Approvals - Request change should keep the task incomplete

[lpb]

Welcome, @anon49335325,

Don’t forget to vote for your request!

Until/if Asana makes such a change, consider using this approach in the meantime (if you haven’t already):

A new type of task is available in Asana. Meet Approvals!

I haven’t used Approvals much yet, but… What initially occurred to me upon hearing that all approvals mark the task complete was: So then I would want the approval to be a separate task–not apply on the actual work task itself And maybe this added approval task could be 1) a subtask of the actual work task to keep them together (and facilitate multiple approvals should the need arise), or 2) a follow-up task And/Or make the actual work task dependent on the approval. Just thinking out loud, …

Larry

[Marina_Rebelo]

Tasks that requires approval when marked as ‘changes needed’ or ‘ready for rewiew’ should not be considered a ‘completed task’, since it is not!

[Danielle-GenD]

Hi @Marina_Rebelo welcome to the forum! There is much debate around this. Technically if the task is an approval task one it has been approved, changes requested or denied then the approval is considered complete.

Best practise is by adding an approval sub task to the main task itself so the approval is completed and not the task requiring approval

[Danielle-GenD]

Or alternatively you could use a single select custom field instead with the options Approved, Changes requested etc that whomever is approving changes and then adds comments to the main task

[Marina_Rebelo]

Well, this is no solution, adding a task for approval is retroactive in process organization. From what I have seen, this is an old request, almost 4 years, and still remains the same.

[Benito_Segovia]

Technically if the task is an approval task [one] it has been approved, changes requested or denied then the approval is considered complete.

So what is the official recommendation when changes are requested? Duplicate the task and pick up the conversation there?

e.g. “Task 1: Design payment form” > Marked for Approval (by designer) > Marked as “Changes Requested” with comments > task disappears from “Incomplete Lists” > Duplicate Task with updated title “Task 1 Round 2: Design payment form” > repeat.

[lpb]

A couple options are either 1) When using approval-type tasks, specify them as subtasks of the task to which they apply (see my earlier post above), or 2) don’t use approval-type tasks (see @Danielle-GenD’s post above).

Thanks,

Larry

[Riah]

seeing that this has been common topic since 2020 is honestly disappointing! we should not have to add another subtask, another custom field. too many tasks and fields is just overstimulating, messy, and hard to keep track of.

I have two different rules set up:

1. Approval status set to “Approved” – task marked as “Complete” + moved to “Complete” – Asana Bot comment " @(collaborators) Content for (posting date) has been Completed! Download the files attached."

2. Approval status set to “Changes Requested” or “Rejected” – task marked as “Incomplete” + moved to “In Progress” – Asana Bot comment " @(Assignee) Changes requested on content for (posting date). Please update with team feedback notes by (due date)."

when a task is set to “Changes Requested” BOTH rules run – even though they are specified by different approval statuses?? even if i unmark “this rule can be triggered by other rules”.

the current way of approvals is not ideal for a successful workflow. we pay for Asana for ease – to cut down on things that take up our time. I am in Los Angeles CA and my teammate is in London UK, other coworkers in the East Coast. Asana is meant to help our content feedback and work process, and it seems this is something many people have an issue with for the last four years. also it literallydoes not make sense. if you ask for something to be changed, it is not finished.

[Shayan_Moussawi]

I tried implementing Approval Tasks into our workflow - but have found them to be a useless feature.

They do not serve any purpose other than a visual indication and they come with a major caveat:

• Tasks with the stage “changes requested” or “rejected” are considered ‘complete’ hence do not appear in the assignees “My tasks” or cannot be easily filtered by in a project

We are trying to use approvals as part of a standard agile approval process, at the end of a sprint:

• Turning the Sprint tasks into an approval tasks
• marking the task as “changes needed” with Feedback in the comments if not approved

I do not see the benefit or difference, over simply using a custom field for the Review stage - as this custom field is needed anyway if we want to filter by the tasks in a project, or have them appear under “my tasks”.

Tasks which were not approved should hence, not be considered complete - as there still is an active to do.

[Shayan_Moussawi]

Additionally because not approved tasks are considered complete - dependencies will not work with them

[Jeremy_Jensen1]

yeah if changes are needed/requested the task is still in progress and not fully completed successfully.

[Kathryn_Wirtz]

It seems useless that the “Approval” feature indicators all mark the task complete - even if there are changes needed. That doesnt make sense to me. Can their be other options instead of just completing the task immediately?

[lpb]

Welcome, @Kathryn_Wirtz,

I’ve merged your post into an existing thread where you can click the title to scroll to the top and vote by clicking the purple Vote button.

There are workarounds in the thread, but briefly, a best practice is to make Approvals subtasks of the work they apply to. Consider the approval a very narrowly-scoped action; the act of designating that approval choice completes the action. I think that’s the intent of the design of the feature.

Thanks,

Larry