Question time!! Let’s talk about work items. How do you use the “Project” object in Workfront - is this your “Epic”? What kind of work do you put in there? Which Agile terms do you use and how do you define them, like Feature, Story, etc.?

[JaneBr]

Great questions! We have not yet embedded the term Epics but the Agile Teams are familiar with the term Story.

We have Project templates that act as backlogs into which teams enter tasks that could form Stories in Iterations.

We also have project templates that are designed in a more traditional style with stage gates although the tasks in the delivery stage may be executed using the Agile Scrum or Kanban functionality.

[AndyPa2]

Hi, Jane! It's helpful to see how you are using projects to structure your work, thank you for sharing! You mentioned that you use stage gates in projects, I am curious to know those different stages and what they mean to your team during the work process.

[JaneBr]

Hi Andy! Over the course of the last year, to fit in with a more Agile way of working, we have been looking at reducing the number of stages in our projects and we're currently embedding just 2 stages - Analysis and Delivery.

Prior to the creation of a project we will agree the best approach for delivering the work and subsequently provide the most appropriate template for this as well as create either Agile Scrum or Kanban Teams as appropriate.

[DavePa1]

We are using Scrum in our Marketing and Creative teams. It's best to think of it as a hybrid, as we have the rituals, but are learning to flex with the urgent and fire projects that inevitably come up.

We typically call projects "initiatives", which are then subdivided into epics, then stories/tasks. Epics are sometimes referred to as parent tasks. We typically don't use issues for what we do.

Occasionally we've used Kanban for certain projects with good results. There is some pressure to move to 100% Kanban.

[ChrisO_1]

@Dave Parker‚ - We've definitely seen other organizations use the hierarchy that you describe. And most orgs that I've worked with that utilize Agile methodologies are a hybrid environment.

I'd be curious to understand what is behind the push to move you to 100% Kanban...?

[PatrickMu1]

We use the project object as an epic. We define epic as something that is an independent deliverable.