VS. - Issues vs. Projects

Well, hello everybody. It’s your on-demand Workfront CSM, Cynthia Boone, and I’m back with another versus. What is versus again? Well, it’s the series where I say, what’s the difference between this or that? Or more importantly, which way is better? This way or that way? So before we get started, here’s my old disclaimer. There is no wrong way to Workfront as long as you are Workfronting. So today’s session is absolutely dedicated to the old debate. Do I work the issue as it comes in as a request or do I convert it to a project? You heard it here folks, issues versus projects. So let’s just get into it. So with issues, why do people make these choices? Well, with issues, first of all, makes perfect sense to your user. So request queue, yes, this is the over request queue experience, it’s okay.

Users get it, I’m opening a ticket, I’m asking for help. I’m trying to get something started, like totally not complicated. And also it’s a familiar experience from a working it situation. I don’t recommend this. I recommend this, building an issue report. Here’s the name, here’s my favorite part, converted or not converted to a project. Like who requested it, what queue did it come from? Like this is fabulous, especially for visibility. You could even add a little something, something here, little notes if you want.

And then, you know, add where people working the queue could inline edit and add some notes. This is chef’s kiss, love it. So why would I bother converting it into a project if I could work it as an issue? Well, let’s jump into projects. Here’s the thing, if you want the full experience, the full functionality, the best reporting that you’re gonna get, it’s gonna be using the project function. And so I am gonna spend a little bit of time on this. And this doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with using issues primarily when you’re using Workfront. But you’re missing out, and that’s the thing that I wanna make sure that, you know, you make the right choice for you First thing you wanna do, yes, issues are speedy, but projects can be just as speedy as long as you’re using templates, right? So here’s an example template. And it’s got one task, because that’s the other thing. You hear, oh, it has to be super complicated. I gotta do a bunch of tasks. No, you can have just one task on a template, convert that to a project and track it. And you can technically track it in those same dashboards that you have your issue report that I just showed. Here’s the other very cool thing to make things speedy. So this is that same project template. But you know, technically, like on the custom forms, I could actually preload, right? I could say, okay, this particular one is gonna be about MacBook, laptop, operating system, Mac device. Like I could do whatever. Like I could pre-fill my custom form field. So not only am I taking that issue, converting it really quickly to a project with that template, but I’m also pre-filling data. So I don’t require my PMs or anybody else to do that. There’s so many other reasons. There’s tasks and milestones, and there’s approval processes. There’s so much more that you can do with projects than issues. But the most important thing is reporting. So this is just the blueprint of the system admin maintenance dashboard, right? I mean, all of this is projects and programs, projects by portfolio. Here’s projects percent wise. Here’s the core value realization blueprint reporting dashboard. And it’s a thing of beauty. If you haven’t downloaded it, totally download it. And it’s everything by project, because you’re comparing apples to apples so that when you’re trying to determine like, what’s the performance, how are we doing? It’s kind of difficult, not impossible, but difficult to get comparing issues to projects and what that looks like in terms of performance, value, things like that. So, both are great.

Pick what works for your users, because honestly, what it comes down to when you’re starting to make your decision is be consistent, because that’s going to be of a sense to your users. So if you go with projects, which is great, make sure that it’s the same experience for your users. That includes your group admins and your sysadmins and your PMs, not just your end users. But if you’re going with issues, again, keep it consistent and move with that. All right, so I hope this is super helpful. If you got comments, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll see you next time on Versus. Bye everybody.