Planned Hours overview

Last update: January 3, 2024

Topics:
Work Management

CREATED FOR:

User

The Planned Hours associated with a task, issue, or project represent the amount of time required for the assigned users to complete the task, issue, or project.

Considerations about Planned Hours in Adobe Workfront

Planned Hours are primarily associated with work items (tasks and issues) in Adobe Workfront. The Planned Hours from work items roll up to the Planned Hours of their projects.
By default, Workfront distributes task and issue Planned Hours equally to all the days in the Duration of the task or issue.
When users and roles are assigned to tasks and issues, the Planned Hours from the tasks and issues become associated with user or role assignments.
You must define the value of Planned Hours for tasks and issues if you want to use the Resource Management tools in Workfront.
You can modify the value of Planned Hours on tasks only for some Duration Types.

For more information about modifying Planned Hours on tasks in relation to the Duration Type of the tasks, see the section Update task Planned Hours based on Duration Type in this article.
You can modify the value of Planned Hours on issues at any time.
You cannot modify the value of Planned Hours of projects or of parent tasks, as they are a calculated total of all Planned Hours of all their tasks and subtasks.
Managing user allocations using resource management tools might change the number of Planned Hours of tasks, issues, and projects, and that of the assignments associated with work items.

Planned Hours on tasks vs. Planned Hours on projects

Planned Hours from tasks roll up to the Planned Hours of the project. Planned Hours from issues don’t always roll up to the project’s Planned Hours.

This section describes differences between the task and project Planned Hours. It also describes where you can view issue Planned Hours that roll up to the project.

Planned Hours on tasks

The Planned Hours of a task indicate the amount of time estimated that the actual work on the task might take. By default, Workfront distributes the total amount of planned hours evenly for each day within the duration of each task. The daily amount of planned hours becomes the daily allocations for the task. If the task is assigned to multiple resources, each resource is allocated an equal amount of daily hours, by default.

Using the Workload Balancer, you can modify the daily allocations for the users assigned to the tasks. This can also update the Planned Hours of the task when the task Duration Type is Simple. For more information, see the “Update task Planned Hours when managing user allocations” section in the article Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

When a task contains subtasks, the Planned Hours of the parent task is the sum of all Planned Hours on any subtasks. You cannot update the Planned Hours of a parent task.

NOTE

Unlike Planned Hours, Actual Hours on a parent task are hours logged directly on the parent task. They do not represent a sum of the Actual Hours of the children tasks.
For more information about Actual Hours, see View Actual Hours.

Planned Hours on projects

You cannot edit the amount of Planned Hours on a project. Planned Hours on a project are a calculated sum of all Planned Hours from all the tasks on the project.

Whether issues are included in the calculation for Planned Hours depends on the location within the project where you are viewing Planned Hours. You can view project Planned Hours in the following locations within a project:

Project Details section and the Edit Project box: Only the Planned Hours for the tasks on the project are taken into account. The Planned Hours for the issues on the project are not taken into account when viewing the total number of Planned Hours for the project in the Project Details section or the Edit Project box.
The Workload Balancer: Only the Planned Hours associated with the tasks visible in the Workload Balancer display in the Workload Balancer for projects. User daily allocations can change the project daily Planned Hours in the Workload Balancer.
Utilization section: The Planned Hours associated with the users assigned to the tasks and the issues on the project are taken into account when viewing the total number of Planned Hours for the project in the Utilization section.
Role Allocation panel in the task list: The Planned Hours for the tasks and the issues on the project that are assigned to a job role or a user associated with a job role display in this area. Planned Hours associated with tasks and issues that are unassigned or assigned to teams do not display in this area. For more information, see View project Planned Hours in the Role Allocation panel.

Distribution of Planned Hours across the Duration of a task

By default, Workfront distributes the Planned Hours evenly across the Duration of a task, allocating an equal number of Planned Hours for each day of the task, according to the availability of the project schedule.

For example, if a task is set to start at 4 PM and the schedule has one hour left in the first day of the task, Workfront puts one Planned Hour in the first day of the task Duration, then divides the remainder of the Planned Hours equally between the rest of the days in the task Duration.

NOTE

The Planned Hours per Day or the daily allocation is the allocation of Planned Hours for each day during the Duration of the task. If the task has one assignment, then this number represents the Planned Hours per Day per assignment. If the task has multiple assignments, the Planned Hours per Day per assignment is different than the Planned Hours per Day for the task. There is no visual representation in Workfront for the Planned Hours per Day per assignment, for tasks with multiple assignments.

Locate and understand Planned Hours values

You can find Planned Hours values in various areas of Workfront.

The number of Planned Hours displayed either originates from the work items on the project or are calculated differently depending on what area and on what object you view them in.

You can locate Planned Hours in the following areas of Workfront:

The Details section of a project, task or issue
The Edit Task or Edit Issue box
Reports
The Workload Balancer
The Resource Planner
The Utilization report
The Role Allocation panel

The Details section of a project, task or issue

Planned Hours on Details section

The Planned Hours in the Details section of a task, issue, or project are the total Planned Hours associated with the item.

For more information about project Planned Hours, see the Planned Hours on tasks vs. Planned Hours on projects section in this article.

The Edit Task or Edit Issue box

Edit Task box

The Planned Hours in the Edit box of a task or issue are the total Planned Hours of the respective item.

For more information about project Planned Hours, see the Planned Hours on tasks vs. Planned Hours on projects section in this article.

For tasks, you can edit the amount of Planned Hours only for certain Duration Types. For information, see the Update task Planned Hours based on Duration Type section in this article.

You can view the individual allocation of Planned Hours for each user or job role assigned to the task or issue in the Assignments area.

Reports

Planned Hours on report

You can add the Planned Hours field in project, task, and issue reports.

The Planned Hours column is included in the Standard view of a task list, by default.

The Planned Hours in a task, issue, or project report are the total Planned Hours of the respective item as they display in the Details section or the Edit box of the items.

For information about creating reports, see Create a custom report.

NOTE

If you create a Project (Financial Data) report and group it by date, the Planned Hours might display a portion of the Planned Hours of the project depending on the timeline of the tasks on the project. By default, Workfront distributes the Planned Hours of tasks equally for each day of the task Duration. The Planned Hours for a certain time frame match the equal distribution set by Workfront for that time frame in the Project (Financial Data) report.

The Workload Balancer

Planned Hours in the Workload Balancer

The following Planned Hours for tasks, issues, and projects display in the Workload Balancer to the right of the task, issue, or project name:

For tasks and issues, the Planned Hours associated with them displays.
For projects, a total of Planned Hours from the tasks and issues visible on the screen display.

TIP
The Workload Balancer does not display all the Planned Hours of a project as visible in the project Details area.

You can view the daily allocation of Planned Hours for each user assigned to a task or an issue in the Workload Balancer.

The daily hour amount of Planned Hours represents one of the following:

the default amount equally distributed by Workfront for each day of the Duration of the tasks, issues, or the project
the adjusted daily allocation managed by resource managers

For information about adjusting daily allocations in the Workload Balancer, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

The Resource Planner

Planned Hours in Resource Planner

The Resource Planner displays Planned Hours for projects, tasks, and issues.

You can view weekly allocations of Planned Hours for the users and job roles associated with work items in the PLN column of the Resource Planner.

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Daily allocation adjustments in the Workload Balancer influence weekly allocations for tasks and issues in the Resource Planner.

The number of Planned Hours for each object differ depending on which view you apply to the Resource Planner. For more information, see Overview of hours, FTE, and cost information in the Project and Role views of the Resource Planner.

The weekly hour amount of Planned Hours for tasks and issues represents one of the following:

the default weekly amount equally distributed by Workfront for each day of the Duration of the tasks or issues
the adjusted weekly allocation managed by resource managers in the Workload Balancer

For information about adjusting daily allocations in the Workload Balancer, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

The weekly amount for projects, users, and roles is influenced by the weekly amounts of Planned Hours for the tasks and issues associated with them.

The Utilization report

The project Planned Hours are the ones associated with the assignments on each task and issue.

IMPORTANT

Note that the Planned Hours in the Utilization report are associated with the assignments and not with the tasks and issues themselves. The Planned Hours in the Utilization report do not always match the Planned Hours on the tasks and issues of the project. However, the Planned Hours do match the hours associated with the assignments on tasks and issues.

You can view the following types of Planned Hours in the Utilization report:

the total Planned Hours of all assignments on the project for the overall life of the included projects
the total Planned Hours of all assignments only for the specified date range (you can specify an individual week or month).

When the user daily allocation for hours has been adjusted using the Workload Balancer, the Planned Hours for a specific date range can be affected if the dates selected in the Utilization report contain only a portion of a task’s or issue’s Duration. For information about adjusting daily allocations for users, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

For more information, see View resource utilization information.

The Role Allocation panel

The Planned Hours in the Role Allocation panel represent the number of Planned Hours associated with each job role assigned to the tasks or issues on the project for the total duration of the project. The number matches the role Planned Hours from the Resource Planner.

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Note that the Planned Hours associated with users does not display in the Role Allocation panel.

For more information, see Show role allocation for projects and initiatives in the Workload Balancer.

Update task Planned Hours based on Duration Type

You can update the total Planned Hours on tasks when editing tasks only if the tasks have a certain Duration Type.

The following scenarios exist:

You can modify Planned Hours for tasks only when using the Calculated Assignment or Simple Duration Types when editing a task.

For more information about the Calculated Assignment Duration Type, see Duration Type overview: Calculated Assignment.

For more information about the Simple Duration Type, see Duration Type overview: Simple.
You can update task Planned Hours in the Workload Balancer only for Simple Duration Type tasks when you manage users’ allocations to tasks. For information about managing user allocations in the Workload Balancer, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.
You cannot modify Planned Hours for tasks with a Duration Type of Effort Driven or Calculated Work. In these cases, Workfront determines Planned Hours based on the task’s Duration; however, in this case the Planned Hours are always equal to the Duration (in hours) and they are not impacted by the percent allocation of the assigned resources.

For more information about the Effort Driven Duration Type, see Duration Type overview: Effort Driven.

For more information about the Calculated Work Duration Type, see Duration Type overview: Calculated Work.

Update task Planned Hours when managing user allocations

You can update Planned Hours for tasks when you manually update the user or job role allocations to tasks. This is possible only when tasks have a Duration Type of Simple.

For more information, see Duration Type overview: Simple.

You can update either the overall allocation of the users and roles assigned to the task, or the user daily allocations when using the Workload Balancer.

For information about managing overall user and job role allocations for tasks, see Manage user and role allocation hours on tasks.

For information about managing daily allocations for tasks, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

The following scenarios exist when manually updating user or job role allocations for tasks:

When you have not manually updated the individual user or role allocations to trigger a change to the task Planned Hours, the Planned Hours remain unchanged when you add, remove, or replace assignments on the task. When adding a new assignment to the task, the individual allocations are redistributed between all the assignees.
When you have manually updated the allocations to trigger a change to the task Planned Hours, the Planned Hours decrease when you remove assignments from the task. They remain unchanged when you replace an assignment.
When you have manually updated the allocations to trigger a change to the task Planned Hours and you add an assignment to the task, the new assignment is allocated 0 hours by default. You must manually update their allocation to the task, which might affect the Planned Hours.
When you have not manually updated the allocations to trigger a change to the task Planned Hours and you remove all the assignments to the task, the Planned Hours remain unchanged.
When you have manually updated the allocations to trigger a change to the task Planned Hours and you remove all the assignments to the task, the Planned Hours are also removed and the Planned Hours of the task become 0.

NOTE

For example, if a task has 10 Planned Hours and you have two assignees, they are allocated 5 hours each, by default.

If you don’t update the individual user allocation or the daily allocations using the Workload Balancer and you remove any or all of the assignees from the task, the task Planned Hours remain 10 hours.
If you manually change the assignments’ allocations to 4 and 6 hours, respectively, and you remove the user allocated to 6 hours as well as their job role, the task Planned Hours updates to 4 hours. If you also remove the user that is allocated to 4 hours but keep the job role associated with the removed user, the Planned Hours of the task remain 4 hours. If you remove the last user who is allocated to 4 hours as well as their job role and the task remains unassigned, the task Planned Hours become 0.

Update task Planned Hours automatically using Work Effort

When you use Work Effort to estimate the effort needed for a task to complete, the amount of Planned Hours for the tasks updates automatically. This is possible only for tasks with a Simple Duration Type.

For information about using Work Effort to estimate task effort, see Work Effort overview.

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