Status Changes on Project

[NRYNR]

I would like to create a report that provides the dates or elapsed days between status changes on a project. For example, days between Current to Pending Approval, Pending Approval to Pending Implementation, Pending Implementation to Closed. We would like to identify where significant delays occur within projects occurred. Suggestions?

[CORYSW]

What I have noticed is that all projects that were started after May are pulling in but any projects prior to that are not. Laura - are you seeing the same trend? Cory

[LauraRa1]

No, I’m not seeing that trend unfortunately.

I don’t know if this makes any difference but we have our own custom statuses‚Ķ. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier.

Of course, they all relate to the main system statuses, I’m wondering if we’ll be able to produce the report correctly for that reason?

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Anthony, great explanation; thanks!

Cory, perhaps May is when someone turned Track Changes "on" in your environment, which would fit what you are (not) seeing before that date.

Laura, when in doubt (as from back in my SQL days) I often reduce my WF filter restrictions until I DO see the results, then gradually add back other conditions until I spot the one responsible for hiding what I expect to see. I call this technigue "burning down" the filter (as in forest fire).

In your case, may I suggest you start with only the "Note Text contains" portion, and build up from there?

Regards,

Doug

[LauraRa1]

Hi Doug, Thanks good advice. I have fiddled around with the filters as you suggest but I cannot get the one project that I know should show to be listed in the report. Not sure where to go from here except ask WF :)

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Curious, Laura: if the "contains" didn't find the status change note you are expecting, the simplest explanation is because It's Not There. Is it possible that the Project you are expecting to see has in fact never changed Status? Regards, Doug

[LauraRa1]

Well I was thinking about this yesterday. We have custom statuses but at the end of the day they all equate to the system statuses, don’t they, so if you’re saying what I think then when I changed the status of my test project, it didn’t change it to a different system status. However, I just went back to the sandbox and changed the test project to the system ‚Äòon hold’ status and it’s still not showing on my report. UGH!

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Well that settles it, Laura: it's time for a housecall. I invite you (and anyone who's following in real time that would like to help out and/or learn) to join me at https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/210157101 -- I've got 15 minutes or so to spare, so let's see if that's enough to get to the bottom of this one. Regards, Doug

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Laura. Thanks for having me in for the Housecall -- we might start a new trend! As discussed, I've attached the 2016-08-31DougHousecallWithLauraStatusChangeFoundOnUpdateFeedButNotInNotes.mp4 video, which seems to prove that Status changes are being recorded in the Updates Tab (via the JOURNAL object), but NOT in the Notes Tab as they've historically done. That would be unfortunate, since only the latter can be accessed by the Workfront Report Builder. For those following this thread, Laura kindly agreed to share the video with the community: any comments, workarounds, or ramifications come to mind? Regards, Doug

[LauraRa1]

Hi Doug! That was great! Thanks for the house call. Now fingers crossed it can be fixed :) P.S. Nice to know I'm not going crazy!

[EXP_-_AdamMi]

Hi Laura,

I was looking at this and it looks like you are wanting to filter by the Note>> Note Text contains status. This filter will pull in your example from the video with Doug. When using the Note>> Audit Text field this will only look at the updates where the system made an automated note. ie User A changed the status to Complete - Pending Approval.

Give this new filter a try and it should give you what you are looking for.

Adam

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Well spotted, Adam: thank you! I've listened to my recording again and nearly had it -- "We're looking in Note Text...well I'm stumped" -- but tripped myself up by watching the data in the Audit Text column in the report, when I ought to have been watching (and filtering on) the Note Text column. Laura, as Adam pointed out, this shold in fact be "Note > Note Text" when looking for phrases a user types in (such as "Today I updated my status report"). Audit Text is for monitoring phrases that Workfront puts in automatically (such as "Status Changed from Planning to Current"...when that ACTION really occurs). Would you please refer to the attached file I've added, try again, and let us know if that does the trick (or conversely, sticking with Audit Text, but then changing the Status to trigger the Audit Note)? Regards, Doug

[LauraRa1]

Hi Doug and Adam, Please see attached screenshot. I have made the suggested changes and it's not showing the status I just changed on the 'TISP 2016' project. I may be misreading what you have both said but I DO want to know when someone changes the status of the project which is a system update, not a typed in statement by the user, isn't it? Sorry if I've misunderstood.

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks for retrying both ways, Laura. Your understanding matches mine. The reason filtering on Note Text for "contains status" returns fo rows is because the word "status" has not been typed into an update by a user (that I noticed in your pdf); where filtering on Note Text for "contains Laura" should return data. The reason filtering on Audit Text for "contains status" returns no rows is AS IF the system generated phrase recording such status changes are not being recorded in the NOTES object, although (as I recollect from our Housecall) I believe we did physically make such a change and saw it register on the Updates Tab (aka JOURNAL object). I also believe we were reporting on the same object we were editing (eg changing Project Status, and specifically searching for Notes on that same ProjectID). I think it's time to rub the helpdesk lamp and tell the Dev Genie you'd like to use up one of your wishes. Regards, Doug

[EXP_-_AdamMi]

Laura, I agree with Doug. Open a helpdesk ticket and they can take a closer look at the report with you and determine if this is something that needs be be looked at by the Development Team. Adam

[LauraRa1]

Great, thanks guys. I actually asked Nate to look at the thread and he now has a support guy looking at it. Will keep you posted. 😀

[NateBa]

Laura,

Actually, Adam (the guy who just commented above) is the employee I asked to check this out for you. I second his advice. It might be best to jump on a call with someone here to troubleshoot and see if it's a bug we need to submit to the Dev team.

Let me know if I can help with any of that!

-Nate

[LauraRa1]

Oh, sorry, didn't realise :) I'll call support and see what they say. Thanks -----End Original Message-----

[LauraRa1]

Happy to report we've done it!!! Well Nikolay created the report to be precise! I've attached screenshots of the report as well as the all important filters. We were close team!

[GregBe1]

Laura, Thanks for sharing. I notice that your filters don't include where Note ObjCode is blank. Why aren't you getting issue and task status changes on your report as well? Also, I guess the Audit TYPE equal to "Status Change" or "Combined Entry" is not required since you've got the Audit Text contains filter...

[LauraRa1]

Hi Greg

Well actually, each entry is on a task and in fact I’ve added the task name column to the report to highlight that. I also realised in doing that that some are indeed issue changes so I added that column as well. I imagine I could filter out the issue status changes but I’m not sure how.

[GregBe1]

That's how you would filter them - by using the Note ObjCode. If you set it to "is blank", you get just Project Status changes. if you change it to "Task", you get Task changes, and if you set it to "opTask", you get Issue changes.