Release 2017.3 - Feeling the love?

[EricLu2]

Hi: Let me outline the things people are loving: 1) Kanban - This is being very well received. With this, I am now able to get people who manage their work using post-it notes on the wall into WorkFront. As soon as they need a little more rigor around schedules, I can move them from Kanban to Agile. 2) RTF in Updates - We had a problem with cutting and pasting RTF through a SQL DB error, but aside from that temporary thing, this is really nice. Now people can use bullets to structure their updates - readability is going to be much better using the RTF; 3) Widescreen - So many people are loving the instant accommodation of wide screens. Yeah there are some bugs people are finding but they are far overshadowed by the positive buzz about the three things listed above. Good job, WorkFront. Lucas Eric MPM eric.lucas@crowley.com Crowley Information Technology

[CarinaWy]

Hey everyone, I've posted more details on rolling back the Agile functionality from the 17.3 release "https://community.workfront.com/discussions/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=7908c53f-035f-4468-a472-db68eb0c4a5e&CommunityKey=aaafaff0-5e4e-4e38-8903-f1f990935567&tab=digestviewer#bm7908c53f-035f-4468-a472-db68eb0c4a5e">here . It wasn't working the way we had envisioned it, and we decided to roll it back. We're aimed at providing a better experience with that Agile functionality for 18.1. Thanks! Carina Wytiaz Workfront

[EricLu2]

Hi: I am feeling far less love now, sad to say. WorkFront continues to NOT announce changes. I've already conducted training on the features being removed. We were gearing up to start wholesale use of issues in Kan Bans and Agile backlogs. I understand there must be some compelling reason to remove this functionality, okay. Not announcing it until the last minute, until the community has already been abuzz with it, that's just bad. Surely someone at WorkFront said – hey, do you think we should tell our tens of thousands of users about this? Why didn't they? ☹ Frowny face

[DavidCo3]

I received a system announcement about it today actually. Did you get that Eric? I guess your point is that you suspect that earlier notice could have been given. We're still not in the love boat yet with 4 high priority (to us) issues outstanding - mostly related to the Working On Calendar, and also a lack of operational charts. I understand that Support and Dev will both be flat out doing their best, but I feel that the delivery of fixes has slowed down markedly over the past couple of months. One of our key issues has been open for 3 months and is still not fixed. I do like new functionality in general, but I would prefer Development focus on improving quality by fixing bugs and then put out a smaller 18.1 release if necessary. David Cornwell

[VicAl]

I didn't get that System Announcement until 4:36pm – well after I happened to see it in the forum. I think Eric's point is very valid. I'm also disappointed in the rollback as it was my favorite part of this update, but I understand it happens. But yeah we should be better notified in these events. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT | Sr. Technical Project Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

[CarinaWy]

I'm sorry that we were not able to communicate the rollback earlier. Our team was alerted about the rollback early in the afternoon and began alerting all internal teams that also needed to know. Based on what I read in the discussion, you all found out around the same time as we were communicating internally. It did take some time to figure out which clusters needed to know and when, which is why you were seeing some communication lags. Clearly, it's never great when we have to rollback changes, but I hope the final feature set will work better for everyone. We are trying to alert everyone who needs to know in a timely manner. Let me know if you haven't seen an announcement center message yet. Carina Wytiaz Workfront

[EricLu2]

Hi: I was on the phone with WorkFront asking about the rollbacks well before the announcements came out. The worst way to announce something is to let people figure it out, complain about it on a forum, and then they later decide, yeah, we may as well send out something. In my opinion, this is a standard mode of operation that is continually disappointing. Having said that, I still really like the Kanban functionality and the RTF is really nice to have too. I think the product is moving in the right direction and they are delivering material increments of value with each release. There are and will always be bugs in software. The commitment and desire to communicate, which is, in my opinion, a critical success factor for any PM, is not evident in WorkFront's communication in this case. They're terrific at upfront communication pre-release and beta, but this post-go-live process needs to be reconsidered. What could they have done differently? Communicated early. Before people in support started telling people about rollbacks, they should have done this next item... Sent an email to all SysAdmins – an announcement stating that due to the number of bugs in the way issues are handled in Agile and Kan Ban, they are going to back out that functionality tonight; Held an impromptu Webex – hey everyone, I know this is last minute, but if you can join, we can tell you what we're going to do and why. You can ask questions via chat and we'll do our usual best to answer them; There we have it. One email and one webex. That is what I think would have made this a positive experience. 'nuf said. Thanks! Eric

[EricLu2]

Thank you, Carina. I am struck with the idea that as soon as it was announced internally, we external customers started hearing about it. In future, you may want to consider asking everyone internally to wait for the announcement to go out before they start telling people about it. It must have been a difficult decision to decide to roll it back, but I am sure it is for the best. Thanks again, Eric

[OndinaSt]

Thanks for the feedback Jill. I've tried Chrome (our default), FF and IE - formatting is stripped in all 3. Not a big deal for us right now given all of the other bugs I'm seeing on this thread. Hopefully it will be addressed in the coming weeks. Ondina Sturges Everyday Health Inc

[KatherineHa1]

To add onto Eric's 'What Could WF Have Done Differently" - testing, testing and more testing. We've been told our issues with Proof (and that we were the only customer having these issues, which I see here is not accurate) were due to the amount of contacts and data we have in our instance. So, WF - please beef up your stress testing. Secondly, Anthony on my team broke things in his Preview testing last monday (including many things on My Home which was why that was pulled out of R3) in 30min of testing. They really need to do a much better job with QA, and test things in various platforms/browser versions (Windows 7 + Chrome, Windows 10 + Chrome, Mac/Safari, Mac/Firefox etc). Katherine Haven, PMP VP, Director, Business Technologies - PMO FCB

[Former Community Member]

Completely agree on the comments regarding the email notifications. It should minimize the least important stuff (the profile pic for example) and focus on who sent it and what was said. The actual comment seems to be the smallest portion of the email right now. Mike Borrello Tractor Supply Company

[EricLu2]

Hi – would someone kindly send me a harmless, non-confidential screen shot or copy of the email that is being poorly received? I don't get emails from WorkFront that have profile pictures in it and was wondering what the new email format looks like. Send it to me at eric.lucas@crowley.com please. Thanks! Eric

[DianeVa1]

It does not look like the Agile backlog and scrum story board functionality has been rolled back in our environment. Methodology is still showing as radio buttons to choose either Kanban or Scrum, so I am forced to have one of them checked. Are any of you all still having issues? (We have submitted several Workfront help desk tickets about the issues we are still having.) The only features being removed tonight are the agile features: "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002115994-2017-3-Beta-Final-Release-Activity#include-issues-on-the-backlog" title="https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002115994-2017-3-Beta-Final-Release-Activity#include-issues-on-the-backlog"> Include Issues on the Backlog for an Agile Team "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002115994-2017-3-Beta-Final-Release-Activity#include-issues-on-the-story-board" title="https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002115994-2017-3-Beta-Final-Release-Activity#include-issues-on-the-story-board"> Include Issues on the Scrum Agile Story Board Thanks, Diane University of Iowa Center for Advancement NOTICE: The State University of Iowa Foundation, d/b/a the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, is registered to solicit charitable contributions in all U.S. states requiring registration. See our disclosure statement at www.uifoundation.org/about/disclosures/. This e-mail and any attachment(s) are for the intended recipient's sole use and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential, or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure. If you received this e-mail in error, delete all copies and immediately notify the sender by reply e-mail. If you are not the intended recipient, you are not authorized to open, read, print, retain, copy, or disseminate this message or any part of it.

[OndinaSt]

So it looks like the PHQ "enhancements" that were released last week WERE rolled back last night??? Very frustrated with this whole situation! Here's what we saw enabled with the new HTML5 last week which is gone as of today: Compare button was removed but now is back (why this was removed to begin with made no sense -it defeated the purpose of even using PHQ; helpdesk said it was "acting as designed" when it was removed) Unable to get to the version info page from the viewer but now we can again (why remove this to begin with?) Could not add a new version from the viewer but now we can again - please keep it this way! Our designers often have numerous proofs open and being able to add a version straight from the viewer avoids incorrect files getting uploaded, etc. I had set our account to New HTML5 Enabled but Not Default last week (and is still set as that) but the option to use it is no longer visible in the viewer. Is this because of the above all/partial roll back last night? The lack of clarification in the release notes regarding the functionality above is disappointing. I even had a call with the PHQ dev team to give feedback on future enhancements and none of the above was mentioned. And the fact that something was done last night to the PHQ environment even though this thread says only Agile was to be rolled back is even worse. Can someone please clarify what is going on with regards to both WF standalone and PHQ standalone?? What exactly was rolled back last night and will it be released again (I hope not given the above)? ps-the inability to "follow" posts makes keeping up with what info is where is not helping this situation; please add this functionality back to the comm site! Ondina Sturges Everyday Health Inc

[OndinaSt]

Disregard the majority of my comment above, sigh. Tech reached out to clarify things, which I appreciate. As an fyi, they will be updating the compare feature (soon I hope) and that the current release was intended as a way to start addressing phasing out flash. And they're aware that they did not handle the details of the release in the best way (impacts new proofs moving forward, features removed, etc). Ondina Sturges Everyday Health Inc

[DavidCo3]

Some great points there Eric regarding communication. I like Workfront, and I like Workfront's people.....so I feel bad when I end up complaining, but it's communication which is the key area for improvement for future releases. We know that with each new release, both Development and Support will be extremely busy. When bugs occur we raise them via the normal support channel, however due to being busy we get slower progress/communication on our tickets than normal. Some of these tickets can be clearly bugs of high impact but yet we are still put through the regular "have you checked it's plugged in?" type questions. Coupled with a reduced rate of progress and communication on tickets, frustration builds and customers vent on the Community. Workfront management provide very little feedback on the Community and people are left to come to their own conclusions. Extending on Eric's point, I reckon the following could really help with the next release: Certify certain customers as being allowed to bypass Tier 1 Support for defects in order to speed up the resolution path to development - at least during the release period. Make us accountable for what we do and remove the privilege if we abuse it. Have a Workfront person in charge of curating (regularly) an up-to-date "known issues" area of the community which we can check. Have someone with authority from Workfront responding to questions from customers (e.g. Email concerns, document paste functionality). Proactively seek feedback from customers on the release experience. David Cornwell

[JohnSe1]

Not to keep piling on - but... As so many here have stated communication is so important! Especially worse is cross-communication; sending out a nice slick about the cool new features in R3 - while its having major issues didn't help here. I like the idea of "hyper-Care" during the 1st week of release - even if it means having a representative follow up each mid day to see if anything is needed. And yes more testing - but also the ability to stop the release. Lastly - I really think it's time to add a new Tab to the row one for Admins (not Setup) where we as System Admin can have quicker access to core functions BUT also a live stream of known issues and upcoming releases/patches -- yes its on the Community for the most part. BUT having it baked into our instance would be best. Not sure about my other fellow Workfront System Admin - but I need to do more with less! My "conspiracy theory" is that this release had some major underpinning improvements to aide in the release of R3 - but also to set the stage for future tweaks. Which if true I give a huge round of kudos to the WF team! Looking forward to what comes next! Thank you, John John Seitz ESPN Workfront System Admin

[DavidCo3]

Our charts are now working again. The issue was that some Workfront code got corrupted in the Akamai web cache in Australia (not our own infrastructure) during the update process. Workfront are now considering what can be done regarding Akamai during future updates to avoid a recurrence. David Cornwell

[Exp_-_AndrzejMu]

Hi, my name is Andrzej Muca and I'm a Product Manager at Workfront responsible for the new HTML5 proofing viewer. As a reminder, the new HTML5-based proofing viewer is a replacement for the existing Flash viewer. This new viewer is being made available through various phases, each coinciding with a major Workfront release Here is a summary of our release plan: New Viewer for Video - Released to production in 2017.2 See how you can "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002119593"> Review a Video Proof (Using the New Proofing Viewer) New Viewer for Static content - Initially released with reduced functionality in 2017.3 Please see our "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002115994#html-static-proofing-viewer"> 17.3 Beta Final Activity page for all the latest features that came with this release Proof comparison capabilities in the new viewer are anticipated to be available in 2018.1 New Viewer for Rich Media Content - We are targeting this new viewer for 2018.2 Note: This particular viewer will be launched as a small desktop application that will run on your local computer. We specifically chose this approach to solve a number of the limitations (iframe restrictions, insecure sites, and other constraints) that is present with the interactive content Flash viewer today. The following capabilities are anticipated to be included during the 2018 timeframe Presence indicator that displays users who are currently working on the proof Ability to share proofs Ability to create new versions Comment filtering (18.1) Translations Although the new viewer is available today, system administrators and/or users have to option to choose which viewer (old Flash or new HTML5) they would like to use. There is no obligation to use the new tool at this stage. Both the old and new viewer will remain available to ensure our customers have adequate time to transition over to the new solution. Our goal is to completely remove the Flash viewer towards the end of 2018. Customers who would like to start using the HTML5 viewer but rely on the Compare feature can enable the new tool as optional for their users. This will allow your users to open all video and static proofs in the Flash viewer by default, however, they can still opt in to using the new viewer on individual proofs when they wish to do so. You can find more information how to configure this in our "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004310987#html5-viewer"> help pages . I hope you find this information helpful. Thank you. Andrzej Muca Product Manager Workfront

[EricLu2]

David – I like your list. Release Management is a thing like Project Management. It is a disciplined, repeatable process that ensures all changes are communicated and managed. I think with a little tweaking in the Release Management communication process at WorkFront, Releases will be a very positive experience in future. WorkFront, if you'd like to chat about Release Management, give me a call. I'm willing to volunteer to be a part of the release process refinement for future releases. Thanks! Eric

[JamieHi]

Good news and bad news regarding those who have configured Workfront to not allow access to external libraries: Good news The bug with the "New Google File" option being available has been escalated to Development. Bad news The huuuuuuuge "Your administrator disabled the ability to link documents from external applications. Contact your system administrator for more information" label is apparently by design. :( Jamie Hill JLL Global

[BMO-bvs]

Sure it's designed... Designed to be annoying. Is it there to try to convince us to open up cloud services? Because the large, very risk averse financial org. we work for prevents access to cloud service providers. Getting approval to even use WF was a long and arduous process. To be honest, I can't think of one customer-focused reason this would be there. Anyway... I don't see an Idea Exchange entry so I've added one: "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115007102333-Remove-the-Your-administrator-disabled-the-ability-to-link-documents-from-external-applications-" REMOVE THE "YOUR ADMINISTRATOR DISABLED THE ABILITY TO LINK DOCUMENTS FROM EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS...." Barbara Sedlack BMO Financial Group