Planned work vs. ad hoc/new requests

[KarenRu]

Hi All, I manage a creative services team. Except we're more like a hybrid, not just creative services, and not a full blown marcom shop. We don't have a mkt office that sits in front of us. Our clients come directly to us for their communication needs. I'm struggling w/a workflow conundrum. We're still configuring our instance, and hope to launch very soon. We're going to have a request queue to handle our new requests. But how do you all handle the planned, annual cyclical work that you do year over year-and isn't necessarily treated as a new request. For planning purposes- i want all that cyclical work in our system so I can forecast work and capacity plan. So I want our internal project managers to open the projects on behalf of our clients to get them in our instance. (for example- commencement comes every year, we know the work that's needed) But my director of project management wants our clients to still put in a request to initiate the work. Regardless, we'll still use the request queue to handle all the additional, one off, ad hoc requests that come in throughout the year. Sorry if I'm not articulating my conundrum very well.... tks Karen

[MelindaLa1]

One way to do this is to open a request on behalf of the client. You/PM creates the request but puts in the client as the Primary Contact. Then they receive all the normal notifications as the "owner" of that request. On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 4:38 PM Karen Rutz < globalforum@communitylists.workfront.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > I manage a creative services team. Except we're more like a hybrid, not > just creative services, and not a full blown marcom shop. We don't have a > mkt office that sits in front of us. Our clients come directly to us for > their communication needs. > > I'm struggling w/a workflow conundrum. We're still configuring our > instance, and hope to launch very soon. We're going to have a request > queue to handle our new requests. But how do you all handle the planned, > annual cyclical work that you do year over year-and isn't necessarily > treated as a new request. For planning purposes- i want all that cyclical > work in our system so I can forecast work and capacity plan. *So I want* > our internal project managers to open the projects on behalf of our clients > to get them in our instance. (for example- commencement comes every year, > we know the work that's needed) *But my director of project management > wants* our clients to still put in a request to initiate the work. > > Regardless, we'll still use the request queue to handle all the > additional, one off, ad hoc requests that come in throughout the year. > > Sorry if I'm not articulating my conundrum very well.... > > tks > > Karen > > -----End Original Message----- >

[EricLu2]

Hi: You have choices, and they challenge your status quo: 1) Enter requests for the recurring work, and when the order comes in, just promote the request from an issue to a task in a project; 2) Create a project plan that has all of the recurring stuff in it, at the placeholder level, with tasks assigned to people. That way, when you look at the User Utilization screen, you’ll see demand for your team in the future. Then, when the work comes through the request queue, you can remove it from your Future Demand Plan; Um, those are the two things that come to mind. We do the latter, essentially. Others are likely to come up with other ideas. Thanks! Eric

[KarenRu]

Thanks Eric- I think converting the request to a task on the already entered project might work well! thanks. Also- I should post this in the reporting section, but is there a report out there that can show you # of requests that came in by xx insert date (month, quarter, year) and can I discern between requests that were converted to projects vs. to requests that were converted to tasks on a project? tks! Karen