Project Plan Structure

[DawnBa]

Hi, We have been using Workfront for about a year now and are struggling with adoption because of how we have our plans set up. PMs want a task list plan to manage their project from but do not want to have to manage planned hours, start and end dates at that level Our consultants want to have a small number of tasks on their project to report time against but still be able to see the details of what activities make up the tasks they are assigned to. We have found a middle ground but our larger plans are 1,700 lins with child tasks having planned hours of less then 10 hours. It is an administrative hog to keep planned hours accurately updated and we need it to be accurate to use the capacity planning. Would be great if we could find a way to have our plans where the tasks have large buckets of hours (e.g. a deliverable) with a visual way to see what tasks need to be accomplished to complete the deliverable and mark off what has been completed. I have tried using custom fields with check boxes but there is no way to easily see these when you bring up the project plan it will only display the custom field not the list contained in the field. Has anyone come up with a creative way to create their project plans that might help resolve our dilema? Thanks in advance, Dawn

[CommunityUs]

Just a thought, but would you be able to create high level taskson the plan to keep that relatively simplistic, and create custom issues against those tasks, that way you can report on progress using an issue report? Other than that I am not sure.

[DawnBa]

Tim, Thanks for the response. That is a good thought, I will take a look at that approach. I am also looking at an approach to have a custom field that is dynamic by a custom field called deliverable so I can have the project plan mapped out to a deliverable level with an associated custom tasklist/checklist for each deliverable to see if I can simplify our process. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[JasonMa]

I submitted an enhancement for a new field type of checklist for this very thing. I want to assign a task, say, Build Servers and then have the engineers create their checklist of things (request IP address, install OS, update drivers, harden security, etc.) and then check things off if they complete so they can self manage. We'll see what happens...

[DavidCo3]

We have considered using custom forms as a checklist, but for the moment, our teams are just building checklists as a Word/Excel document and then checking it in and out against the task in Workfront. Jason - your idea sounds like exactly what we need. Could you please post the text of your feature request so that those of us who also want it can copy and log our own feature requests for the same idea? Regards, David.

[JasonMa]

Here you go David: "Many tasks are made up of activities too small to be worth creating sub-tasks for. Additionally, as a PM, I may not need to know or care what the individual components of a task are, just that everything that needs to happen for that task is done so the task is complete. Finally, an assignee may want to track individual efforts on a task in one easy-to-manage place. I would like to see a custom field that can be added to Tasks that allow PMs or Assignees the ability to add a "check list" of items that would be unique to every Task. So, if they have a Task called "Build Server," the engineer assigned that task can go in and create a list of items that make that task: Request virtual server, install OS, give IP address of 10.10.10.01, install application, etc. It takes much longer to manage these as 4 separate tasks (with 4 different due dates, % completes, etc.) then if they were all on a SINGLE task where check marks can be clicked so they know where they are at in the process. This also allows the assignee to self-manage their to do's on a task without having to know anything about creating sub-tasks."

[DawnBa]

Jason, This is perfect, thanks I’ll get it posted as well. Maybe we can spark Workfornt to take action sooner if more of us post an enhancement request. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[MartyGa]

Another option, though not ideal, may be to have the low level checklist items attached to the task as ISSUES with an issue type of REQUEST. This still clogs up the time sheet and the MyWork area, but does keep the project task plan to a manageable state of containing only the higher level deliverables.

[DawnBa]

Thanks - another good idea we could build that into a template too. Worth a closer look and if in their My work it would be more present to our consultants. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[DavidCo3]

Thanks Jason - I have raised a feature request now. Let's hope Workfront take this on-board. It would be a home-run for us.

[DawnBa]

Likewise. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[SueTh]

Hi Dawn, We use tasks and subtasks for this kind of thing, my reports and views filter out the subtasks so that if required the user can just focus on the main tasks/milestones. The other suggestions sound good though so will keep an eye on that. :)

[DawnBa]

Thanks Sue, The biggest problem with the sub-tasks is keeping our planned hours accurate for capacity planning, the details are too low to keep them accurate consistently when the PMs are managing 3 and 4 projects at a time. Appreciate the feedback though. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[SkyeHa]

is it possible to use the task description field to list out the activities, and then attach a custom form to the task if your worker truly feels like they need to check off each activity as it's done?

[DawnBa]

Hi, Using that approach will guarantee our consultants won’t use the checkbox or the description. It is the challenge we are facing right now. But thanks for the thought. DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[tadams-1146613]

I have created a wagile project template for my creative teams that need some structure and more flexiblity. Also, training my team to convert issues or outlook emails into tasks or projects. Cheers! -- Scott Adams Workfront - Data Inspires Creativity Business System Analyst Lead

[AnthonyIm]

Here is an idea that might work...

Say we have a development team that has to go through a checklist of things to move a site to production. Create a custom form with a field that has that checklist (I'm going to call it Migration Checklist for clarity sake). Make sure for the options you hit the setting gear and Select As Default.

So now you have a task for Moving To Production and attached is a custom form with "Migration Checklist" (or whatever you called it) on it and all the items are checked off.

I would then build a report for these tasks (it would be AWESOME if this was a task already in a template so that you can just look for the template task ID. But I know that might be work for your organization so you will have to figure out the correct filter for the team). Have the Project Name, Task Name (so they can easily navigate to it), and then add our custom field Migration Checklist.

This will show you all the items that still need to happen. Once someone completes a few of them, have them go in and uncheck the items from Migration Checklist. After then do that, those items disappear from the report since it only shows things that are checked. :)

Now I have not implemented this on any of my teams because I didn't think about it until I read this thread. But it was the thought that popped in my head when I read this. Hope it is helpful.

[DawnBa]

Thanks for the thought. Given you can’t display a checklist unless it is checked off… that would be a good approach to display what is left to do. Upcoming Out of Office - July 28 & 29 DAWN BALL Business Analyst O 972.916.9816 M 972.523.3602 www.onesourcevirtual.com http://www.onesourcevirtual.com [CMYK_GREY]

[KarenRu]

Hi Scott, Would you be willing to share that template? Curious what WAGILE looks like :) tks Karen

[DawnHa]

Here is a report used to track items on checklists. The 1st task is where the # of items being checked is set and then each following tasks has to show it checked the same #. The # of checklists appear depending on the # selected. The report only shows summary tasks that are not complete and the owner can easily see where in the set of tasks they are. The checklist is defaulted to no. This is a template with the checklists already attached.

[BethMa1]

Great idea; we have the same issue with web development tasks where we as PMs don't need to know or keep track of all the detailed steps. I just submitted a feature request and referenced this thread. Hopefully it'll gain some traction. Beth Massura Assistant Director of Operations, Marketing The University of Chicago Booth School of Business 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60637 Phone: 773.702.7598