In some cases, especially when using project templates, certain tasks sometimes need to be considered, but not necessarily completed. However, the binary options for task status, “Complete” or “Incomplete,” do not allow adequate tracking of these tasks. This is especially troublesome when factoring in task dependencies.
For example, as a website development agency, I want our pre-launch process to include a task to check for and import any new blog posts. This task should block the launch task. However, some websites don’t feature a blog. That means our developers have to mark the task complete, even though they didn’t actually do it, so the subsequent tasks become unblocked.
The other option is to delete the task, but that leaves no record that this project consideration was in fact considered. (Also, although I haven’t checked, I suspect it would break the dependency chain for task due date recalculations.)
A status of “N/A” would function exactly like “Complete” in terms of dependencies, etc., but would provide a needed way for people to essentially say “I saw this, gave it due consideration, and found it does not apply.”
If connected to reporting features, this task status would also provide important managerial oversight on team members’ judgment calls in such cases, whereas simply deleting the tasks or marking them complete leaves no way to surface these situations.