Notifications to start a task

Hi Jill, Are you the project owner on these projects? I am the Superuser of the department and open up most of the projects so I have my notifications set to be alerted on EVERYTHING. I know it sounds like a lot but I just delete out what I don't need. If you are the project owner (and your notifications are set up this way) you will get notified when a task is complete on a project you own. Are you saying the team members are not getting notified that the predecessor of their task is complete? They should go into "information about work assigned to me" and make sure "A predecessor of one of my tasks is completed" or better yet...."all predecessors of my tasks are completed". Yes, for #2 all the due dates go out to the team for their tasks. I don't see where you can turn those off. Normally our team here just deletes their emails and works off their dashboard for the tasks. They will go into their work requests, click "work on it" to bring all the tasks into the "working on" queue. Then they will look for the notification "the status changes on a task I'm assigned to" and sync up their dates on their dashboard manually. Does that help at all or make it more confusing? Thanks Mike Mike Marando Excelsior College

OK I'll take a crack at it. I'm not sure I'm clear on what you don't like about the notification you are getting. But you can look up the notification that's being triggered by looking at the contents of the email itself. In your notifications settings you can trace what's in the email to see which setting is causing this and you can turn it off if you wish. Let me know if you need more help on how to do that. If you're not getting notification when a predecessor to your task is complete, then there are two possibilities: i. You don't have the setting turned on in the Setup (see screen shot for the one you need to turn on) – OR – ii. Your Task is assigned to a Team and not an Individual. This is a quirk we noticed that when a predecessor Task is complete the notification goes out to only an Individual assigned to the successor Task. If there's only a Team assignment, the whole Team doesn't get a notification. Thus it's not like when you assign a Task to a Team and the whole Team is notified. You are correct, when a project goes Current, the team members should only receive 1 email stating a project they are on is now "Active" and it would contain a Summary. If they're getting an email for every Task, there's either a bug (in which case call support), or they're getting an email notification that is different than you think. I would research the email and trace it to the notifications in the Settings like I mentioned above to verify which notification it truly is. And then perhaps turn it off. Hope that helps. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. IT Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

Thanks Vic. I've narrowed down the issue to wanting a notification that a predecessor has finished and a new task assigned to ME is ready to START. Right now, when a predecessor is finished, one email goes out to everyone who has a predecessor task (they all receive the same email) and it shows ALL the tasks that are starting. The recipient has to figure out which are their tasks. If there are many tasks starting, it doesn't list them all and there is a link to the Project, also not useful. Also, sometimes (and I can't figure out when or how but sometimes) the Assignment on this "predecessor is complete" notification shows the role instead of the person's name, which is even more confusing. Jill Ackerman

Are you sure it's not this setting (attached) that is sending those Task/Issue Completion notices. You can tell by the Subject line of the email. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

Positive. Those aren't checked. Jill Ackerman

I think Vic nailed it earlier in this thread. The key notification you want is "All Predecessor Task Completion to Task Dependents", which tells the assigned user that his or her task is ready to start. The other notification, "Task Completion to Task Dependents"https://amway.my.workfront.com/notification/view?ID=58990ddf0011b6bc5f01fdd0264c5918" class="objectlink " ng-non-bindable=""> " will send a notification to ANY task downstream of a task that has been completed, even if they aren't ready to start. Marty Gawry - CapabilitySource

Hi I have both those checked and all I get are those "bundled" emails that have all subsequent tasks listed at the bottom, not just "my tasks." And to make matters even more complicated, it appears that when someone is assigned tasks via the Staffing tool, they get different notifications than when a Project is created and they are already assigned tasks (via the template). 1. The person who was assigned via Staffing got five separate emails, one for each task in the project (five emails in a row! -- the first is ready to start, but they weren't sent in order so in fact the first email she got was the 3rd task due...sigh...), 2. Another person on the same project, with 5 tasks, only got "A Project You are On is Now Active" and it listed her tasks at the bottom, even though they aren't due for 2 months. I just have no idea how to explain this to people, or to let them know what to expect. I asked my implementation manager if there is documentation but he said there wasn't any. Why isn't this driving everybody else crazy!? Jill Ackerman

And to make matters even worse the email generated from "A Predecessor of One Of My Tasks is Complete" lists ALL the subsequent tasks, and not the person who was assigned, only the role, so the person who is seeing this email doesn't realize it's meant for them, their name isn't on it! (Note I changed the subject line to see if that would be clearer; it's not). I don't think there is a solution here, so I can stop complaining now. I just wanted to close the loop on this. There's not a good "Your task is ready to Start" notification in the system. See attached. Jill Ackerman

Hi Jill, Thanks for the update. In the absence of a "your task is ready to start" email, may I suggest you consider creating your own reports, and either use the "http://store.atappstore.com/2010/06/switchback-workflow/">Switchback Workflow concept to track Task Progression, and/or the "http://store.atappstore.com/2011/02/as-soon-as-impossible/">Handoff Date concepts to confirm when Tasks are Ready to Start, then using Workfront's "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217285057-Setting-Up-Report-Deliveries">Report Delivery functionality to filter for any Handoff Dates that occurred within the past 24 hours (sent daily)? Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

I am having a similar dilemma with notifications in my WF instance. When users are converting a project from "planning" to "current", the summary email you mentioned above doesn't seem to be going out to everyone assigned a task on the project? Any insight on that? Do I not have my notifications set up correctly? Additionally, is there a way to send an email when someone is assigned a task, even if the task is added after the project is set to "current" - or perhaps if the summary email you mentioned is working properly, there is no need for this notification as well? I feel like sometimes people are getting notified, and sometimes people are not, but everyone is ALWAYS complaining about something :) And lastly, are people getting way to caught up with notifications, and perhaps I should just tell them to pay closer attention to their dashboards and my work tab? Thanks for your help! Tara Tara Jacobus Verisk Corporate Marketing