Hi, In my team we are using Asana all the time to organize our work and to share ideas. A very common use case in our team is to reference a task in other tasks, to provide context and valuable background information. I would love to see a feature that makes it easy to view in which tasks a task is referenced. If “task A” is referenced in other tasks, “task A” should contain a list of tasks where “task A” is referenced. Very similar to how projects where the task exist in are listed. The list could look something like this if “task A” was referenced in “task B” and “task C”. “This task is referenced in” Task B (clickable link) Task C (clickable link) Preferably this list should be at the top of “task A”, maybe just below the description or close to the list of projects the tasks exist in. It’s possible to think of this back referencing functionality as a “soft task dependency”. It’s not a sub task, it’s not dependent on, but is still somehow related.

Good idea, maybe a collapsed section with the incoming links!

Any comments from the Asana team? For us this feature would be a killer, and make it so much easier to find related tasks, and to understand the context of tasks.

In addition to the use case explained in the OP, a referencing list should also auto-populate whenever anybody references other tasks in the description and in comments. So in my opinion the close to the task “header”, around the location where projects are listed, there should be two new lists items Tasks referencing this task Tasks referenced by this this task.

A mock-up of what this could look like [asana_ref]

Hi, Follow-up tasks are one of the key features that brought me to Asana. You guys have solved the request below: [image] Feature request: adding link to new "Follow up" task on task that originated it Product Feedback Sometimes it’s important to follow the breadcrumbs of what lead to what. I have to manually add the @link to a newly created “follow-up” task in a comment within the task I just completed that requires follow up. This could/should be easily automated. By adding a link to the newly created follow-up task. However, there is still no reference back in the originating task. So the “loop of traceability” is not closed. This could be solved by simply adding an automation to write into the task comments or description that information, much like what you guys already have when the follow-up gets info about the originating task. Or, this could be solved by a global implementation of Reciprocal references to @mentions across Asana, which I mentioned here: https://forum.asana.com/t/reciprocal-mention-of-mentions-in-tasks-comments/77965/4 To give you an example of how that could work, just look at the excellent way the software on which the Asana Forum has included both those posts here in this thread, complete with ability to unfurl or collapse to see more content! Thanks guys!

Thank you for sharing this great feedback with us @OT160! There is an existing thread regarding this topic so if you don’t mind I’m merging your post with it to consolidate feedback. Please don’t forget to upvote it! :slight_smile: Have a great day!

Hey @Pal_Kristensen, I am relatively new into the forum, and just posted the request myself which you can see above, and it was merged here, and thankfully at that! Your mock up is just what I’d like to see in Asana, talk about a differentiator! I have been in and out of Asana and on a trial for one of the many times the last few months, and not convinced to come over yet, but this feature would seal the deal for me. Have you seen RoamResearch.com? This is a new tool picking up a lot of hype as a notes taking Notion alternative, and it’s entirely predicated on exactly this concept. With Roam, you can create an “item” anytime in a block of text, and once you do that, it automatically picks up the reference to where it was mentioned. Super powerful, and Roam’s huge following is a testament to how much value this feature can bring. It would really be a lifesaver for me as my team does a lot of cross-functional stuff. My main interest in Asana is the ability to have tasks in multiple projects - already a huge help to organization. But this feature is lacking, and really like a “missing link” for me to really feel that Asana has the complete package. Thanks again for posting this, fingers crossed it will move into production!

@Natalia, thank you, this was just the place for the request and I’ve added a vote and a comment as you can see! @Pal_Kristensen has a great illustration on how this could look. I would be ever grateful if you could give me us here any insight whatsoever as to whether this is a feature at all in your guys’ wheelhouse. It would be a huge game-changer for me. Would simply like to know if it’s something you guys would even consider, how technically challenging do you see it, do you think it adds value to Asana, anything at all just to have an idea of where your thoughts are on this! Thank you again!

Hey, and sorry to write yet again, but I can’t see how to edit posts in here…anyway, the software the forum is using, Discourse, does a great job itself. Check out how they do this: [image] Great example of how Asana could implement!

Hey guys, Sorry if this is already out there but I couldn’t find the equivalent request after searching a bit. I have just come over to Asana after about a 2 year research stretch moving my Start-up to a more comprehensive solution after we were only using Jira for our developers - we are in web publishing. I have really been impressed with the @mention feature for elements in Asana other than users. Really nice is the ability to not just mention tasks, but Projects, even teams. However, I feel like the feature is missing it’s “other half” until there is an accompanying feature where you’d see the mention in the entity that is the “destination,” ie the mentioned entity. So for example, I mention a project in a task. Perhaps in the “About” area, which has some free screen “real estate” still in the current UI, there could be a widget for “mentions” and you could see all the mentions that have been recorded around Asana? There are a ton of good uses of this. For example, you could in this scenario have a meeting in a task, and every time you mention an ongoing Project, or a Task, that would get picked up in the destination. So when you review the Project, a team can see when it was discussed, and easily click back to the task and see decisions made, etc. Thanks guys and really hoping that you will move this to development!

Back referencing/linking when a task is referenced in other tasks

Asana Community Product Ideas Features Launched

Pal_Kristensen 17 January 2020 09:12 5

A mock-up of what this could look like

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Back referencing/linking when a task is referenced in other tasks

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