Timeline Issues?

hi Jordyn, could you expose the Task Constraint information on each task for me to take a peek at? -skye

Not to sound like the newbie to Workfront that I am, but can you expand on what you mean by "task constraints"? I found this article here but it doesn't tell me exactly where to find them (linked below). The ones in the image are a bit corrupt, as it was for a rush project that I had to get out by today so I wanted an accurate timeline. https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217297147-Task-Constraint-Overview Jordyn Fischer Project Coordinator Loews Hotels

I would first advise you to change your support bookmark from support.workfront.com to experience.workfront.com -- they don't update their old support site so while this info is probably good, some of the other sections might not be good moving forward. The screenshot that you gave us looks like the task list of one of your projects. There are Filter, View and Grouping dropdowns at the top of the list. You should make a new View by clicking on the dropdown and customizing one of the views you already like. The one that you screenshot looks like the Standard view, and it's perfectly fine to start there. Please customize the view by adding a column. The column I'd like to see is the Task Contraints column. If you have access to the Ascent classes at ascent.workfront.com, it would greatly benefit you to take Report Creation. This will give you a lot more familiarity with filters, views and groupings. -skye

If you manipulate the actual dates on your timeline (ex. change Task 2 to Planned Completion Date = 9/1) instead of just changing the Durations, Workfront will ignore the predecessors you put in. [The logic is "I know they said they wanted Task 2 to start after Task 1, but they also said they explicitly want it to start on 9/1" Exposing the column [Task Constraint] will give you a better idea of what's happening. The big signal you'll see is "Must Start On" or "Must Finish On". That means the date is hard-coded and will ignore your predecessors. You'll generally want your constraints to be "As Soon As Possible" or "As Late As Possible", and that'll recognize the predecessors. (As Soon As Possible is your default if your projects [Schedule From] is the "Start Date" / As Late As Possible is your default if your project's [Schedule From] is "Completion Date') In the Customize View screen, you can add the Task Constraint column. Vincent Goodwin The Capital Group Companies

So when you change the Durations, the constraint is automagically getting changed to Must Start On? I noticed that starting to happen for me this week, but I also thought I was crazy, so I haven't reported a ticket to Workfront yet. If you change a Duration, it shouldn't change the constraints. Vincent Goodwin The Capital Group Companies

That's what I thought too!! I submitted a report to Workfront's Customer Support - the contact I have right now is working to see what's causing this. If you've said this is happening to you too, though, it's not just a "my team" thing. Out of curiousity, are you a system admin or a worker? Jordyn Fischer Loews Hotels

I'm a system admin for our Workfront instance. That's good to know that it's not just me (well, it's not "good", but it's validating). I'm glad that part of the mystery is solved. Vincent Goodwin The Capital Group Companies

Vincent, I was looking at your task schedule and really like the Ready to Start column. I have added this to my task schedule, but can't figure out the filters that are need to get the Green and Red dots. Any help on the filters would be greatly appreciated. Patricia Howay

Absolutely! I used the [Can Start] field. (There's a similar field called Pending Predecessors but it doesn't perfectly work with Parent & Child tasks) Once you've added the column, go to Advanced Options, and then add Column Rules to convert the field from text to icons. Vincent Goodwin The Capital Group Companies