Adding time length to tasks (for Timeline)

Hello
We’ve joined the premium version so our team could work in Timeline.
I can’t seem to create time lengths and dependencies in it… Which are two of the main purposes of Gantt charts…
How do I: (a) set a time length to a task so Timeline could use it? (b) set dependencies between tasks, so I could have a good overview of the project ongoing?

Thank you

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Have a look at Timeline View in Asana | Product Help Center • Asana Product Guide
I think start date, end date… is what you are looking for.

I think you should create a custom field if you want to record Task Hours for each task.

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Thank you, but that is not the challenge.
The idea is to link between time length and the chart - showing the process, and how delay in one task, affects its successors.

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@Eli1 it sounds like Asana’s Dependencies feature and Timeline are exactly what you’re looking for. When you mark a task as dependent on another, the two tasks will be connected in Timeline view. The connecting line will be red if there is a conflict in the dependency.

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The Dependencies works fine, but how about being able to assign the number of work hours or days to a task for the Gantt Chart.

Creating a custom field could work for knowing how long something will take, but that would not affect Timeline, which is the main goal.

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I need this feature too. Custom field won’t sync with timeline length, you have to sync manually, this is very annoying.

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^^^^ Yes, as a project manager, I need to be able to type in only a few things to automatically build a project timeline: Task Name, duration, dependency.

This would allow one to auto-build a schedule with the start date of the task being the end date of the ‘dependent on’ task and the end date being calculated automatically using the duration of the task.

The idea being, if the end date of a predecessor moves, the start date of the dependent task automatically moves based on the new end date of the predecessor. also, the end date of the dependent task automatically gets updated (calculated: end date = start date + duration).

Otherwise, when a predecessor task moves out, each person responsible for ‘dependent on’ tasks must move their start dates manually…

This is a reallllly big deal for those of us who are used to using MS Project and is a key reason I still don’t use Asana for my project management unless forced to do so… Please confirm if my understanding is right - that there is no ability to auto schedule based on predecessor end date and duration.

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You perfectly described why the timeline feature is not yet fully tempting for project management professionals.
I’ll add also another important aspect : the ressources levelling. The ability to add a team members to tasks taking into consideration the effort estimated, but also the availability of the person.

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Well said, @Jeremy_Manning. It does seem like Asana has some long-term plans related to this but I wouldn’t expect changes anytime soon.

Todd Cavanaugh
Training & Consulting for Asana

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Please set up a duration feature, Asana! This is KEY in being project timelines with a Gantt chart.

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  • 1 This is an important feature for project management.
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This. I upgraded to Premium for custom fields and the Timeline feature, but without being able to manage resource allocation and task duration, this feature is pretty… but not at all useful for project management.

Maybe for high-level project schedules, but not complex projects.

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I fully agree. I’ve just moved to a new company that’s using Asana to aggregate projects however I’m surprised that there’s no logic to the project templates in regard to setting task durations. There’s no scale to using templates that have tasks within that don’t auto adjust to the project’s due date. I came from a company using workfront and this feature was 100% the reason we chose workfront over other tools like Asana. Now I’m stuck in Asana’s world until this feature is added. Please implement this feature soon.

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I too will not be able to use this software without “Duration” being integrated with a task.

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FYI I’ve built a solution integrated completely within Asana which provides exactly this functionality. Now in beta, and you’re invited to help test it! Please see this thread for more info:

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Yes absolutely agree. Would be amazing to see this feature.

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I integrate Asana with my Google Calendar. It is great to see some specific project tasks appear there (for example, I track my English classes). What I need is to be able to set the time to each task/subtask, to make it appear in my calendar not just as an entry, but as a time-specific entry.

Would greatly appreciate such an upgrade.

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There seems to be some confusion here between start and end dates and automation, which I call waterfalling.

Asana’s timeline works with start and end dates. Dependencies will add pretty arrows to let you know that one task relies on completion of another. But what it will not do is move a dependent task to start AFTER the end date of the task upon which it depends.

This gets especially confusing when you start changing start/end dates for critical tasks that have dependents which might now have start dates BEFORE the critical task upon which those other tasks depend.

That’s where waterfalling comes in. Apps that can auto-waterfall have code sets that recognize the parent task and move dependent tasks to start AFTER the parent task is completed.

There is good and bad to this. For one, it assumes that dependent tasks can’t start until parent tasks are done. That is not always the case.

I would image the folks at asana had those conversations and kept the dependency independent of start and end dates, which, in my opinion, allows more flexibility. It takes more movement of tasks, but this is not hard work to do.

Apps like liquidplanner allow flowing waterfall automation, but they are extremely complicated to use and have wayyy too many settings to get right on each task. In my opinion, you start suffering from settings burn out on tasks and lose focus.

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I basically create my Gantt Charts in Smartsheets and then “redo” them in Asana using the appropriate dates.
But that means that when there is a delay, I can’t just slide the date and have dependents move also. I have to work my way through the whole thing again

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