Create and manage tasks creating-and-managing-tasks

Adobe Campaign lets you create tasks and manage their complete life cycle directly within the application. Program and campaign implementation can be broken down into tasks which are assigned to Adobe Campaign operators or external service providers. This mode of operation lets you create an open collaboration environment that includes all program participants and external participants.

Tasks can be created, viewed, and monitored from the list of tasks or the campaign dashboard. They can also be viewed and tracked in the schedules of the marketing plan, programs and campaigns.

Tasks are attached to campaign and can have dependencies, i.e. associated tasks. Each task has a status, priority, estimated load, and related costs.

All the tasks are grouped in a list accessible via the Campaigns tab. For more on this, refer to Access tasks.

They can be displayed in the schedule of the program to which they belong.

Access tasks accessing-tasks

Display tasks displaying-tasks

The tasks are displayed in the task list accessible via the Campaigns tab.

You can view all tasks of the current operator.

For more on this, refer to Execution status of a task and Progress status of a task.

Filter tasks filtering-tasks

When you display this view, it is automatically filtered in order to display only the current operator tasks. You can also filter the tasks using the fields in the upper section of the window.

Edit tasks editing-tasks

Click on a task to edit it.

Create a new task creating-a-new-task

To create a task, follow the steps below:

You can also create a task via the dashboard of a campaign: in this case, it is automatically linked to the campaign which it was created from.

After a task is created, it is added to the campaign schedule, the campaign dashboard, and the list of tasks. To edit a task, click its name from the list of tasks, or select it from the schedule or the campaign dashboard, and click Open.

Once created, you can configure the task by defining:

You can also add reviewers and reference documents.

Task life cycle is presented in this section.

Manager and participants manager-and-participants

By default, the task is assigned to the operator who created it. This operator is notified when an action is required for that task.

You can select a different operator from the Assigned to drop-down list.

You may specify more operators involved in carrying out the task. These operators are not allowed to close the task: they may only approve the task assigned to them.

To add task operators, follow the steps below:

The operator dashboard lets you check their workload (other tasks in progress).

Task approval reviewers

In addition to the participants, you can define operators who will review the task once it has been closed.

To do this, click the Enable task approval option in the lower section of the Resources window. This can be an individual operator, a group of operators or a list of operators.

To specify a list of operators, click the Edit… link to the right of the first reviewer and add as many operators as necessary, as shown below:

You can define an approval schedule for the task in the lower section of the configuration window. By default, reviewers have three days starting from the submission date to approve the task. You can also add a reminder, which will be sent to the concerned operators automatically before the approval deadline.

The person in charge of the task can assign themselves the task of approving it, even if other operators have already been assigned to do this. If no reviewer has been defined, the notifications will be sent to the person in charge of the task. All other Adobe Campaign operators with Administrator rights can also approve the task. However, they do not receive notifications.

Documents referenced documents-referenced

You can add documents and marketing resources to a task.

To perform this:

Referenced documents are added to the notifications sent to the operators involved in the task. They are also added on the task dashboard.

Execution schedule execution-schedule

The validity period of a task is indicated in the Start and End fields. The scheduled load expresses the workload to be performed during the period. It is expressed in days or hours.

The Workload performed field also expressed in days and hours, lets you manually update the progress of the task with respect to the scheduled workload.

The Progress status of the task, expressed as a percentage, is updated automatically based on the tasks carried out by the operators involved. It can be input manually.

This information can be viewed in the task dashboard.

It is also visible in the campaign tab.

If the task execution schedule end date has been reached but the task is not completed, the task will be Late. A warning message will also be displayed to alert operators.

For more on this, refer to Progress status of a task.

Expenses and revenues expenses-and-revenues

You can define related expenses and forecast revenue for each task. These will be calculated and then consolidated for the campaign to which the task is attached.

To specify this information, click the Expenses and revenue icon in the task toolbar.

By default, the budget charged is the budget of the campaign to which the task is attached. It is displayed in the task details.

In this window, you can also define the objectives to be reached. Objectives are expressed in terms of forecast revenue for the task.

Service providers service-providers

An external service provider can be involved in the management of a task.

To do this, edit the task properties and select the service provider concerned. The cost categories associated with the service provider are automatically listed in the central section of the window.

Select the cost categories related to the execution of the task. To do this, select the type of cost and, if necessary, add an amount to surcharge.

When a service provider is selected, it is displayed in the task dashboard:

Late tasks late-tasks

A task is late if it has reached its end date without its status changing to Finished. By default, no operator is warned when a task is late. You can configure the delivery of a notification email: all operators can be notified even if they are not involved in the task.

Go to the Resources box and add the operator to the Assignation field. To notify several people, select a group of operators.

Initial notifications initial-notifications

When you create or modify a task with a start date in the future, Adobe Campaign offers to send an email to the person in charge of the task to let them know when it starts.

However, if the task you are creating is a long way off, it may be preferable to schedule the notification to be sent before the task starts. For instance, if the task starts in one month, you can notify the person in charge of it one week before it starts.

To schedule a notification, go to the Resources box and use the Initial notification field.

If you have scheduled a notification, when you save the task, Adobe Campaign stills offers to send a notification immediately. You can decide to send it and this won’t replace the scheduled notification.

Task linked to a program task-linked-to-a-program

You can create tasks directly in a program to manage actions pertaining to their overall organization and not to a specific campaign (for instance, a meeting to discuss the theme of upcoming campaigns within the program). The task will appear in the program schedule.

To create a task linked directly to a program:

Operator availability operator-availability

In the task dashboard, an icon next to the operator’s name indicates that they are already working on another task or event during the period covered by the task. Task which the operator is in charge of or involved in appears in the Assigned to field or in the task Resources box.

Task in a workflow task-in-a-workflow

Using a Task element in a campaign workflow enables you to define two scenarios depending on whether or not the task is approved.

In the campaign workflows, the Task activity is found in the Flow control tab.

Types of task types-of-task

When you create tasks via a campaign, you can create specific tasks. The type of task is defined in the selected template.

The following tasks can be scheduled:

Control tasks control-tasks

A Control task is linked to delivery approval: approval of targeting, content, extraction file, budget or proof.

Once it is created, the task is added to the campaign dashboard.

You can then edit it and specify its parameters.

Marketing resource creation task marketing-resource-creation-task

A marketing resource creation task can be used to manage the creation and publishing of a marketing resource. If you are managing a resource via a task and not via the resource itself, you can:

Interaction between the task and its linked resource interaction-between-the-task-and-its-linked-resource

The marketing resources creation task interacts with the resource linked to it. This means:

Configure a marketing resource creation task configuring-a-marketing-resource-creation-task

The person who reviews the task isn’t necessary the same person who reviews the content defined in the resource. However, if the Publish the marketing resource option is checked (see below), the task reviewer is authorized to approve the resource content, as finishing the task automatically approves the resource (or, if no reviewer is defined, the task manager).

In the Marketing resource field, define the resource you want to manage via this task. You can:

The Publish the marketing resource option lets you automate resource publishing: once the task is Finished, the status of the resource automatically switches to Published, even if it was neither submitted for approval or approved, including if the reviewer who completes the task isn’t the content reviewer defined in the resource.

The Publish the resource button is made available and the resource publishing reviewer receives a notification email to let them know that it is ready to be published. In the Edit > Tracking tab, reviewing and publishing by the task reviewer become visible. If a resource post-processing workflow has been defined, it is executed now.

Group task grouping-task

The Grouping task type task lets you group several tasks and synchronize the management of their progress and their approval.

Grouping tasks have no linked expenses or resources.

All the tasks grouped to a grouping task can be seen on its own dashboard. This lets you filter the list of tasks to display only the ones that interest you.

Grouping tasks have a link that lets you easily create a grouped task.

To create a grouped task based on a grouping task, go to the campaign dashboard and click the name of the grouping task to display its description, then click Add a task.

However, if you have already created a task that you want to link to a grouping task, you can do it via the Linked to field of the Properties box.

Notification task notification-task

Notification tasks enable you to schedule email deliveries (to an operator, a group of operators, a service provider, etc.). This lets you schedule reminders, for instance to notify someone that a campaign is finishing soon, or to send documents before a campaign starts so that operators can prepare it. This means you can keep track of your communications within your campaign or program and a closer eye on the actions carried out.

Life cycle life-cycle

Notification tasks don’t require approval. This means their life cycle is simpler than that of a standard task:

A notification task can have the following statuses:

Configuration configuration

During creation, the following elements must be entered in the task:

You can add an attachment to the task and to the notification email. To do this, click the Documents icon in the toolbar in the upper right-hand corner.

Life cycle life-cycle-1

Links between tasks links-between-tasks

The Properties button in each task enables you to define the links between tasks in a campaign. You can split tasks into subtasks using a grouping task (see Linked tasks), or define dependencies between the tasks (see Grouping tasks).

Linked tasks linked-tasks

Use the Linked task field to associate tasks with a grouping task. See Types of task.

In the following example, the approval of targeting is broken down into four sub-tasks.

Each sub-task is a standard task linked to the main task.

Group tasks grouping-tasks

Use the Grouped to field to make the execution of a task depend on the execution of another task.

The dependency between tasks is represented by arrows in the campaign dashboard.

In the case of grouped tasks, Adobe Campaign automatically assigns the end date of the parent task to the child task as a start date. For instance if a Create invitation task ends on October 15 at 3:30PM, the Send invitation email child task will start on October 15 at 3:30PM.

Moreover, if you postpone the end of a parent task, some of its child tasks may be affected: these are the child tasks whose status is Scheduled and whose start date is earlier than the new end date of the parent task. The duration of the task remains the same. If the start date of a child task is later than the new end date of the parent task, the child task isn’t affected.

Example

A parent task scheduled to end on October 9 at 5PM has two child tasks, task A and task B. Task A is scheduled to start on October 10 at 2PM and task B is scheduled to start on October 12 at 8AM.

Let’s postpone the parent task: it now ends on October 11 at 1PM. Only task A is postponed and will start on October 11 at 1PM.

Execution status of a task execution-status-of-a-task

Task statuses can be view in the task map. The execution status of a task is updated automatically according to operator actions.

A task can be: Scheduled, In progress, Finished, Canceled, Pending approval or Rejected.

Progress status of a task progress-status-of-a-task

In addition to its execution status, a task can be associated with a progress status: Late, To approve, To do today or To do this week. This information is entered automatically according to the task schedule.

You can filter the list of tasks by process or progress status.

For more on this, refer to Accessing tasks.

Complete task life cycle complete-task-life-cycle

Below are the stages of a complete task life cycle for which the person in charge has defined participants and reviewers.