Workfront - The Chaos Collector
February 28, 2017
Workfront - The Chaos Collector
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Workfront
Workfront is currently in a pilot stage as our project portfolio management tool. We use it for everything involved in a project from the Concept Request all the way up to Executive Level status reporting. Pending a successful pilot, we intend to expand its use for all things deemed as a 'project' that would require IT resources. This could range from a custom application all the way up to merger and acquisition activity.
- Workfront is a great workflow tool that helps streamline and standardize Project Concept intake.
- Workfront has very powerful reporting and dashboard tools that allow complete visibility of all items in the pipeline; whether started, on-hold, closing out, etc.
- The Time Tracking portion of Workfront is a powerful, easy to use tool that is segmented by project or workstream.
- The Resource Manager sections of the tool are somewhat difficult to use and have a different feel than the rest of the application. My understanding is that this is being addressed in an upcoming release.
- One particularly annoying issue is that you cannot edit a Project Concept request if it has been submitted for approval.
- The email connector tool that would allow you to edit items right from within Outlook seems to have stopped working all together.
- We are early on in our experience with Workfront but so far we have seen the value of presenting the work requests for review. By making people document what actually needs to be done you force the issue of 'does this really need to be done' as well as finding the root business problem to be solved.
- Workfront is also forcing enhanced collaboration between the business and IT. By bridging that gap where things used to just get 'thrown over the wall' we are actively cutting down on re-work.
Workfront has better workflow tools and an overall better feel than the other PPM tools we looked at. There were several that were close in functionality and feel but we chose Workfront due to its workflow capabilities and reporting tools. We also appreciated the customer-first mentality during the sales cycle. The sales group clearly communicated with the selection committee and, while not the deciding factor, it helped us gain trust that they would ensure a successful implementation.