Single person dependency in Task Templates

[stan255]

In our Task Templates, there are certain Tasks assigned to specific individuals and there will be times when those individuals are away (on leave, no longer with the company, etc.). Those individuals are also not part of a larger team (i.e. 5 or more) where assigning it to the whole team might be a viable solution.

There might only be one or two people who could pick up their tasks. For example, their manager.

How would you solve this single person dependency issue?

[Madalyn_Destafney · Accepted solution]

Hello, if you’re not using the new Home yet (as I didn’t think this feature is worked into it yet but I could be wrong), you could have these people use the task delegation feature from the homepage worklist. Users can indicate future dates they’ll be OOO and have any task assigned to them during the timeframe to go to someone else they specify. Note it’s blanket for all of their tasks, not based on project. 
More info on this here: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/delegate-work/delegate-work-over...

If you found this helpful, please mark correct to help others

[stan255]

Hey @Madalyn_Destafney, thanks for the quick response.

When delegating tasks, I don't assume it would be the "Delegate my approvals" function, yes?

If so, I'd need to contact my sys admin.

[Madalyn_Destafney]

In setup > preferences > tasks & issues, it's something you need to turn on for users to be able to use the delegation feature.

More on this feature here: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/delegate-work/delegate-work-over... 

Please mark correct if this resolved your question.

[Richard__Carlson]

I would assign the tasks to a generic role on the template instead of a specific person

[stan255]

Thanks @Richard__Carlson for your suggestion. When assigning to the generic role, who would get the notification of the task being assigned? And would that person picking up the task have to manually reassign him/herself to the task?

[Richard__Carlson]

Hi @stan255 - if our template uses a generic role it would be the coordinator's responsibility to update the generic role with the specific assignment for the project.  If your team dynamic lacks a coordinator role you might have to upgrade the users so that they can edit tasks.

[skyehansen]

I'm not super clear on what you have a problem with. Is the issue that you're shortstaffed or are you wanting better tools for their manager--what kind of answer are you looking for?

Often the unspoken question/answer has to do with process. You mention task templates, and I assume you're talking about projects. Your question mentions the people who would be picking up this work, and this mindset puts the burden on the assignee position but... at a guess, wouldn't anyone on the project want to know (have a way to remember) that someone on the project team is absent?

So options that you could consider would be to (1) focus on giving your remaining users access to better reports and (2) develop ways to more easily recognize absent users in the system.

(1) Workfront recently published a blueprint for offboarding departed users -- you could use some of these reports as a model for showing the backup users what they should be focusing on. You could even create similar reports searching for anyone who has left -- so someone/you can have some oversight over how it's going.

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/workfront-discussions/blueprint-released-offboardin... 

Please note that reporting and permissions go hand in hand -- best practice is to make sure that whole teams or departments are able to see a project -- not just the assigned user who is on PTO. If they can't see the project, they will not be able to see the task or issue on any of your reports.

(2) As for recognizing absent users, unfortunately nothing is more visible than their name. For example, should you choose to use the Delegation functionality, the task still appears as though it is assigned to the absent user, and you have to drill pretty deep and very manually in order to find out who it was delegated to. The Workfront PTO functionality also is pretty limited (you can see the airplane in Workload balancer or if you try to assign a PTO user on a task after they have noted a PTO -- but nothing for previously assigned tasks)

These visibility issues are why I've suggested to our users that they put their OOO right into their name if they are going to be gone for a while, e.g. change name to "John Smith, OOO 8/24-9/24". We also rename our deactivated users so you can tell they are deactivated. Now, when you look at a templated task or any sort of automated assignment (such as request queue) anyone can immediately tell that a user is OOO or deactivated. Similarly, on existing work, everyone can tell someone is OOO or deactivated and can react accordingly (and hopefully helpfully).

Needless to say, most admins already have a plan for updating the system to minimize the impact of absent users, so working with your admin to implement these type of changes is key.

Hope this helps.

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[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Insightful answer as always @skyehansen,

Given your astute assertion that nothing is more visible than a user's name, I'd be interested to hear if you (or any other Fusion wizards) have considered (or perhaps even created) a job that automatically renames user first names with such an "OOO " prefix when they are out of office, based upon PTO and/or schedules...or conversely, whether there's Good Reason to leave it up the the end user to make that call themselves.

Regards,

Doug

[skyehansen]

hi Doug, my stance has always been that fusion or automation is here for the greater good, so I wouldn't put in an automation just because 2 people wanted the capability to get something done. We look first at being able to prove out ROI, so I would like to chart out metrics based on value in terms of volume or time saved. We let process lead the way, always -- so if teams decide that this has value and are able to put together that kind of benchmark, we would certainly look into how we could make that happen.

[stan255]

Thanks for the very detailed reply, @skyehansen. Can I summarize your answer to you preferring using reports to identify OOO users then delegating tasks from there?

[skyehansen]

My answer is that Workfront's delegation functionalities don't work well for several reasons, so you are better off using a combination of ways and processes to make absent users more visible to reporting, and then using reporting to identify these users.