MS Project v Workfront

Hi: Here is the high speed version of how I guide MS Project aficionados: Use the Legacy Gantt; Use the Legacy Gantt; Seriously, use the Legacy Gantt; Use the Task screen for one-task at a time work Create a practice project, use the Legacy Gantt, and play; That's the short version. Thanks, Eric

One more thing to add; work with support to create custom views that give you the functionality you need. For me that has been getting a successor column. I'm working on getting days of slack/float. There is no way to get the network diagram in Workfront. That is the last thing I really miss. Therese

Get them to take the PM training course on Workfront Ascent (online training). That way, they will understand what Workfront is all about, and that yes, it's clunky in places compared to MS Project, but there are other advantages that they and the business get from using it. Also, if they understand the core functionality through this training, then you only need to cover the specifics of your customisations and processes. David Cornwell

What will you do once it's gone Eric?? :) Jamie Hill JLL

Complain about it not being there, mostly. I think David Cornwell had the best idea. In addition to that, have the newbie's management team emphasize the need to stop talking about "how easy this was to do using MS Project" and commit to using WorkFront. "https://www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model">ADKAR . Get them to take the PM training course on Workfront Ascent (online training). That way, they will understand what Workfront is all about, and that yes, it's clunky in places compared to MS Project, but there are other advantages that they and the business get from using it. Also, if they understand the core functionality through this training, then you only need to cover the specifics of your customisations and processes. David Cornwell

Thanks all for your input. Eric, I assume you suggest the legacy Gantt because it mirrors MS Project more closely than the new Gantt. Daniel Cooley Kenall

Daniel – Exactly right. The Legacy Gantt looks and feels a lot like basic task management functions in MS Project. MS Project people look at it and say, oh, yeah, I recognize this. It is not as feature rich as MS Project, but it gets people started. I recommend they then make one-off adjustments, like assigning tasks, on the Task screen. Then, they can use the Filter and View to increase their interaction with the Task Screen. Having said that, I tend to use the Legacy Gantt a lot when I'm making wholesale changes to the plan. I'll be sad when it is gone. Eric

Ah! Eric, you've just reminded me of a GOTCHA, with your "one-off adjustments, like assigning tasks, on the Task screen" comment. I was training the new head of an old client's PMO how to use the Legacy Gantt a few weeks ago: they're at the "let's get our 2 year Templates baked out, first" stage. Primarily, they wanted to changing Task Names, Durations, Assignments, Hours, Task Constraints (e.g. ASAP, ALAP, FIXT), Dates, and Predecessors -- all of which the Legacy Gantt was designed for and accomplishes elegantly. However, while they were at it, they also wanted to change each Task Description (e.g. to elaborate), the Task URL (e.g. to direct end users to further corporate commentary on their intranet; which is super helpful in a list view, btw, since you can format it to appear as a simple " ? "), and choose a "Proposed Role" in a dropdown we'd created for that purpose (so that later, we could then rationalize them and ultimately redefine the built in roles, update the templates, and drop the "Proposed Role"). None of which can be done via the Legacy Gantt. Huh: what's a guy to do? Well, this guy told them to open up two browser tabs: monitor one on the left showing the Legacy Gantt, monitor two on the right showing a list view of the same Tasks, but also showing the Description, Hyperlink, and Proposed Role. Do your Gantt magic on the left, and -- while you're in the zone thinking about that exact same task, update the other three special fields on the other monitor. Fortunately, we were only about 10 tasks when we realized that it was we ourselves who were overwriting our new changes on the left (as far as Task Name, Durations, etc. goes) whenever we simply saved on the right...because the latter's data in the grid was cached from the older version of what was on the left when the grid loaded, and then went straight back over top when we saved. Ouch. My bad. So, although if you were very careful and deliberate about refreshing, in theory there is a way to make this "dual window" approach work, in practice, I now recommend against it. But on a happy note: the New Gantt should solve all of this, and once it does, I will then happily unclench my death grip on the Legacy Gantt security blankey and switch teams. Regard, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore SEE you at LEAP using the GPS App! https://tinyurl.com/LEAPGPS Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

I agree with Eric and David ... The newbie's managers need to emphasize that Workfront is the system of record at their company, so the newbie should complete the training and commit to getting to know Workfront as well as he/she knew MS Project. I find the reason most new employees complain about Workfront is because they're not familiar with it (haven't done the training, haven't made an effort to use it, etc.), so instead of taking ownership of their lack of knowledge, they blame the system. This seems to be true for any new thing that happens (and I'm guilty of doing this myself). At a previous company, I was a member of a core team that put in a new software system. A long-time employee and seasoned system user complained to me one day about how hard and slow it was to do things in the new system. I looked at him and said, "Dave, you've been using the old system for 9 years. You've been using the new system for 3 days. Don't you think you should allow yourself a learning curve?" That made him stop and think, and I didn't hear much complaining from him after that. Allison Lippert Training Manager Workfront allisonlippert@workfront.com

Interesting to hear the approaches to Legacy Gantt. It could be because we are still relatively new to Workfront (less than 3 years) but when we started, it was already called the Legacy Gannt. I was wary of it from the beginning because I don't like the idea of legacy things which will be going away. I figured best to put our efforts into training everyone on the newer regular task list and gannt and put up with it as it is being improved. Nearly 3 years along, the legacy gannt still exists, but with the new lists function being progressively rolled out, the end of it is in sight. Our users will hopefully just appreciate the improvement when it is delivered. Having said that, we're still very dependent on the Legacy Resource Planner out of necessity...we had no option to use anything else. The resource planning tools are getting better but we couldn't cut over yet. See how we go after 18.2.... Regards, David Cornwell