification while we were testing our processes. We were then told all this is now "All Predecessor Task Completion to Task Dependents". You might want to check all system notification to see that what notifications you are expecting are still active. Then next thing to check would be to have the user specify the subject line sample of the their lost notification so you can check whether this is now a system issue or the user has deactivated the notification from their list. Cheers.

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NRYNR

Level 10

Hi Angela, for the bonus question... We also have a lot of templates with predefined assignments. These templates are attached at various stages of the parent project while it is In Progress. When there are named individuals in the templates, they receive emails of task assignments when the template is attached. The way that we suppress emails from going out until we're ready for them to is to have job role placeholders in the assignments of template tasks. The project manager replaces the job roles with named individuals when ready.

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JasonMa

Level 4

Well, we are currently experiencing a problem where Workfront has made a change and broken that all e-mails have a reply to address of "noreply@attask.com." As a result, since the e-mails look like they are coming from the assigner of the task, issue, whatever, our SPAM filter rejects them. There is no way for us to avoid this since this is a classic spoofing risk and opening up the door lets ALL spoofed e-mail in, so we currently get no notifications at all. Apparently there is alreay a ticket opn for this. So the question is, are you not just receiving the e-mails when something goes to the Current Phase or are you getting no e-mails period?

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SusanPf

Level 9

When someone assigns an issue to a user that someone is getting an email error. There doesn't seem a way to shut that off. Sent from my iPhone On Sep 29, 2016, at 3:58 PM, Jason Maust > wrote: Well, we are currently experiencing a problem where Workfront has made a change and broken that all e-mails have a reply to address of "noreply@attask.com< ." As a result, since the e-mails look like they are coming from the assigner of the task, issue, whatever, our SPAM filter rejects them. There is no way for us to avoid this since this is a classic spoofing risk and opening up the door lets ALL spoofed e-mail in, so we currently get no notifications at all. Apparently there is alreay a ticket opn for this. So the question is, are you not just receiving the e-mails when something goes to the Current Phase or are you getting no e-mails period? -----End Original Message-----

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GregBe1

Level 9

Jason, It probabaly doesn't matter in your case, but has anything changed in your setup? Like in Setup>Email>Setup? Where you enter the address of where it appears to come from?

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JasonMa

Level 4

If it has changed then it changed without our knowledge. Here was Workfront's response: "Since the roll-out last night, we are seeing a problem where the "from" address for emails coming from Workfront are not showing the "no-reply" address as they should. This is most likely causing the email system at Mcquirewoods to reject these emails. This is a critical bug that is being worked on and should be fixed as quickly as possible. I have attached this ticket to the bug so we will be notified when the fix is rolled out. Sorry you are seeing this. See additional information in the article below."

imgrund

Adobe Employee

Hi, People only get notifications (whether email or in-app) when they are assigned a work request (task or issue) while the project is in a Current-type status. If you are in planning and then move it to current, they do not get a notification. And as some of our project plans have 600 tasks, I'm grateful that doesn't happen! As someone mentioned (sorry, forgot to write the name down before I hit reply), I'd recommend that you use the notification called Current Project Status Change to Project Team. That way they know there is a project they are on that is ready for work and they can check their Work Requests area in My Work. Also, something that has been helpful to our employees is the Mobile App. A lot of people use that to check for work requests, especially if they are someone who might spend more time in a different part of the tool than My Work. I'll see people checking it in the elevator when they are coming up from lunch or coffee break. :) People also like it for Notifications too. Just a thought.

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AnnaGr1

Level 5

Agree with Anthony, mobile app is great ;)

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