What happens to my project schedule when out of office is added after the schedule is developed? | Community
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Alexa_M_PSU
Level 2
September 18, 2023
Solved

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

  • September 18, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 2088 views

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! 

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Best answer by Madalyn_Destafney

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.

 


Hi @kierstenkollins & @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.

1 reply

KierstenKollins
Community Advisor
Community Advisor
September 18, 2023

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

 

Alexa_M_PSU
Level 2
September 18, 2023

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. 

Alexa_M_PSU
Level 2
September 20, 2023

Hi @kierstenkollins & @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.


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.