Force/require the use of a Task template

It would be really useful, in quite a few of our projects, to have the ability to “force” or require the use of a specific Task template. For example, in a Bug Reports project, forcing a template that has preconfigured formatting in the Description and an assignment to our IT lead:

image
(disallow Blank task , only allow New Bug Report )

3 Likes

Hi @Casey_Dwyer :wave:

I agree that this would be a nice feature to have now that we can create task templates! One work-around that I can think of is using Forms instead of Task Templates. To do this you would create a Form in Asana that includes all of the required information for a Bug Report and then sharing the Form link with your users. You can also create a task in the Bug Tracking Project that contains the link to the form as well.

After creating the form you need to add everyone who submits a new bug report to the project and setting their permissions to “Can Comment”. This will not allow anyone except the IT lead to create a new bug report task but it will allow them to view the project and fill out the form. At that point if someone has a bug report, they can fill out the form and then it creates a new task in the project with all of the inputs from the form. Hopefully this helps you work around your issue until it’s integrated into Asana! For more information on creating and using Forms you can check this guide

https://asana.com/guide/help/premium/forms

and for more information on project permissions you can use this Guide

https://asana.com/guide/help/projects/people

Just let me know if you have any questions about my explanation or if anything is unclear.

Cheers!
Matt

4 Likes

Ahh, thanks Matt! I actually thought you had to be on Biz/Enterprise plans to get forms, but it looks like those are included on Premium. :+1: Will give it a go!

1 Like

Oh I know where I got that. The “Default assignee” option is Business-only, and would really like all entries to be assigned to myself.

1 Like

I think the form is a great idea. Thanks for sharing!

Since the time this has been posted, has an official implementation inside of Asana using forced task templates been created?

Not that I’m aware of; still waiting for that to be implemented.

1 Like

Until/if Asana provides something like, here’s my comprehensive answer to what you can do in Asana now:

Hope that helps,

Larry

1 Like

Thanks for sharing, I’m checking it out rn!

1 Like

Good morning, is there a way to add dependencies via automation using a form as input? Currently, I only see that functionality via a template? If only via a template, can I use a form to input data and then set automation to apply to the data added to the list? Thanks

@Brock_Taylor,

I believe it’s currently not possible to do either of those things, unfortunately.

Basically, the form creates a task, and the task template creates a task, and you have to case-by-case decide whether/how to use both and merge.

I do run into this limitation as well, and all I can come up with is do use the task “Merge” command manually (you can add a comment with @mention or subtask assignment to flag someone to do this), or instruct to perhaps use the template if that has the bulk of the info and just make the form task a subtask of the template-generated task.

Perhaps Asana will add dependencies to automation one day.

Hope that helps,

Larry

Thank you for your thoughts. Just amazing the laundry list of things on these forums that are yrs old and unfixed by Asana that don’t seem likely they’re asking for the whole world :confused: I know I’m preaching to the choir though…

Yup, just jumping as a new user in 2024 and im amazed how many standard features asana is behind on. If youre listening asana this is still much needed and while your at it would also be good if we could add forms as a tab!

2 Likes