Viewing a Successor Column

[ThereseGr]

I need to view a successor column. In complex projects, I need to ensure everything has a successor to make sure I have a valid critical path. Any ideas on how to add the column to a view or how to find/display tasks with no successors? I've looked at some of the previous threads, but the links to the original content are no longer valid. Therese

[VicAl]

I asked this question a while back with Workfront and I thought they indicated they did not have a Successor field available. So what I do is just use the Predecessor field and make sure every task has a predecessor (or a valid reason why it doesn't). You can also validate your critical path in the new Gantt View. Just be sure to check it off on the settings to get it to appear. That's how I've gotten around this constraint. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

[ThereseGr]

Officially, workfront doesn't have a successor column. However, old threads indicate a way to add it, but those old threads don't describe the actual code. My concern is that a complex project many have parallel streams of work that come together, such as for a gate. Predecessors only tell me part of the story. If my gate task is missing an incoming stream, it is almost impossible to find just from reviewing predecessors. That means my critical path could be incorrect or I miss a key deliverable. Stranded streams of work do occur when corss-functional teams are entering their deliverables. Therese

[VicAl]

I don't know of any code to do that. I was doing the same as you (in MS Project) and I agree it can be helpful. But basically I adjusted my thinking to the limitation of the product. If you think about it a Successor has to have a Predecessor in order to exist (that's how it's born). So you can't have a Successor without a Pred. Therefore, if I ensure all the preds are ok, it's essentially the same as checking the successors. Kind of a, If A=B and B=C, then A=C thing. To prevent the issue you're concerned about, I generally do the following in Workfront: Set up the Preds and ensure every task has a Pred (or a valid reason why it doesn't and then ensure it has an accurate Start Date) Walk through the whole project ensuring the tasks are chaining as expected (and checking their dates) View the Gantt chart to ensure those parallel paths are as expected and also look for any little island of a task (i.e. has no pred line and is on the wrong date) That might not be the answer you're looking for and I agree it's a missing item in Workfront. But I haven't had any problems at all doing it this way. I hope the sorta helps 😊 Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

[DavidCo3]

Hopefully this collections text mode column will help: displayname=Successors listmethod=nested(successors).lists textmode=true type=iterate valueexpression={successorID} valueformat=HTML Note that this will only show the IDs of the successors. Normally with a collection you can reference further through to the name, but not in this case as far as I can work it out. Anyway, it should at least let you see where this field is blank and therefore there is no successor to the task. Cheers David Cornwell

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Very nice, David! Here's the syntax to show the Successor Tasks' name, rather than just its ID: displayname=Successors listmethod=nested(successors).lists textmode=true type=iterate valueexpression={successor}.{name} valueformat=HTML We're making some great stride in this area this month! Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[ThereseGr]

Thank you David and Doug. This is fantastic. Therese

[AllisonLi1]

This one-pager on task successors on reports is available on Workfront Ascent. It shows how to display the successor task name and reference number. Allison Lippert Workfront

[Dr_DougWi]

I tend to geek out on this text mode stuff...using Workfront to compose complete sentences and mimicked sub-tables. Consider the following extension to the text mode that David and Doug did already. description=Successor Details displayformat=HTML listdelimiter= ---------------- listmethod=nested(successors).lists name=Successor Details shortview=false textmode=true type=iterate usewidths=true valueexpression=CONCAT("Task nbr ",{successor}.{taskNumber}," - named ",{successor}.{name}," - starts on ",{successor}.{plannedStartDate}," - is due on ",{successor}.{plannedCompletionDate}) valueformat=HTML width=400 Hooray for geeks in Workfront Doug Williams

[ThereseGr]

Thank you to everyone who has responded. I really appreciate your help. Therese

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Very nice Dugger, I just confirmed that listdelimiter=

---

also works quite nicely, too. And I also just confirmed that listdelimeter=

(and other such html tags along this line of thought) do NOT work nicely: although they render, because there is no way to inject closing tags sensibly within the iteration, they are left unclosed, and interfere with the other table instructions already present in the list. Meh: I give. To paraphrase Steven Wright "You can't have everything; where would you put it?" Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[VicAl]

This is great. Thanks David, Doug, and Allison. Answers I couldn't get from Workfront 3 years ago 😊 Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

[Christina_Jarosz]

I know this is an old thread, but for some reason none of the code in here works - there's no successors listed in the report even though they exist. Did WF change the coding?