As you know, we talk to clients regularly.
We learn about their stories and ask about challenges they face as they create and manage an ever-growing library of content and digital assets.
And we often notice patterns emerging, like an increased need for a robust project management solution, one that allows for complex content production management.
Recently, we addressed many of those challenges by launching four amazing improvements. Each of them is designed to help you gain even more control over content production projects.
#1. Linking Tasks Within Workroom
CELUM’s Workroom is a great place to keep track of specific projects, and see first-hand how the work progresses.
But sometimes, it can be challenging to visualise how one task affects the entire workflow.
True, you can see all those tasks together. But unless you remember how they might depend on one another, it’s easy to just see the Workroom as a collection of independent projects.
The problem is that it’s not always the case. So, to allow for better management of task relationships, we’ve added the option to link tasks together.
When you open task details, you’ll see a new section called “Linked Tasks.”
In there, you can set up a relationship between this and other tasks, using two criteria:
- Depends on. Search for a task that needs to be completed before this task.
- Necessary for. Search for a task that will get completed after this task.
The real-time applications of this feature are plenty.
A project manager may signal that a particular task is necessary for the completion of another step in the workflow, ultimately making it a critical task to focus on. After all, any delays with it will halt the entire content production.
Or they could do the reverse, and specify a task that is absolutely required to be done before anyone could start working on this action. As a result, they can avoid a situation in which the project moves forward but without crucial assets, necessary for completion of future actions.
Summary:
- Linking tasks within a workroom allows you to gain a better overview of task relationships within a workflow.
- It also allows to set dependency or mark tasks as necessary for completion of another task.
#2. Assigning users to subtasks
It’s a common approach to consider subtasks as a simple checklist. A list of items to be done to complete the task.
And it’s not far from the truth. But there is a challenge here too.
Often, completing the checklist of subtasks requires the involvement of stakeholders who aren’t assigned to the main task.
A simple example might be a design task that requires a copywriter to review the final copy before finishing the draft. The copywriter wouldn’t normally be involved in the design process. Yet, because their input is required, task completion largely depends on them finishing their part.
It’s easy to remember about those small tasks when you work on a handful of projects. But scale that to the usual production level or a larger organisation, and it’s easy to see why such situations might become a challenge.
Luckily, that’s no longer an issue for CELUM users. As of September, you can specify one or several people in charge of finishing a subtask via the “Add assignees” button.
Summary:
- This option allows task owners to specify assignees to subtasks within a task.
- Subtasks assigned to a person will automatically show on their dashboard under “My Open Tasks” section, keeping them in loop about their responsibilities in other people’s tasks.
#3. Converting subtasks to tasks
Another common scenario regarding subtasks relates to their importance to the project.
Sometimes, a seemingly tiny action we consider just a quick subtask turns out quite the opposite. You might realise that it requires several steps to complete. Or perhaps, it involves more people, and ties with their workflows. Or completing it might simply depend on other people’s actions.
In other words, it’s not really a quick subtask.
It’s a full task of its own.
Typically, project management tools solve this issue by allowing customers to specify subtasks of a subtask. It’s a good-enough solution. However, it’s not always practical. Adding subtasks to subtasks can quickly lead to you having to manage an endless nested list of subtasks.
In CELUM, you can now approach this challenge differently. You can convert such a subtask into an individual task within a project. From there, you can proceed to manage it as any other task, set dependencies, due dates, subtasks, assignees, and more.
What’s more, doing so requires just a single mouse click.
#4. Compound Objects in CELUM Workrooms
Last but not least, a great new way to utilise our Workrooms is taking advantage of being able to link compound objects in content production projects.
As you know very well, managing product content production is not a small feat.
For one, each project includes so many moving parts. Each photo shoot, for example, requires various specific shots, and specific takes.
But with so many such projects in the works, it’s easy to omit a small detail, and only realise that you’re missing a particular type of shot days after the photo shoot, and so on.
With Compound Objects you can specify upfront what’s expected from a project. You can also specify what the project deliverables should be. You can, then, transform your project requirements into tasks.
With this feature, you gain an incredible clarity over what’s required. Plus, Compound Objects allow you to monitor the status of each deliverable (as a task), and ensure that nothing gets lost or forgotten as you’re going through the project and preparing the product content.
Summary:
- Compound Objects allow you to connect to designated Workrooms
- You can then sync your content to a Workroom, and covert your requirements into tasks
- In the Workroom, you can utilise the approval workflow and the online proofing capabilities to manage the production and ensure that nothing gets missed in the process.
And that’s it.
But naturally, that’s not all.
We’re already working hard at a whole range of new improvements, and you’ll be seeing them launched in your account over the coming weeks and months.
