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Workload Balancer

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Level 6
Hi Does anyone else have concerns that the Workload Balancer will eventually replace the current resource scheduler but won't be visible to users with a Work License? We've invested a lot of time encouraging our users with work license access to view their workload via Teams/Working On as well as via the Staffing tab on Projects. It would be such a shame for them to lose this level of visibility. Would appreciate your feedback. Jane Jane Bradshaw BAKKAVOR LTD
42 Replies

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Level 10
Hi Jane, The tool will be rolled out to Teams and Project Staffing area as well and that is planned as a beta exit criterion. We also plan for it to be available as a dashboard panel so you would be able to create custom dashboards with it and expose those to other users as well. Thanks, Vazgen Babayan Product Manager Workfront

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Level 2
Hi Jane, I agree, but for us it's not just a license issue, but a matter of the functionality. It would be a major detriment to my team if the Teams/Working On calendar was replaced by Workload Balancer, at least with its current functionality. In case replacement is planned, I sent feedback on Balancer to WorkFront, detailing what it would need to do in order for Balancer to be more useful for us. It sounds like Balancer is still a work-in-progress, so I'm hopeful there'll be additional improvements. Trudie Gauerke

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Level 10
Absolutely Trudie! There are several large scale improvements to Workload Balancer which are still in works and there will be no replacing of the current Scheduling solution without those in place. Only when the tool will exit the beta, the deprecation plan will be announced for the current Scheduling experience with the corresponding timelines and planned functionality enhancements. Vazgen Babayan Product Manager Workfront

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Level 6
Thanks Vaz, that's reassuring to know. Jane Bradshaw BAKKAVOR LTD

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Level 5
@Vazgen Babayan You mention large scale improvements being worked on. Are you able to share what those are? Or is there a list/update post to follow? Thanks! Janelle Hicks Lifespan Corporation

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Level 10
The main ones are (in priority order) Filters for both Assigned and Unassigned section Ability to view hours per day/week on work items Ability to change hours per day/week (potentially with changing the Planned Hour value - controlled via access permissions) Ability to visualize actual progress of work Bulk Assign, Swap and Unassign actions We will be gradually releasing the functionality and present our roadmap plans during quarterly roadmap calls. Thanks, Vazgen Babayan Product Manager Workfront

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Level 5
Hi Vazgen, Increased filtering will mean Job Roles will be included also? Thanks! Miranda Rais GVC

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Level 10
Correct. We also plan the ability to build custom filter rules as well using custom data. Vazgen Babayan Product Manager Workfront

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Level 4
Hi Vazgen, Would the Resource Manager ever be able to tweak the Planned hours directly in the Workload Balancer without having to click into the specific task or project? ie if they do not approve the amount of planned hours for a particular task and want to change it to the amount of hours that are approved? Thx Christine Christine Zhu Chobani

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Level 10
The way we were thinking about that is to control it through contouring experience, so if you have a task that spans 2 days with 10 hours and see a 5, 5 split, you can change the hours to 6, 6 or 7, 5 and it will update the task Planned Hours to 12. It should also be available only to the people with the corresponding access permissions. Will this solve for the scenario you mentioned? Vazgen Babayan Product Manager

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Level 6

Hi Vazgen

I hope you are safe and well.

I have noticed that, when contouring the planned hours, these do not currently feed through to the Scheduling view of the project plan. Is this right?

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Level 4
Hi Vazgen, I believe that should work, as long as you're able to change the Planned Hours by increasing or decreasing the amount directly in the Workload Balancer. Also, we've been having issues w/ the Unassigned tasks appearing in the Balancer - has anyone else experienced that as well? Christine Zhu Chobani

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Level 1
Yes - I haven't been able to see unassigned work for my team. I have the roles all assigned in the projects, filter it by the portfolio the work is in, and nothing shows as unassigned. It does show up in the scheduling module. Is this similar to your issues, Christine? Bill Gentilesco Commerce Bancshares, Inc.

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Level 6
I am experiencing this issue also. The unassigned area is currently only displaying tasks assigned to Teams, not Roles. Jane Bradshaw BAKKAVOR LTD

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Level 10
Hi Jane, That is working as designed, we are currently working on adding filters to the Unassigned and Assigned sections so that this limitation can be removed. Thanks, Vazgen Babayan Product Manager

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Level 6
Thanks Vaz. The guidelines may be a little out of sync with currently available functionality as they suggest that tasks assigned to job roles also appear under Unassigned Work, " Tip: Work items that are assigned to the teams you selected, or the teams you selected and a job role display in this area". I am viewing via the New Experience. Jane Bradshaw BAKKAVOR LTD

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Level 10
Thanks for letting me know, I'll work with out tech writer on updating it Vazgen Babayan Senior Product Manager

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Level 1
Hi Vazgen and Christine, We are also looking at being able to change the hours within the Workload balancer as mentioned above, would the system default to spreading hours across the duration first and then if changed by a Resource Manager, hold new information and not default back to spreading across duration when going back in at a later date to make another change? Our creative projects change or add resources and the current contouring we do as a work around, always defaults back to the hours being spread across the duration. Ellen Rayme Boeing Creative Ellen Rayme Creative Services

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Level 10
That's the plan, however there are a few outstanding questions I would like to double-check with you first. - If the Planned Hours changed on the task, should the contouring values change? - If the duration of task changes, should the contouring values change? Both of these changes have the potential to alter the Planned Hour distribution made by the user. Today they do reset the distribution back to uniform spread and cases like that are a hindrance for us to stop the values for changing. Vazgen Babayan Senior Product Manager

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Community Advisor
Juicy questions, Vazgen! Having hit this a couple of years ago when we created our "https://store.atappstore.com/products/all/" Resource Contouring solution -- we decided that protecting a carefully crafted (and time consuming) contour was the MOST important priority, and therefor went with the following: Allow contouring at the Day, or Week, or Month level (but storing under the hood at the day level), for a more efficient and pleasant user experience Allow people to change the Planned Hours or the Duration at the Task level in a way that also preserves the current contour (to avoid rework) Prevent saving the data in an imbalanced state (e.g. "Please correct the imbalance"), to ensure data integrity Highlight any imbalance in red when such a change (e.g. "extra planned hours, longer duration) occurs Update the imbalance visually as the end user adjusts the contour accordingly (e.g. adding hours at the end) Restore visual normalcy (e.g. back to green) once the imbalance is removed BONUS as there a number of standard use cases in this area, we also invented a few right click helpers (e.g. front load, back load, spread remaining balance evenly until end of duration, etc.) to help project managers adjust their plans more effectively I'm very interested to see how other folks answer this one -- both Vazgen's initial questions, and any thoughts on the decisions we went with in our solution. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore