What happens to my project schedule when out of office is added after the schedule is developed?

[Alexa_M_PSU]

When we went live with Workfront, my understanding was that if someone added out of office after a project schedule was already created, the project schedule wouldn't change to reflect the out of office. Recently, our staff have mentioned this has seems to have changed. I have searched experience league and can see where project schedules are adjusted due to out office, but nothing on the scenario, what if the out of office is added after the schedule is created. 

Does a project schedule adjust if someone who is assigned a task adds their out of office after the project and schedule have gone live? 

Thank you! 

[Kiersten_K]

Hi! Does your team have this setting turned on to ignore a user's time off under the Project Preferences area?

 

 

[Alexa_M_PSU]

No, we are deciding whether to turn that on or not, but I am not sure it will solve our root problem. I want to understand exactly how WF reacts to out of office added after a schedule is already created. 

[Kiersten_K]

Yes, tasks will still shift to the next available date of the user that is on the task even after the timeline has been created. This would happen to us quite a bit which is what led us to turn on this feature above. 

Since turning on this feature, we have not run into any issues. If someone adds PTO after the schedule is live and set, we place the ownership on the user to work with their team to re-assign a task as the tasks do not auto shift with this turned on.

[Alexa_M_PSU]

Do you know where in experience league it says "Yes, tasks will still shift to the next available date of the user that is on the task even after the timeline has been created. "

I read the article you referenced prior to asking the question but didn't see any reference to post-go-live schedule changes due to out of office being added. It only references out of office that is already there. 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/basics/manage-account-profile/configure-user...

[Kiersten_K]

When you are referring to when the schedule is "live", are you referring to when a project timeline has already started (meaning tasks have already been completed for a few steps) or when the project is changed from Draft to Current?  I am not sure understand the definition in this case to fully be able to help.

[Madalyn_Destafney · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kiersten_K & @Alexa_M_PSU, I'd check this setting not only in your project preferences in setup but also in your project templates. Whatever is set in your project templates will override the setting in setup. 

We don't use this setting either (ignore time off) bc we don't have the luxury of modifying a schedule based on resource availability, we put a different resource on it. In terms of it shifting after a project is created, I've found that it if you do have the setting to consider time off, it only considers it at time of project creation and IF the users have the time off already in place in Time Off. After it's in Current, say someone then adds Time Off during when they have tasks due, I haven't found it slides those existing task due dates. But if they log time off and THEN you create a project with tasks during that timeframe, the dates will move around it. 

For these reasons plus the one I initially mentioned, this setting just doesn't work for us or for other orgs I've worked with. I don't use it too often because of this, but this was my experience in the past with shifting/not shifting that confirmed my choice to turn it off. If your org doesn't use Time Off in users' profiles, and you have this setting on to consider time off, than it's irrelevant and doesn't matter.

[Kiersten_K]

Thanks, Madalyn. All good points. 

[Alexa_M_PSU]

Thank you @Madalyn_Destafney, that was what I was looking for in experience league...where does it say, "it if you do have the setting to consider time off, it only considers it at time of project creation and IF the users have the time off already in place in Time Off. After it's in Current, say someone then adds Time Off during when they have tasks due, I haven't found it slides those existing task due dates. But if they log time off and THEN you create a project with tasks during that timeframe, the dates will move around it. " to share with our staff. 

I am concerned because simply updating the template to ignore time off doesn't really solve the real problem of not enough days to complete the work and when staff are out of the office it pushes out the schedules. I am concerned this "solution" just shifts the problem from one place to another, but want to make sure that the schedules won't keep changing after they are set when out of office is added. 

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Hi there, I cannot find documentation that says what I wrote specifically, it is what it's nuance about this feature that isn't really written out. I found this article on time off setting in a project, - https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/projects/manage-projects/edit-pr... - but doesn't go into the detail about impact about when a user adds time off vs when tasks for the user are created. 
When someone takes off and tasks are already assigned, the PM or person managing the project just needs to be cognizant of this and reassign accordingly. Not having enough time to deliver work is a whole separate problem that WF won't solve...

[Kiersten_K]

I cannot locate a specific Workfront resource speaking to your use case, but from experience with time off since it auto pushed out tasks (even after the team started the work and we locked in the timeline), we needed to turn on the global setting to not take into account the PTO. We could not afford a user's PTO dictating when tasks would be due since our business operates on average 1.5 week project timelines.

I would recommend testing your scenario with a dummy project to see what happens if you have not already done so.

[Kiersten_K]

Workfront Article: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/basics/manage-account-profile/configure-user...

Adobe Workfront is not designed to replicate or replace your existing systems for managing, accruing, and tracking personal time off.

However, it is important to indicate when approved time off happens, because this affects your schedule and impacts the Planned Completion Dates of the tasks you are assigned to.

For example, if you are assigned to a task that is scheduled to take two weeks, and you plan to take three days off during that time, Workfront adds three days to the task timeline to account for the time off.