Create User Role for templates.

Agreed! This would be a massive time saver. We are running interior design flows and onboarding new employees, so having roles that we could plug in right when the new project starts would save our project coordinator 10x the time.

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I think it would be really awesome if you were able to have pre-determined project roles as a part of a template. Today, you are only about to assign a role once a user is added as a project-member. I think it would be powerful to know what roles need to be mapped.

Here is a screenshot demonstrating this:

Further suggestions:

  1. When creating a project from a template, assigning who will fill what role and adding any necessary additional roles would be great
  2. Be able to set permissions for users in a project based on the role assigned.

Hey @LEGGO,

Same as this one?

Or this one?

https://forum.asana.com/t/assign-tasks-to-roles-for-templates-that-can-be-assigned-to-a-person-after/113690

@Forum-team we may need some consolidation here?

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Thanks @Phil_Seeman. I didnā€™t do much digging to see whether this feedback was already provided or not.

The first link you provided pre-dates the introduction of Project Roles and Overview and seems to suggest how the role of TASKS can route assignments to users. Something I am interested in as well, but isnā€™t quite the same as what I am suggesting. I am thinking just for reference sake - knowing who is serving what role in a project from the Overview. That said, it could serve as the ā€œrouting tableā€ if Asana was to allow you to assign tasks in a template to a role instead of a person.

The same goes for the 2nd link.

I think my feedback is maybe the first step to enabling what these other two posts are suggesting. Do you agree?

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Well thanks, @LEGGO, now you made me go back and actually read the other 2 threads. :rofl:

I do indeed! Your post adds the new dimension of project roles to the equation, so itā€™s definitely an addition to the idea and not repetitive of the others.

I think project roles could be part of the solution to being able to have roles as assignees in a template, and/or for permissions.

At the same time, I also think about the overall role(s) that one can define for a user in the user profile:

image

If a user is always going to have the same role in all templates, then instead of having to set that role in every one of their projects on the Overview, it might be nice to also have the option to define the role globally in the profile - yes?

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@Phil_Seeman I do like that idea and thought the same. It works probably 80% of the time for us but not always. We have many people that play different roles on different types of projects. Also, depending on the project it may call for a uncommon role to be filled.

Additionally, there would have to be some layer of smarts to know which person is filling that role assuming many could. For instance, is this project a part of a particular region or market that suggests one user over another.

Being able to establish roles at the project level would be nice. I wouldnā€™t be opposed to when adding roles you could select from a list of unique ones in a org. This selection then offering a list of individuals defined as that role. All of this with the ability to create a new role or assign someone to a role that doesnā€™t otherwise match it heir profile.

I think being able to first define roles to be filled in a project template is a great start. So much more that could be built off that possibility.

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@Forum-team what are your thoughts on all the above? Templates 2.0? :crossed_fingers: :wink: :palms_up_together:

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Oh man, I just realized that with Project Roles you could do some really powerful things with Rules. For instance, when certain triggers are met specific individuals could be assigned or set as collaborators based on rule assignments. You wouldnā€™t have to define the individual but rather rely on the role mapping to route to them. :thinking:

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I added my vote to this one. I think @LEGGO you are on to something here. Hope this could be considered in the future.

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Thanks for providing this feedback @LEGGO and for adding some additional context @Phil_Seeman and @Paul_Grobler! Roles being included templates would be :100:

Weā€™ll pass this onto our Product team and hopefully it is something we can see brought to life in the future! Iā€™ll keep you all posted :slight_smile:

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@LEGGO just to be clear, I didnā€™t mean to suggest to use the profile role in lieu of project roles. My point is it would be cool to be able to use them both. Perhaps profile roles would be the ā€œbaseā€ but could be overridden by a project-specific role.

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When creating a project template, it would be great to create ā€œTemplate Assigneesā€ so you can add many tasks automatically to that specific person. For example, I could add a ā€œPMā€ as the assignee of many tasks, and get asked who is the PM of that project when using that Template for a new project. This would automatically add a lot of tasks to that person.

This could also be connected with project members and roles :slight_smile:

This is a great idea, @Nicolas_Martinez! We are working on some improvements for Project Templates and Iā€™ll let the team know about your suggestion. Iā€™ll keep you posted if this is something we implement in the future :slight_smile:

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Hi @Nicolas_Martinez , I have the same problem but I currently solve it by having a custom field on my project templates called ā€œProject Roleā€. Once the project is created, simply filter on the custom field and assign away!!

Cheers Stephen :grinning:

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I definitely could use this feature. Itā€™s silly for a template board to be able to set project roles to specific members but not to also be able to set the template board tasks to assign to that specific role.

Essentially, when you are creating a template board. You should be able to set key project roles without having a specific person assigned to it. And then when creating tasks in the template board you should be able to assign that task to a specific project board role.

So when I create a new board from my template, I can then just add members and set their roles. Once I set their role on the overview tab, then it would automatically go through and assign all the appropriate tasks to them.

This is a cool workaround. Not ideal but better than the alternative of going task by task to assign it.

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+1 for this idea - I came here to post a similar idea (but worse) that this would absolutely solve. (And in a much better way than my crappy idea. :stuck_out_tongue: )

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Wow, great idea!

Sorry for the late reply, but thank you for sharing your solution!

Is there any way to define ā€œrolesā€ for a project template, then assign tasks within the template to that role rather than to a specific person? Then, when a new project is created from that template, you could put in the people who will be filling each role, and the tasks would be assigned to them.

For instance, on the project for ā€œACME Enterprises Marketing Campaign,ā€ we might assign Robert to be the Account Manager, Amy to be the Creative Designer, and Jolene to be the SEO Consultant. But the ā€œXYZ Company Marketing Campaignā€ project might have completely different people in those roles. (And if Jolene quits or gets an extended illness, etc., maybe her role in the project is reassigned to David, who would automatically get the relevant tasks at that point. And so forth.)

This seems like it ought to be possible, but Iā€™m not seeing how to do it (or anything similar).

Any ideas?