Workflow, Approvals, and Automation
Workflow building blocks
Workflow in Workfront is built from project templates, tasks with durations and predecessors, milestone paths, approval processes, and request queues. Templates standardize projects; tasks and predecessors drive the timeline; milestone paths mark key dates. Approval processes can be global or one-time, and they attach to projects, tasks, issues, documents, or proofs. Approval stages define approvers and whether one, all, or a set number must approve. Statuses change when approvals complete, so map approval outcomes to statuses deliberately.
Automation and traps
Automation includes approval routing, automatic reminders, request queue routing rules and topics, and integrations such as Fusion. A frequent trap is confusing an approval process with a status: approving an object may change its status, but the approval process itself is a separate object. Another trap is stage ordering: a later stage does not start until the prior stage is resolved according to its rule. Also check whether an approval is global or one-time, because editing a global process affects every attached object.
Worked example
A project needs two approvals: finance first, then the sponsor, and the sponsor should approve only if finance approves. Create a two-stage approval process, set stage one to require finance approval, and set stage two to start after stage one is approved. Rule of thumb: design the approval path before attaching it to a template; changing a global process after projects are created can alter in-flight approvals.