Navigate the Workload Balancer

Click the Main Menu icon in the upper-right corner of Workfront, then click Resourcing.

Click Workload Balancer in the left panel.

The Workload Balancer displays work assignment information starting with the current week in the following two areas:

• The Unassigned Work area displays the following work items:

  • Work items (tasks and issues) assigned to roles, teams, or that are unassigned display after you apply filters.
    The Unassigned Work area does not display any work items by default. We recommend using filters to display relevant information for you in this area.

    For information about using filters, see Filter information in the Workload Balancer.

  • Projects display only when you enable the Group by Project setting. For information, see the section Customize the view in this article.

• The Assigned Work area displays the following work items:

  • All active users in the system display in this area by default. We recommend using filters to limit the amount of information in this area. If users are assigned to items, the work items also display under their name.

  • Tasks and issues assigned to at least one user display under the user’s name.

    The work items under users’ names in the Assigned Work area are sorted by the following criteria, in this order:

    1. Planned Start Date (oldest first)

    2. Planned Completion Date (oldest first)

    3. Alphabetical by project (only when the first two criteria are identical for multiple work items)

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       You can customize the project sorting by selecting an option from the “Sort projects by” setting. Projects display only when you enable the “Group by Project” setting.
       For information about customizing settings, see the section Customize the view in this article.

(Optional) Click the Filter icon in the Assigned Work area, then select the Default filter in the Suggested area of the filter box.

When applying the Default filter, users that belong to any of your teams and their work items display. You can edit a copy of this filter.

Continue with the following steps to navigate the Workload Balancer:

• Select a time frame in the Workload Balancer
• Customize the view
• Assign work items and adjust user allocations
• View allocations in a chart

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

The Workload Balancer displays work assignment information starting with the current week.

Use the horizontal scroll to view the timeline of work items that extend beyond the limits of the screen.

Click the back or forward icons in the upper-left corner to navigate the timeline, then click Today to return to the current week.

Click the time frame drop-down menu on the toolbar, then click the beginning date of the period you want to display. By default, the first week selected on the calendar is the week you navigated to.

Select the number of weeks you want to display at one time in the Workload Balancer from the following options:

• 1 week
• 2 weeks
• 4 weeks. This is the default setting.
• 6 weeks
• 3 months

Click one of the following options in the toolbar to display information by different time frames:

• Day: Displays information by day for four weeks starting with today’s date, by default.
• Week: Displays information by week for four weeks.
• Month: Displays information by month for three months.

Continue navigating the Workload Balancer as described in the following sections.

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

The names of work items are listed on the left side and are represented by bars on the right side of the Workload Balancer. The length of the bar represents the timeline of a work item.

(Optional and recommended) Use filters in the Unassigned and Assigned Work areas to display only work items or users that are relevant to you.

For more information, see Filter information in the Workload Balancer.

By default, blue bars represent the timelines of projects and tasks and maroon bars represent issues.

You can change the color of the bars for projects and tasks when you select your color theme to match the project. For more information, continue reading this procedure.

Work items in the Assigned Work area are sorted by projects by the following criteria, in this order:

1. Planned Start Date (oldest first)
2. Planned Completion Date (oldest first)
3. Alphabetical by project (only when the first two criteria are identical for multiple work items)

Click the right-pointing arrow to the left of the Unassigned or Assigned areas to expand all items under the project names (in the Unassigned area) and under the user names (in the Assigned area).

Click the down-pointing arrow to the left of the Unassigned or Assigned areas to collapse all items under the project names (in the Unassigned area) and under the user names (in the Assigned area).

Drag and drop the separation line between the left panel and the timeline area to adjust the size of the left panel.

Click the Settings icon .

The Settings panel displays on the right.

Select from the options listed below to update the information you view in the Workload Balancer, then click the X icon in the upper-right of the Settings box to close it.

• Group by Project: When this is selected, the items in the Unassigned and Assigned Work areas are grouped by project. This is selected by default.

• Include hours from issues: When this is selected, issues assigned to users display under the user’s name in the Assigned Work area and issues that are not assigned to users display in the Unassigned Work area. The Planned Hours from the issues count towards the Planned Hours for the project and for the user in the Assigned Work area.

• Show Projected Dates: When this is selected, the projected timeline of work items displays in addition to the planned timeline. Notice the following:

  • The projected timeline of project, tasks, and issues displays as a dark blue line above the task, issue, and project bars.
  • The projected timeline that is outside of the planned timeline displays in light blue, even when you update the color theme, as described below.
  • The projected timeline for the items that you have no access to view displays in light gray with a line underneath.
  • When a task or issue completes before the due Planned Completion Date the allocation numbers for the remaining days are struck through and do not count towards the user’s allocation. This displays only when both the Show Projected Dates setting and the Show allocation icon are enabled.

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  Notice that work items display in the Workload Balancer when either their planned or the projected timelines (not necessarily both at the same time) occur during the time frame selected.

• Show completed work: When this is enabled, completed tasks and issues display in the Assigned Work area. This is enabled by default.

  A green checkmark icon displays in the upper-right corner of a task or issue bar when they are completed. The same icon displays for a project when the tasks or issues for the selected time frame of the project are completed.

• Show remaining time: When this is enabled, Workfront displays the difference between the daily time for which the user is available to work based on their schedules and the hours for which they are allocated in the Assigned Work area for the users. This is disabled by default and allocated time displays by default.

• In the Select color theme section, select the color that you want for the project and task bars.

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  The setting for selecting the color theme does not affect the color of the issue bars. Issues always display in a maroon-color bar.

  Select from the following:

  • Default: The bars for all projects and their work items display in blue.

  • Project: The bars associated with each project and its tasks change according to the name of the project. All tasks that belong to the project display in bars that match the color of the project. The project bars display in a lighter shade to distinguish them from the tasks. The project bars also include a project icon when choosing not to display allocations.

  • Project Status: The bars associated with each project and its work items change to the color of the status of the project.

    The project status is that associated with the Group of the project. If the Group does not have group-specific statuses, the color of the work item bars is that of the system-level project status. Both system as well as custom statuses display. For information about group statuses, see Create or edit a group status.

• In the Display user allocation in section, select from the following:

  • Hours: Displays allocated time as hours. This is the default.
  • Percentage: Displays allocated time as a percentage of the total available time

• In the Sorting preferences section, select how you want the items to be sorted in the Workload Balancer. Select from the following options:

  • Sort users by Primary Role: Users display in the alphabetical order of their Primary Roles in the Assigned Work area.
  • Sort users alphabetically: Users display in the alphabetical order of their first names in the Assigned Work area.
  • Sort projects by: Select a project field from the drop-down menu to sort projects alphabetically by that field in the Unassigned or Assigned Work areas.

(Optional and conditional) When you change the color theme to Project Status, hover over the name of a project on the left to view the status of the project.

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

Click the Show allocations icon to view the daily or weekly Planned Hours for work items.

This replaces the name in the bars of the work items with the amount of daily or weekly Planned Hours in the Unassigned and Assigned Work areas. This setting is disabled by default.

Days that show overallocations display in red.

(Optional) Hover over the allocated time in the user line to understand the capacity and allocation of the user. The capacity is the availability of the user according to their schedule.

(Optional) Click the Hide allocations icon to display the name of the tasks and issues in the bars of the work items.

Click the More menu icon to the right of a task or issue name, then click one of the options below.

• Assign this to, then start typing the name of a user, role, or team you want to assign the work item to in the Search people, role, or teams field.

  You can also use the following shortcuts to assign tasks or issues:

  • In Windows: CTRL+click the task or issue bar.
  • In Mac: CMD+click the task or issue bar.

  For more information about assigning work items to users in the Workload Balancer, see Overview of assigning work in the Workload Balancer.

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  If your Workfront or group administrator enabled delegations in your environment, use the Assignments tab to assign users to the task or issue. For information about delegating work, see Manage task and issue delegation.

• Edit allocations, then edit the daily or weekly allocations for the user. For information about managing user allocations, see Manage user allocations in the Workload Balancer.

• Open Summary. The Summary panel opens on the right, then click the Assignments field and start typing the name of a user, role, or team in the Search people, role, or teams field to assign the item. For more information, see the section Display more information about tasks and issues in this article.

(Optional) Double-click a daily or weekly allocation for a user inside the bar of a work item to edit the number of allocated hours, then click the Save icon to save the allocations or the Cancel icon to remove the allocations you adjusted.

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The Save and Cancel icons display towards the end of a task or an issue’s timeline bar.

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

Click Bulk Assignments to assign work items in bulk.

For more information, see Assign work in bulk using the Workload Balancer.

Drag items from the Unassigned Work area or from a user and drop them on another user to assign them.

For more information, see Assign work in the Workload Balancer by dragging and dropping.

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

Click the Chart icon to display the user allocation in a chart format.

Days where the user is overallocated display as red blocks, and days where the user is underallocated or at capacity display as blue blocks.

The size of the blocks indicates the amount of the allocation: the larger the box, the more time the user is allocated to work items for that day or week.

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

To view more information in the Summary panel, do one of the following:

• Click the bar of a task or issue to open the Summary panel on the right.
• Click the Open Summary icon , then click the bar of a task or issue to open the Summary panel.
• Click the More menu to the right of a task or issue, then click Open Summary.

For information about updating task information in the Summary in the Workload Balancer, see Update work items in the Workload Balancer using the Summary.

Hover over the name of a task or issue to view more information about it. A box displays above the task or the issue with the following information:

• The name of the task or issue.
• The name of the project.
• The Planned Start and Completion Dates.
• The number of Planned Hours.
• For tasks, the predecessor number.
• For tasks, an indicator in the upper-corner of the box that indicates whether the task is ready to be worked on or not.

Click the name of a work item on the left to access it. The work item opens in a new browser tab.

Access the Workload Balancer in the Resourcing area, as described in the section Access the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area in this article.

Click the Full screen icon to display the Workload Balancer in full screen.

The Workload Balancer occupies the entire screen. Browser windows and tabs are excluded from the view.

Click the Exit full screen icon to return to the default screen and view the Workload Balancer inside the browser tab.

Click the Main menu icon , then click Teams.
The page of your Home Team displays by default.

Click Workload Balancer in the left panel. The Workload Balancer of a team should display by default.

The Workload Balancer of a team displays the following information, by default:

• In the Unassigned Work area: Work items assigned to the team or to the team and job roles and that are not assigned to users.
• In the Assigned Work area: Work items assigned to users display under the users’ names.

Continue navigating the Workload Balancer of a team as described in the Navigate the Workload Balancer for multiple projects in the Resourcing area section of this article.

Click the Main menu icon , then click Projects.

Click the name of a project to open the project page.

Click Workload Balancer in the left panel. You might have to click Show More, then Workload Balancer.

The Workload Balancer for the project displays the following information, by default:

• In the Unassigned Work area: Work items on the project that are assigned to roles or teams and are not assigned to users.
• In the Assigned Work area: Work items on the project that are assigned to at least one user.

We recommend using filters to only show users that are important to you.

For example, you might consider displaying only users that belong to your teams or groups. For more information, see Filter information in the Workload Balancer.

(Optional) Click the Filter icon in the Assigned Work area and select the This project’s work items option from the Suggested area of the filter panel. This filter is deselected by default.

When this option is selected, only the items assigned to users on the selected project display.

When the option is not selected, all the items assigned to the users on the project display, regardless of what projects the items belong to.

(Optional and recommended) Apply a filter in the Assigned Work area to display users that are important to you but might not be assigned to items on the project, then click the Show all users icon .

By showing all users, you can display all users in Workfront that are not yet assigned to work or other roles on the project.

You can apply a filter first, to reduce the number of users you display.

For example, you might want to filter first for users that belong to your teams or groups, and then display all those users.

For information about how to build a filter, see Filter information in the Workload Balancer.

(Optional) Click the Show role allocations icon .

The Role Allocation panel displays.

You can view information about Planned Hours associated with the job roles on the project and those job roles associated with initiatives linked to the projects from the Scenario Planner.

For more information, see Overview of reconciling resource allocations between projects and initiatives.

Continue navigating the Workload Balancer of a project as described in the Navigate the Workload Balancer for multiple projects section of this article.