Create an automated workflow template

Transcript

Create an automated workflow template In this video, you will learn how to create an automated workflow template, assign proof recipients, set a review and approval process deadline, share the automated workflow template with others. Automated workflow templates, sometimes called proof workflow templates, can save your users time when uploading proofs for review and approval processes. The pre-configured workflows are quick and easy to apply, plus they ensure all proofs follow consistent review steps. Proof templates are created by the system administrator in the proof setup area. But before you begin, make sure your organization’s proof workflows are mapped out and tested end to end so that you’re creating useful, efficient templates. Workfront recommends creating the template groups first so that they can be assigned to templates as you’re creating them. If you’re not sure yet how you want to organize templates into groups, you can add the group information later. Get started by selecting proofing from the main menu. From there, go into workflows. Create the new template, then start filling in the details area. Make sure the name is descriptive and recognizable to the people who will be using the template. Select the group for the template to be a part of. If you leave this blank, the template goes into a generic workflow templates group. Set the time zone this proof template will be used in. For example, if everyone in the proof workflow is on the east coast of the United States, then select one of the eastern time zone options. Templates can be set so some or none of the workflow settings can be changed when a user assigns the template to a proof. These settings in the allow section pertain to the workflow stages, a segment of a proofing workflow that has a specific set of recipients and specific deadline. Check the box to enable the option and uncheck to disable. Some work front customers choose to leave these stage settings editable so workflows can be changed on the fly when needed. Other organizations lock down the template settings which forces the proof creator to use the template as is. Now that the basics are done, start setting up the proofing workflow in the stages area. The template starts off with a single workflow stage, but you can add stages as you build the template. It’s easier to set up each stage completely before moving on to the next to avoid confusion and ensure that all settings are correct. As you create stages, work front draws a diagram to show you how they’re connected. Each dot represents a stage and the lines are dependencies. For example, this diagram shows stage one must be completed before stage two starts. This diagram shows stage one and stage two running concurrently. Keep an eye on the diagram as you’re building the workflow, as it’s a great way to check everything is structured how you want it. The name of the stage is included in the proof email notifications sent to reviewers and approvers. It’s perfectly okay to leave this generic default name, but something more descriptive can help recipients understand their role in the proofing process. For example, naming the stage proofread indicates everyone should dig into the grammar of the text. Or a name like layout review lets recipients know it’s the design and styling they should pay attention to. Next, establish when this stage should kick off. As this is the first stage, work front recommends on-proof creation. Proof notifications go out as soon as the proof is uploaded in work front. Now set the proof deadline. Because you’re working with the first stage of the workflow and the stage activation is set to on-proof creation, the recommended option is calculate from stage activation date. Then select how many days out to set the deadline from the date the proof is uploaded. Don’t forget to set a time too. Next is the option to lock the stage at a certain point in the workflow. Locking a proof prevents the people reviewing the proof from making comments or changing decisions after their stage of the workflow is complete. For example, maybe you have a proof recipient who has a tendency to request additional corrections after their proofing stage is complete. This of course causes problems with the proof workflow and possibly the final deliverable. In this case, locking the proof when the next stage starts would be a good option. However, if you want proof recipients to be able to comment on the proof regardless of the stage, select never. Speed up the proofing process by designating a primary decision maker. When you have multiple approvers on a proof, the process can stall as you wait for everyone to complete their reviews. However, when you set a primary decision maker, Workfront recognizes the proof decision made by this person as the decision. Once that person makes a decision, the stage is over and no other decisions are needed. Names don’t appear in the list until you’ve added recipients to the proof, so don’t forget to go back and set this if needed. Another way to speed up the proofing process is by requiring only one decision on the proof. If it doesn’t matter who makes that decision, then click the only one decision required box. With this activated, no matter how many approvers you have on the proof, the review is completed once any one of them makes a decision. By default, comments left by reviewers in all stages are visible to everyone. Prevent proof recipients in other stages from seeing the comments made during this stage by clicking the private stage box. However, Workfront users with the administrator or supervisor proof roles always have access to private stages, as do users with manager rights to the proof. When would you use this option? Let’s say the first stage was a proofreading stage, but the second stage was a manager review. The manager may not need or want to see all the proofreading comments in markup. By making the proofreading stage private, then the managers in the next stage won’t be distracted by those comments in markup. The final setting is, do not allow this stage to be deleted. With this checked, the person adding the workflow template to the proof cannot delete this stage, making this stage a required part of the proofing workflow. At this point, you’ve filled out quite a bit of information to establish the proof workflow, and you haven’t even added the proof recipients yet. You probably now see why workflow templates are so valuable and such a time saver for your users. Now for the final setups for this stage, the proof recipients. The person uploading the proof is always added to the proof workflow as the proof creator. By default, the creator is also the proof owner. However, it is possible the proof creator is just responsible for uploading the proof. Then someone else, such as the project manager, needs to manage the proof workflow. If the proof owner always needs to be the same person for this particular workflow, go ahead and build that into the template. The proof owner has edit rights to the proof, which allows them to upload a new version, change the workflow, etc. If changing the proof owner is infrequent, more the exception than the rule, Workfront recommends changing the owner as part of the proof upload. Proof recipients with Workfront logins in your system can be added by name to the workflow. Just start typing their name and select them from the pop-up list. For recipients without Workfront logins, what Workfront would call guest reviewers, simply enter their email address. This can include people in your organization who are not using Workfront, perhaps a vendor or a client who isn’t part of your company. Next, select the proof role for each recipient. The role determines what each recipient is expected to do with the proof, review it, approve it, both, etc. Reviewer and approver is commonly used along with reviewer. Finally, select when and how frequently each recipient should receive email alert. These are sent when activity happens on the proof. Things like comments posted, a decision made, replies to comments, etc. Final decision and decisions are commonly used for people monitoring proof workflows progress. Disabled is recommended for guest reviewers as it’s possible they don’t need any communications about the proof once they’ve received it. It’s important to note that the email alert setting does not affect the proof notifications that are sent out when a user has a new proof to review, a new version is ready for review, or a proof is past its deadline. A final note, if the person using this template on a proof needs to add or remove recipients or change their role or email alert settings, make sure that the corresponding options are activated in the allow section of the details area. Just scroll back up to double check. You’ve just completed the first stage of the proof workflow. It’s possible that that’s all that’s needed. If that’s the case, establish the template sharing, save the template, and move on to creating the next template. But if this is an automated workflow, you’ll add the next step with the new stage button. As a reminder, stages are used when there are multiple different deadlines for a proof or a different set of recipients need to get the proof after the people in the first stage. The majority of the settings in subsequent stages are the same as in the first stage. However, there are a few you’ll want to pay particular attention to. Most importantly, when should this workflow stage activate? If you look at the workflow diagram at the top of the screen, you can see that right now both stage one and stage two are happening at the same time. For stage two to kick off when stage one is complete, Workfront recommends the two options with approved decisions. This means that stage two won’t kick off unless all recipients with a proof role of approvers or reviewers and approvers in the prior stage select one of the two decisions. Don’t forget to select the parent stage that triggers this stage. If someone’s proof decision is rejected, then the workflow stops and this stage does not kick off. Another option for kicking off subsequent proof stages is manually. This is useful if you want a touch point or a check-in before activating a stage. This option is especially popular with client reviews and legal reviews. Pro tip. Before you select all decisions made on the parent stage, stop and take a look at your workflow. Is there really a need to separate the reviewers in the previous stage from those in this stage? If not, consider running the two stages in parallel, which ultimately will save you time because you don’t have to wait for one group of reviewers to finish before the next can begin. The other setting to keep an eye on is the deadline calculated field. More often than not, you’ll want the deadline for this stage to be calculated from when the stage kicks off. Don’t forget to select a deadline date and time. Workfront recommends keeping the number of stages in a proof workflow to a minimum. Remember, the more stages, the longer the review process will take to complete. In addition, reserve the recipient spots for the people who need to make comments on the proof, approve it, or be otherwise involved in the review and approval process. As you design proof workflows and create templates, keep proof versions in mind. If a proof will have multiple versions and each version requires a different set of reviewers or has different deadline requirements, you’ll want to create a template for each version of the proof. A common misconception is that a stage in a workflow can apply to a version of a proof. However, you cannot stop a workflow after stage one, upload a new version, and then have the workflow pick up at stage two. A proof workflow and proof, no matter which version it is, have a one-to-one relationship. The proof has to go through all of the workflow stages for the review and approval process to be considered complete. Then, when a new proof version is uploaded, a new workflow is applied either with the same template as the previous version or with a different template that contains a different workflow. By default, the workflow template is shared with all users in your Workfront system. To share the template with specific users, enter their names or email addresses. A red warning indicates that the person already has access to the template. This might be because the template is shared with the entire company. So, delete the company option and add in just the users you want. Give the workflow settings a final review and then click the create button to save the template. It appears in the template list organized by template group. Workfront recommends testing the template before you let everyone know it’s there. Coordinate with your teams to send a test proof through all stages of the workflow. If problems are found, just edit the template to make changes. Now you can let your users know the template is there and ready to use. With well-built templates, your teams can cut down on the amount of time it takes to review and approve deliverables and get the finished product out the door to customers.