Frequently asked questions

Workfront goes beyond traditional project management to be the first true operational system of record for enterprise business. What does that mean? To be a true OSR, a solution must be designed to handle much more than project, program, and portfolio management. It must be:

• Smart: Embedded intelligence that can supports automation and real-time insights

• Connected: All work is easily accessible in a single, easy-to-use solution that allows communication to happen in context and integrates seamlessly with outside software.

• Agile—Whether it’s Agile, Kanban, Waterfall, or a mix, work can be done in each team’s preferred methodology.

Workfront is the only software that delivers a full-breadth work management solution, placing a priority on A.I., workflow automation, and easy software and business application integrations.

Learn more:

• The Complete Guide to Enterprise Work Management
• 3 Ways a Work Management Solution Can Break Down Silos on Your Team
• Evolving End-to-End Enterprise Work Management

An operational system of record (OSR) is the software backbone of enterprise organizations. An OSR provides a single source of truth for work being done in teams and departments across an organization.

An OSR acts as the primary system of record for the enterprise. It integrates seamlessly with each department’s individual systems of record, ensuring that each department can use best-of-breed solutions for their needs while simultaneously providing leaders with the real-time insights they need to make decisions.

Learn more:

• 10 Reasons You Need an Operational System of Record

Digital Transformation (DX) is a term used to describe the recent move toward using new technologies to tackle old problems. This digitization of tools, processes, and collaboration is transforming the way that businesses are managing their work and how consumers are interacting with businesses.

Analog solutions have always had issues with scaling to meet the needs of modern teams. Digital solutions connect people to work via online or cloud-based workspaces and guarantee that work will be facilitated, tracked, delivered, measured, and optimized regardless of employee location or role.

Some examples of commonly digitized systems include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, marketing automation software, and Enterprise Resource Planning systems.

Learn more:

• Raising the CIO’s Influence: How IT Leaders can Drive Digital Transformation
• Work Smarter, Together: The Right Tools Make Digital Transformation Possible
• 4 Reasons Digital Transformation Initiatives Fail

Project Management is a way of managing tasks, milestones, and resources to complete a project. Modern Work Management is much broader, connecting project management to other critical components of work, such as collaboration and content.

Work Management software brings project and resource management into the same system as other work functions like social collaboration, real-time reporting, automated review and approval flows, and more. This creates standard, streamlined processes for modern workers, and gives business leaders complete visibility into the entire lifecycle of work—from initial request to final report.

Rather than introducing yet another tool into your tech stack, the goal of Work Management software is to provide a highly-integrated operational backbone for the tools already being used across an organization.

Agile methodology is a philosophy for managing work that emphasizes visibility, collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement. There are multiple frameworks that apply Agile principles, but the most common are Scrum and Kanban.

Learn more:

• The Agile Marketing Cheat Sheet
• Solve the Pain of Mixing Agile and Waterfall

A Gantt chart is a way to visually represent the tasks and subtasks that make up a project and the time required to complete them. Each task is represented in the chart as a horizontal bar that shows how long each task is planned to take. Because Gantt charts show an entire project from beginning to end, it’s easy to see which tasks need to be completed in order for the next tasks to begin.

Learn more:

• 11 Gantt Chart Questions Answered

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project deliverable that breaks work into smaller, manageable tasks and subtasks.

Digital collaboration uses technology to bring together all the communications required to complete work.

Proofing is a critical part of the review and approval process. In times past, companies would print hard copies of content and circulate them for feedback before finalizing the design.

Today, digital proofs have replaced printed proofs and the entire proofing processes have been moved online. Digital proofing centralizes feedback into a single, globally-accessible location, saving designers and content creators from spending vast amounts of time searching for and consolidating feedback.

Projects are designed to create specific, defined outcomes—a product, a service, or an event—within a set period of time. A program is a collection of related projects that work in unison to meet an overall goal or initiative.

They both deal with projects but require a different set of skills (and tools). Project management handles the day-to-day tasks and processes to get to the project outcome. Program management is a big-picture view of work and requires long-term strategic planning for groups of projects. Programs let stakeholders keep track of high-level timelines. For an enterprise-level business, great project management and great program management go hand-in-hand.

Learn more:

• Project Management vs. Program Management

Effective resource management organizes the allocation and capacity of people, finances, and timelines in order to deliver successful projects and meet business goals.

DAM is short for Digital Asset Management.

A DAM is a centralized repository that allows users to easily search, store, and share approved assets, making it easy for businesses to establish governance and make sure everyone has access to up to date materials.  

Learn more:

• How to Evaluate and Choose The Right Dam Solution for Your Organization

Workfront offers both custom integrations and out-of-the-box integrations.

Software integrations connect business applications to facilitate the easy transfer of data between tools.

Using a single, centralized system as the single source of truth for business operations increases productivity and visibility. Through integrations, each department can use tools that work for their needs without creating silos.

Learn more:

• Maximizing Technology Investments with Integrations

Absolutely. Many customers start in one plan and quickly move to another with more functionality. We recommend starting with the plan that supports all of your needs and then we can grow and expand as necessary.

We help many international companies with our 24/7 service and support. Our offices in England support our international clients and will be happy to assist you with any questions.

Our plans support your company and processes. You can purchase any number of licenses within each plan based on your needs. Some plans do have a minimum number of licenses required for purchase. Contact us for more information and we can talk through your specific needs.