Create User Role for templates.

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Hi @Matthew_Lewis and welcome to the forum,

No, it’s not currently possible - that’s what this product feedback topic is for - to request that feature .So if you haven’t yet, be sure to scroll to the top of the page and upvote it!

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@Phil_Seeman My post was originally a new thread that got merged into this one. It’s nice to see others have requested the same feature.

From reading above, Asana seems to be missing a couple of things about this:

  1. This is ultimately still about assigning tasks to individual people, just in a more streamlined and more accurate way
  2. Being able to quickly reassign tasks based on who is filling the role for a given project is crucial in an environment where teams are large and projects may last several months. It’s quite common for people to be promoted, leave, or go on vacation during projects, and it’s vastly better to reassign their roles at the project level than to reassign all their tasks individually or in bulk. (Joe probably can’t handle all of Mike’s tasks, but he can fill Mike’s role in the ABC project, while Amy will take his role in the XYZ project, etc. And Mike will return in ten days, so he’ll be back in both projects then…)

I really hope we can see some movement on this soon. The workaround is nice, but clumsy at best (as most workarounds are.)

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We’ve been using a pretty powerful workaround for this for a couple years now that’s worked great:

  1. Create a Custom Field in your Library called “Role” that is a drop-down of roles (Project Manager, CEO, Accountant, etc)
  2. In your project or template, create dependencies for all tasks except for an initial Start or Setup task which is assigned to the project owner or other appropriate person
  3. Then, create Rules that says “If no longer blocked, and Role changed to ____, then Assign to ____” for each Role
  4. Set the Role custom field each in each task to the appropriate Role

Then, as you go through the process, when a task’s dependencies are met then it gets assigned according to its role. This not only allows you to utilize a Role but also helps to keep users’ My Tasks list trimmed down and avoid “Task Fatigue” as I call it by having it filled with a bunch of irrelevant tasks that you can’t do yet.

The caveat is that those Rules are only on the project level. If you want it centralized so those Role assignments apply to an entire Team or Organization then do this:

  1. Create a standalone project (I called ours zR, “z” so it appears last in a task’s list of projects and “R” for Roles")
  2. In that project put all of your “If not blocked, and Role=___ then Assign to___” Rules according to your company’s org chart
  3. For every task everywhere in Asana, add the zR project if you want that task to tie in to this Role assignment automation

You can add this zR project to tasks in templates, projects, even tasks just chilling on your My Tasks list in case you want it to go to someone else once it becomes unblocked.

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Absolutely brilliant idea! I will add that saved searches are a great tool if task fatigue is a concern. The team I am currently working with uses them to show tasks assigned to them that are not blocked by dependencies, since that is not a filter option for “My Tasks”

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Thanks, looking forward to have tempalates also for roles and rules.
I find very cumbersome to have rules for “template” that asks me to select people instead of roles that will be defined in the project

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I have been reading couple of similar post around the community.

In my opinion The User Role for templates and Roles for Tasks will be a great addition, as @Owen_Prunskis @Sara_Skowronski … among others suggested!

At almost every tasks intervine several people with different responsibilities as could be: Assignee (Done by), Reviewed by, Approved by, To be Informed

That will come from a Task Vs Responsibility chart that every organization has written or not,…
From those (“Reviewed by”, “Approved by”, “To be informed” are assigned to Roles, that will be defined in the project as some of you suggest.
Then those Roles are assigned to people at the main project details page.
We know in lots of projects this positions may change due to internal reorganization or employee turn over or … but someone will take the role so …

While “Done by” usually is assigned to an individual as it happen now in Asana.

Not sure If I did explain it enough…
Thanks for your time and love the App :kissing_heart: :kissing_heart:

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Hi all!

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us. I’m happy to share we’re rolling out Variable Assignees in Templates!

With Variable Assignees in templates, you’ll be able to create a project role in your template and assign tasks to a project role, giving your team guidance when they use the template.

How does it work?
To add a a project role in templates, convert a project into a template/edit an existing template and you’ll see “Project roles” in the left hand side bar to add different project roles.

When you’re ready to kick off your project, you’ll be prompted to set an assignee for each project role

When?
This feature has begun rolling out in stages!

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