Understand request queues

Transcript

Introduction to request queues. In this chapter, you’ll learn about what a request queue is, how to submit a request and how request queues are structured in Workfront. Whenever there is an issue with a project or a task, that information is directly tied to the original work item. However, what if you run into an issue that is not related specifically to a project? Where do you submit software hardware upgrades, suggestions submitted by clients, functionality improvements or even PTO? Request queues allow you to have one central location to make these requests. Here are a few examples of request queues that have been used in Workfront. Here at Workfront, we use request queues for all sorts of things. We use request queues for PTO requests, T-shirt size requests, for when the company wants to buy us swag or even training needs, requests that are sent to the training team. Before we start creating a request queue, let’s take a look at the request area within the system and walk through submitting a request. In the global navigation bar, we’ll go to the request area. This is where users will view and submit requests in the system. You will initially be taken to the request I’ve submitted area which will display all the requests you have submitted. As you can see here, this page displays a list of requests that you have personally submitted. This page will also display for you the status of the request, the planned completion date of the request and the assignment of the request, if the request has been assigned. To submit a new request, simply click on the new request button. Here, you will select what type of request you want to make. In this example, we selected infrastructure and software ticket. From here, we enter the subject of the request. Beneath the subject field, we have a description field.

Beneath the description, we have a variety of fields that are typically not required. This includes the document field where you can add any format of document. This added information can be useful to the person receiving the request. At the bottom of the request, we have a custom form. We do recommend completing the custom form, as these fields are specific to this request type. Once the form is complete, we click the submit request button. This navigates us back to the requests I’ve submitted where we are able to locate the request we just submitted.

But how are these requests handled in the system? To truly understand requests in Workfront, it is vital that you understand what is going on behind the scenes. As far as Workfront is concerned, each request is actually an issue and all issues within the system must be associated with a project. A project which only contains requests is called a request queue. You could handle all of your requests within a single project. However, good queue management practices will separate requests by their type and manage them separately. The structure of these various request queues is important. Not only does it drive the user interface when choosing what type of request to make but it also customizes what information is required on that individual request, as well as who the assignments are made to. Each time a request is submitted, it gathers all of the information filled out in the request area and goes to the associated request queues issue tab where it is automatically assigned to be handled. If we wanted to find where the request that we just submitted was, we need to look for the project that it was associated with. The first decision we made when making the request was to click on infrastructure requests. This is the name of the request queue or project in Workfront that we will look for. So let’s go to the projects area. Then to all projects. After clicking on infrastructure requests, we’ll navigate to the issues where we can see the requests that we just submitted. This is what appears on the back end if you have access to this queue. In the next video, we will show you how to set up a project to act as a request queue. -