Often we have a task that sits in 2-3 boards. We would like to make it so after a task is moved to an “In Progress” column in one of the boards, it will automatically push the task in the other boards to “In Progress”. For now, we setup rules to update the Task Progress field to “In Progress”, so we at least have that visual reference in the other boards, but we can’t find a way to automatically move them in a column from another board.
Is there a product idea for this I can vote for? or a workaround?
Because sections are specific to projects and are not shared between projects, you can’t accomplish this directly.
So what you can do is use a custom field (you can also use a tag) to in essence link the two projects together, and then create rules in each project.
I.e. in Project A you create a rule like "If task gets moved to Section ‘In Progress’, set the value of custom field ‘Status’ to ‘In Progress’. Then in Project B, you create a rule like "If value of custom field ‘Status’ gets changed to ‘In Progress’, move the task to the ‘In Progress’ section.
Note that you have to make sure the custom field is a global one; that is, it lives in your organizational custom field library.
It sounds like you may be partway there already to this solution since you said you’re setting the Task Progress field.
Using Rules and you can also create a rule Task Moved to Section > Add to Project and choose the section. Never mind that the task is already in those projects, it will update the section.
Bare in mind you have a limit of 20 rules per project, I am not sure how many sections you want to automate.
If you want to move via custom field
Trigger - “Custom field” > Choose value (you will need to create a separate rule for each value)
Acti0n - “Add to project” > Choose section (the target project has to have sections created before hand)
If you want to move with move to section rule
Trigger - Task moved to section > Choose section value (you need to create a separate rule for each section you want to trigger this Rule)
Action - Add to project > Choose section as above
If you want to use custom fields there is another option
Create two projects
Create a custom field, add it to the library
Add the field to both projects
In both projects create relevant rules
Trigger - Change in Custom field > Choose value (again one Rule for each value in the field)
Action - Move to section > Choose section
You will need to create a Rule in each project for each combination of Custom Field Value + Section.
This is an option which allows you to have different actions based on the same trigger in the two different projects
Thanks for the reply Ivan. Yep tried all of this - and what’s being asked for above doesn’t work.
And for what it’s worth - Asana confirmed that this does not work. Their reasoning:
“*…the Action/result of one Rule can’t serve as the Trigger of another Rule – meaning that moving a multihomed Task to “Section: In Progress” in Project A will trigger that Task’s Custom Field to flip to “Field: In Progress”. However, that flip to “Field: In Progress” will not trigger that Task to move to “Section: In Progress” in Project B even though that Rule also exists in Project B, because the Field flip was the result of a Rule/automation.”
Put differently - this only works if you manually change the field (not through rules/automation). I don’t see any setup where if you move tasks through sections (columns) in Project A, the same task automatically moves through sections in Project B.
This is a strange and frustrating limitation imo - but hoping someone in the community has a verified workaround. Side note: Flowsana has confirmed they support this use case.
As others have said, this only works if you manually change the field. You can’t have a Rule trigger a second Rule. i.e. In the example given, you would need to manually set the value of custom field ‘Status’ to ‘In Progress’ in order to trigger the second part of the Rule.
Hmmm… I’m here because that didn’t seem to work for me. I guess it’s a bug.