Project / Task Sharing Permissions

[MoniqueEvans]

My Program Manager has a unique use case where she creates a project sets a cross project predecessor for the project and designates an owner. The Project Owner then will duplicate tasks depending on the specific need of that project. We don't want to add to the Program Manager's workload by having her duplicate the task sets, so this responsibility still needs to live with the project owner.

Is it possible to grant someone permission to add tasks but not edit timelines/due dates?

The issue is that project owners are manipulating dates instead of letting the dates recalculate from the cross project predecessor changes that the program manager owns.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Juicy one, Monique...

The "Create" Task ability on an Access Levels includes both Add and Edit, so "no"....but using our UberCalc solution, the Program Manager could Filter to such Tasks and (upon button click) either downgrade the PMs sharing to View only on those Tasks (which seems a bit odd), and/or "snap" their dates (using Fixed Dates) to whatever the Program Manager has set at any given point in time.

The latter is one way we've solved for Parent/Child Projects (in this case, with the Parent driving top down to the Children), and even without the former has the added bonus of overwriting the PMs impressions of the dates with the Program Managers assertion of the dates, either to create a window where the two can be compared (e.g. using standard Workfront reports to highlight points of divergence) and discussed, or (push comes to shove) until the PMs learn to not bother changing their impressions, since they'll quickly be overwritten in due course.

If you'd like more details, you're welcome to email me at doug.denhoed@atappstore.com

Regards,

Doug

[MoniqueEvans]

That's an interesting way to think about it, instead of eliminating their rights overwriting the dates using the Parent Project information. Thanks for giving me that nugget to noodle on! I may be in touch 😀

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Yep, you’re tracking Monique. As a first step in that automated UberCalc direction, you could set up a (cool and extremely valuable) report > dashboard > (sub) project level custom tab (/section in NWE) that highlights (and ideally, filters) those Tasks where the PM’s impression of the dates differs from the Program Manager, and share it with both parties. That way, they can at least both see the divergence, discuss it, and then manually update both to be equal again, whether the PM’s way, the Program Manager’s way, or some compromise. that approach might even have enough beneficial side effects to be The Way. ...But if not, you can then add UberCalc into the mix and add a button beneath that report which the Program Manager can then press to have Her Way, snapping all the PM’s sub project dates to match the Program Manager’s parent project dates. Regards, Doug

[TealeMcCleaf]

Hi Monique -

Not knowing how compliant your PM's are... If they follow instruction, you could create a View that only shows the Due On date, not Planned Completion Date so that when they enter the tasks the date isn't editable. Make it clear that they should only add tasks using that view. Of course, this is assuming that they are inline editing to add tasks.

Just a thought.

Best -

Teale

[MoniqueEvans]

This might hold some of the culprits back, but a few of my PMs are very adamant that they know best; lol. I like this idea though of retraining and providing a new view that isn't as tempting