Task Durations differ when planning with & without assignments

[ChrisCo4]

Hey WF forum,

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how to solve my current situation! Here we go....

Basically I'm trying to keep tasks durations as close to a realistic calendar as possible when assigning tasks. In this example, let's assume my project tasks are timed and sequenced appropriately with predecessors, etc. and my project is complete aside from assigning out tasks.

Now, once I begin assigning team members to their tasks, the durations change according to what that specific team member is currently working on (as you'll see in my screenshot attached.)

• Test Task w/out Assignment has a duration of 6 weeks; starting 3/22 and ending on 5/3 (ideal)
• Test Task w/ Assignment has a duration of 6 weeks; starting 3/22 but ending on 4/23 (not ideal)

As you can tell, the second bullet skews the timeline by about a week and a half which I'm trying to avoid. I've tried changing the 'Duration Type' between Calculated Work / Assignment, Effort Driven, and Simple to no avail.

Any thoughts on how to override whatever logic WorkFront is using to calculate the duration when a team member is assigned?

Appreciate all insight in advance!!

[Richard_Le_]

Hi Chris,

When you first create a project (without assigning tasks to anyone), Workfront will calculate the timeline based on the schedule you associate with the project, or the system default schedule if you did not associate one with the project.

However, when you assign a user to a task Workfront will look at the schedule of that user to calculate the timeline of the task. It looks as if the schedule you have on your project is different from the schedule associated with the users profile. I would hazard a guess that Marty's schedule either doesn't include public holidays or they are set to be working more hours in day - this would result in the planned completion date being earlier.

You can change this in your resource management preferences in the system set up, however please be aware that this is a global setting that will impact on all users / projects throughout your Workfront instance. You can find out more information here and here

Hope that helps!

Best Regards,

Rich.