Projected Completion Dates

That is very useful information. I base most of our projects on a "need complete by day x" basis, so the completion date drives the schedule. Once you lock in when you need a task completed, the remainder derives itself, especially if you combine that with predecesors. Plus I can set up reports for tasks due based on time period from that. JC

Sooo..... Whe we have a new-starter and I give them the "Intro to Workfront" talk, this is the part which causes the most confusion.... Here's my version.. Projected Completion Date - Projected Start Date + Duration Unless the the Task Assignee has given a Commit Date Projected Completion Date will always use the Actual Completion Date if there is one Does that make sense...? Cheers, Phil

We use it as a planning guide when buildng out tasks and duration estimates. To have the system let the PM know if their plan and the projected completion are in sync. It also helps when tasks slip, to see the calculated projected completion date. And it drives users crazy in milestone reports. Linda

Projected Completion Date? Never heard of it. I think it is mostly a myth created to scare children at bed time... In all honesty, we have removed it from nearly every report and train our PMs to ignore it and drive work based on Planned and Actual numbers only. Why? Projected takes in a whole bunch of factors and assumes those factors are valid (i.e. accurate) It relies heavily on a highly motivated workforce that lives in Workfront and updates task completion, planned dates, and planned effort daily It also relies on that when a resource says, "uh, yeah, that will take me about 4 hours" that they really don't mean 4 minutes but want to sound like they have more on their plate then they really do or that they aren't terrible at estimating hours It has no concept of task or project priority (sure, resource constraints indicate that 4 tasks will be a week late, but one of those tasks is for the single most important project of the year and that resource knows it had better complete when planned or they're fired...Workfront can't account for that knowledge that the resource will actually deliver that one on time) It doesn't account for the fact that some tasks are 2 day tasks that start on a Friday and end on a Monday...but they do that because there is a weekend cutover but you can't put time on Saturday or Sunday because that isn't the stanard work calendar of your organization Large admin tasks, like meetings, that go for long periods of times with a large number of assignees and high number of hours can really throw off the projection; a majority of our projects that are in danger to carry over into another budget year (despite the last planned date being in August) are a result of these large admin tasks not having their % complete udpated, sometime overestimated to account for they system mishandling the data Assumes you don't have a "get 'er done" workforce that finshes tasks when assigned, even if that means working overtime or weekends (no one wants that to be the reality, but it is rare that there is an IT shop that doesn't require it from time to time) Now, I totally acknowledge that there are a lot of companies that have the above things tightly controlled and derive huge value from that information, but if the things above sounds like your users or situation, then ignore them. Much like the other thread on the dangers of the Commit Date, Projected Date is not for everyone and if viewed by the wrong exec can create a Sky is Falling attitude where it looks like nothing ever gets done on time...it does, Workfront just doesn't think it can. Our project carryover report used projected and always created panic situations on projects that might slip to the nex year...despite them almost being done months ahead of year end...and in some cases actually being in closing but still creating false flags. Take a look at how your people work, what your numbers show, and if Projected just doesn't create value for you, remove it from your Views and Reports.

Jason... I really appreciated your honesty here.... It made me smile... Thank you!

Great summary, Jason. I do have hopes that we we will get to the point that we will be using Projected Dates properly. In fact, this is one of the key things that we want out of Workfront (an independent assessment of the tracking of a project, rather than just what the PM has in their plan). For the moment - because we are still less than a year into our implementation - I tell all of our users to just focus on Planned Dates as being the most important, and to update their projects and tasks as often as possible (at least a couple of times per day...in the same routine as they check their email). Once we get everyone used to using the system and updating it regularly, then we should be able to turn our attention to Projected dates and improve any specific factors in order to be able to use them.

Thanks everyone, very useful information so far. What I'd like now is .... a. To understand how other companies are successfully using projected dates b. How Workfront calculates the projected date field (not the official version online)