[Status: (Now in Wrike Labs) Investigating 🕵️‍♀️] Planning Allow "Planning"/"Template" Mode to Separate Active/On-Hold Projects from Projects Being Planned/Templates

I want to echo the sentiment of all of the other people in this thread. It's hard enough to get a team accustomed to changing their way of working without hearing daily that they are being "spammed" by Wrike. I'm fairly certain that some people may decide to block Wrike from their inbox while I'm in planning mode.

I have been tasked with planning out more than a year of tasks for my team. How can I possibly get them on board with using it if they are completely annoyed with it. I urgently need to be able to put projects, folders, or tasks into planning mode while i work with management to prioritize our initiatives and balance the workload of the team.

I keep getting told by Wrike to tell them to adjust their preferences for notifications, but this isn't even close to solving the problem. I still need the team to receive notifications on current tasks while I'm planning future tasks.

Please figure out a solution and do it soon. It's been over a year since this problem was first mentioned here and you have more than enough people stating that it is an ongoing problem.

@Ria Hi! The team is thinking about this now. I'm sure you've heard this suggestion as well, but just in case - waiting to assign someone until everything else in a task is set (like dates, description, etc) can help. I completely understand that this isn't what you're looking for, but I want to mention it just in case it does help. 

In our use case, we have many templates to kick off the different type of projects. Some of these happen through request forms, and some happen through duplication of the project itself. I'm like everyone, we adjust templates often to improve our process. The notifications can get frustrating. 

I like the idea of having a separate status group for another planning level phase. Not only can templates go in there, but for tasks that aren't fully flushed out if they were in that phase, notifications would behave differently. Also, once calendar view is implemented, tasks that are less action based and merely there for information i.e an ad flight schedule, could be put into this status. You could actually have an editorial calendar at that point within Wrike. 

If just muting notifications on project templates were on option..or muting notifications on a certain folder. that could work too!

I have the exact same issues as Megan, who started this topic. If Wrike does not have this functionality, it will of no use to me, because it would create too much confusion among staff. Besides, I know I am under required capacity, so planning would help me determine how many staff I would need to hire for the pending projects. I cannot assign to staff I haven't hired yet.

Hoping that this feature will be implemented soon. I wanted to share our current workaround for this if it hasn't been shared yet.

1. We created a folder called Templates

2. We created a custom status under the deferred group called "Template" 

3. We setup the project and tasks/subtasks - then mass edit them into "Template" status 

It takes time to apply this especially when there are certain subprojects that have custom workflows but so far it is a workaround that has worked until this feature is implemented. 

I was asked recently about Wrike because someone was considering getting it to use for Project Management. I told them not to bother until this is fixed....just so you know that this IS costing you business, so it would be a good idea to get this fixed. I will continue to withhold a recommendation until it is fixed. If it isn't fixed by the time our subscription time is complete, I will be switching to a different software option.

This is a supercritical functionality and more than a year has gone since it was suggested in this post.

On a seperate post, Tim Clunen suggested a task status 'Draft, Published, Archive'. I like this but other sulution may be possible.

https://help.wrike.com/hc/pt-br/community/posts/115002299325-Feature-Request-Project-Task-Status-Settings-Drafts-Published-Archive-

As a team planner you have to be able to jugle your resources without trigerring notifications! For the moment I'm taking Elke Vosman suggestion on January 17, 2018 13:53, but a more functional solution needs to be sorted!

I suppose I'm confused on how this is even still an issue? It seems the team has been debating how to implement this feature for 6+ months and there is still no end in sight?

This is Project Management Tool #1, if you want platform buy-in the platform has to present you the information you need, when you need it, and nothing else. We are at the precipice of rolling out Wrike company wide but we are in a situation where we are nervous to do our bulk import of projects because of this issue.

As we are creating projects and bulk-importing them into Wrike we are going to generate hundreds and hundreds of worthless emails. What kind of first impression will it leave when I have to send an all-staff email saying please disregard the onslaught of Wrike emails you will receive over the next week?

As many have pointed out above this seriously jeopardizes the credibility of the platform by labeling it as a nuisance before it ever has a chance to be useful.

Is there any update on this?

@kyle just fyi... when you bulk import (ie. from an excel sheet) Wrike doesn't spam with notifications on those. It also doesn't spam when duplicating a project from a template. So I think Wrike has solved for the issue you are specifically talking about. 

When you are building out project templates Wrike still hasn't solved that part. For example, if you are building a template and not an active project and assign someone they will get a notification that you assigned them which is still annoying. 

I'm currently investigating PM solutions for my team, and this seems to be a MAJOR shortcoming in Wrike's offerings. Clearly there is a huge need for actual templates, not the "templates" their documentation tells you to create - which are essentially real projects that you can just duplicate. I was very disappointing to learn that the templates that were advertised all over the Wrike website were not templates at all. 

I can't imagine successfully utilizing a PM software that doesn't allow you to create true templates. I may move onto number 2 on my list because of this very issue...

It would help me to know that this feature is being implemented in the near future, Wrike - can you provide an update?

Hello Wrike team any updates on this issue?

We just started working with Wrike and we really miss this function too.

Planning/editing complex project templates (different workflows, dependencies aso.) is not possible without angry team members and crowded inboxes :(

Why is this taking so long? The difference between a template and a project should have been considered from day 1. "False" notifications while setting up templates has decreased buy-in during our launch. It will continue to do so until a project can be tagged as a template or a folder can be tagged as a "templates" folder, disabling notifications. Visual indication on the folder view, such as a different "clipboard" icon for project templates would be helpful to keep them separate from actual projects as well.

There has been no response from them at all; an indication that they're not working on a solution.  It's time to move on.  We have moved on.

Losing my patience with waiting for these features to be introduced.  I wish I had enough capital and programming skills to make my own system that functions the way most organizations need for managing complex projects...it's a shame because Wrike is about 90% there, but it doesn't seem that their focus is where it needs to be.  I was in a black belt only webinar, and I can't divulge many details out of respect for the agreement to be able to attend, but I feel that there is still a lack of clarity in the direction that Wrike is going.  The system is fine for the average Joe that wants to manage a simple project, but when you are two and three (and more) layers deep in subtasks and other facets of complex projects, the luster of the easy-to-navigate UI is lost.  Please, Wrike....help out those that are managing the 1,000+ line project plans!

My only solution to date has been to ensure in training the first thing I cover is the turning off almost every single notification within the system because I know that if I don't have users disable their notifications they will be annoyed with useless information from our system which is a serious harm to credible.

(Now if only we had administrative ability to modify user's notifications....)

We are moving on as well. We have let our subscription lapse and are making-do with free version while we work on a new solution. Because our systems are continually evolving, the template situation become a disruptor.
(Good point on admin control of notifications! )

In my opinion, there should be a way to accelerate this to higher decision makers inside of WRIKE - it does not appear that the product manager understands or is choosing to ignore requests that are now over 1 year old. 

Senior Management at WRIKE - is this feature being considered or not, this is very frustrating.

Any update on this? We're new to Wrike in our trial period, but may not sign on as this is already causing a headache in the first few days of use.

I was just pointed to this thread by Wrike customer support. I can't believe this is even an issue, let alone one that has been "worked on" for a year. This is causing major issues for us.

Hi Wrike Team,

Where is this feature at? i am stuggling to see an update from about March and its is Oct and still havving the same issues presented buy all other users.

Brendan, I’m not sure where the answer is, but I can tell you that I’ve started looking at Workfront. We have an on-site demo next month with some of our executive management team.

Commenting to keep visibility on this critical request

Another comment to bump this thread

Would like to add my vote for a method to create templates and layout/plan projects without notifications being sent to users or it showing up on to-dos.  If users change notification preferences they don't get what they need for active projects.  Need a simple way to suspend notifications.  Why not create a status called "Planning/Templates" and key all notifications to that status.  Just a thought.

Wrike wake up!

This feature is critical for everyone who wants to use wrike for project management!

I can't believe this thread is so long with little progress. I also used Workfront at my old company and it was so dang robust, it's been hard to get used to the limited features of Wrike. This to me also seems like a basic project management feature. 

Hi All,

I have noticed that there has not been any comment or activity from Wrike on this for almost 10 months.

How do we raise this again? It seems like such a simple feature yet they are being so resistant.

I cannot find "Wrike Blueprints for templates and planning" under the Labs hyperlink to enable this function. Am I missing something? 

I also don't see this feature under Wrike Labs and I'm our account owner. Are we missing something?

Edit - We have an enterprise account as well. While I didn't see it, one of the administrators in our account did and enabled it.

Edit 2 - Apparently, my browser had cached something for the labs page. Reloading it without the cache made the blueprints feature show up.

It does say Blueprints is for Business Accounts or higher? Perhaps that could be why you aren't seeing it? 

--We're on enterprise and this feature is exactly what we needed!! Thanks! The only thing wasn't immediately explicit, is the blueprints by default are private (makes sense), so when I converted all of the template we had to Blueprints everyone freaked out for a sec that I removed them all. Just had to re-share them, and we're good to go now!