Add a "Not Started" project status

English Forum Product Feedback
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:folded_hands: ASK
Please consider adding a Not started project status.

:information_source: CONTEXT
Right now there’s no way to explicitly mark a project as “Not Started” and users are forced to either (a) settle for the default No recent update status, or (b) choose from a list of statuses that really only apply to projects that are in progress (On track, At risk, Off track, On hold) or finished (Completed).

:white_check_mark: DESIRED OUTCOME
I’d like to be able to select a Project Status that accurately represents the current status of a large number of the projects currently on my team’s roadmap.

Their status is that they are known, approved, have a general plan, and are slated to begin at a future date, but work has not yet begun; aka they are Not started.

:broken_heart: CURRENT WORKAROUNDS & THEIR SHORTCOMINGS

  1. we could… ask users to not provide an initial status update to preserve the default No recent update status for projects that haven’t started yet, BUT…
    A -     Then we couldn’t easily distinguish between projects that haven’t started yet vs. projects that truly haven’t had a status update in so long that the status reset to No recent update (or whether the PM just hasn’t posted an initial status update yet despite the project actually being underway, which is a separate issue with having this as the default status instead of more neutral null state),
    B - If someone went against that guidance and posted an initial status update anyway, there’s no way to manually revert back to the No recent update status—you have to go something like 13 weeks without a status update before it reverts,
    C - No recent update isn’t commonly known to mean “this project has not started” and doesn’t accurately reflect the current status of the project anyway,
    D - We actually want users to post an initial status update essentially saying “hey this work is now approved and slated to begin 4 months from now, see here for what to expect” without them then having to select a status that implies work has begun.

  2. we could… ask users to refer to the “Start date” field to see whether the project has started yet, BUT…
    A -     Many people avoid filling in the Start date field as it can clutter up the “Due date” field in list view —which unexpected shows both the Due date AND Start date as a date range, despite being called “Due date”, but that’s another product feedback post—,
    B - This would require users to parse dates and determine which are in the future for every project line by line,
    C - We don’t have a great way to enforce requiring users to include a Start date for every project, and
    D - Even if they did leverage the start date, the issue of choosing which status to select remains.

  3. we could… use On hold to indicate the project is not actively being worked on, BUT…
    A - On hold means the project was already underway and is now temporarily suspended but expected to resume (project isn’t cancelled) in the future, which is not the same thing as a project that simply has not begun yet.

    • to illustrate why that is an important distinction… imagine you have a portfolio of 100 projects on a roadmap and 20 are marked as On hold. If 18 of those 20 were actually started and then paused, that paints a picture of potential issues and you’d likely want to dig in to understand why so many things are getting put on hold and investigate whether they are ready to resume. But if 18 of those 20 are in reality “Not started” and they’re not meant to have started, you only have 2 projects truly “On hold” and the health of your portfolio is quite good. Why create this ambiguity for ourselves and risk sounding alarms when none are warranted?

the same issues raised in (3) apply to using On track or any of the other statuses.

Outside of Asana, typically statuses fall into 1 of 3 categories: To Do, In Progress, & Done.
Currently in Asana the project statuses provided only address 2 of the 3.

  • In Progress: On track, At risk, Off track, & On hold
  • Done: Completed

Adding a status like Not started satisfies the need for something representing the To Do category that so many projects start their lives in. Until then, the system feels woefully incomplete.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate your consideration!

2

A post was merged into an existing topic: Adding a Goal Status of ‘Not Started’

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