Task Due Dates After the Project Planned Completion Date

[DaveBr5]

Hello, We are wanting to have a couple tasks due after the planned completion date of the project. For example, on our proposal projects, we want the planned completion date to be the date the proposal is actually due. However, there are two tasks that need to occur after the proposal is submitted with regards to closing out the project itself. We can't have the big bold "Planned Completion" date at the top of the project be any date other than the date the proposal is due because it will completely throw people off. Has anyone else run into anything like this or have any ideas on a work around? Dave Breiter Bolton & Menk

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Dave, May I suggest a special "Post Close Activities" Project, with a Task for each such real Project, starting when the latter ends (heck, even cross-project predecessored, if you believe in that sort of thing), with subtasks under each for the pesky but important post close tasks. Gone, but not forgotten. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore SEE you at LEAP using the GPS App! https://tinyurl.com/LEAPGPS Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[DavidCo3]

Doug's solution is a very good one. However, another more unconventional option is that you could use Issues for your close-out activities. Issues can have a planned completion date later than the project's planned completion date. You can still assign them to people for a later date but they won't blow out the big bold date. Obviously, managing these as separate to your regular task list may not be suitable. Let us know how you go! Regards, David Cornwell

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Ooh! David's is very elegant, too! As per my thread with Polly earlier, the only caveat with using Issues on the same Project might be not being able to move the Project Status to Complete until those Issues are also all closed. Which could be a Good Thing. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore SEE you at LEAP using the GPS App! https://tinyurl.com/LEAPGPS Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[JillAc]

We are rather new, I’m still training and ironing out processes, and came across the same problem when designing the templates. Our main post project task is the analysis due 4 weeks after the project is out the door so I add 20 days to each project, and at first I was very wary and grappled with this. The completion date at the top doesn’t seem to be confusing anybody because the project owners are keenly aware of their due dates, and it has helped to put some emphasis on the final reporting that otherwise often gets less attention. The bigger issue is that the project is open for a full month after it is mostly finished and it’s mucking up the active project list. I’m considering a status change to “post project” so they can be filtered or grouped if necessary.

[MarieKe1]

We have encountered the same issue. Like Jill, we have been trying out a new status with one of our teams - we call it Closure Phase. The phase is to handle the 'after execution' tasks. Ex: For some projects that are very dependent on vendors, we want confirmation that the invoices are received & paid and that takes time. If we put those tasks in the Closure phase, we are clearly showing that the 'value/deliverables' to the customer has been completed. It also reflects that those projects are open, effort is limited. I am planning to roll this out to all our teams. Marie Kelly The MetroHealth System

[AllisonLi1]

Do you need to have those final tasks on the original project from the beginning? Or are they something that can be added once the project is complete? If your proposal template contained the tasks for completing the proposal, then the due date would reflect the actual date the proposal has to be done. Then have another project template that has your finishing tasks on it that you add after the original deadline is met. Then the planned completion date would adjust to include those finishing tasks. There are other things to consider when doing a workflow like that, such as statuses, reporting, etc. Be sure to explore those before making any template changes. Allison Lippert Workfront allisonlippert@workfront.com

[alanacoble]

Lots of great suggestions! We have a different solution, actually proposed by Workfront consultants during implementation (it was 8 years ago, so AtTask at that time). We created a job role - Revenue Mgr - that we apply to launch tasks. (We use that because launch = revenue recognition for us.) We then report on the dates that job role applies to. (Every week, we review launch dates, which in our world are constantly moving.) Everyone knows that planned completion date means the project is completely over, including take down and reporting. After launch, we apply a Launched status to the project (it's a Current status so work can continue.) Then we have post-launch tasks - take down and reporting tasks. When those are done, we move the project to Completed status. Alana Coble WebMD