Incorporating sprints into project workflows

[CBuckwal]

We’re onboarding a new group into Workfront that previously used a system where they used cases (very minimal workflow steps and assignments) as projects and labeled the cases with sprint number/date range tags that were independent of the case planned completion date. This group would like to keep their sprint concept in the new Workfront workflows but we are having a difficult time figuring out how to do that, since we would like them to adjust task duration to take into account timeline or resource changes within the project, not just manually change a sprint tag not connected with planned completion dates. Just creating a custom field with the sprint number/date range options that they could tag to the project task or project as a whole doesn’t seem to make sense to me if the planned task completion and/or project planned completion doesn’t correlate with the sprint tag dates. The group has a heavy project/template workflow that didn't fit in well with Iterations when I tested that out, but maybe I missed something. 

As a possible solution, I created a calculated field that matches the sprint number/date to the planned completion date of the task and built that into a task view. The only way they could change the sprint number would be to adjust the task duration. I can also make another calculated field that can do the same to match the sprint number/date to the planned completion project date. Has anyone dealt with this situation? I’d appreciate any insights into this user adoption challenge. Thanks!

[Madalyn_Destafney · Accepted solution]

Hi there, have you considered using Agile workflows/settings for them? You can set sprints/iterations, and associate XYZ tasks with sprints. You're able to choose to have the task/issue in the sprint adopt the sprint completion or not. 

Here's more on iterations, here's more on configuring various things about working this way, including the date setting I'm referencing. There's a ton of documentation on Agile in WF but those 2 links could get you started.

[CBuckwal]

Thanks Madeline and Edwin. The team doesn't want to change project task/story planned completion dates when the sprint dates change. They just want to move the story to the new sprint date, which I think will be very confusing. I would like the team to work as Edwin suggested and have the story tasks planned dates change to match the sprint dates. Madeline, your documentation mentions either method is possible (task planned completion dates match sprint dates or not). Is there a best practice recommended for sprint-task planned completion dates? Thanks! 

[Edwin_Melgar]

We use the Teams/Agile/Scrum setup for this.  Tasks(stories) are assigned to a team.  Once the team puts the Task(story) into a defined sprint, the Task planned dates on the project are updated to the Sprint Dates.