Locking tasks to a specific user without altering project permissions

The most recent update on this topic said this fix was not currently in the roadmap (Summer '24). This is something that would be beyond helpful for my team.

We have a Work Ticket project where we track client complaints. The account manager has some subtasks to complete on each ticket, but the parent task is assigned to me. I must verify completion of every single ticket before marking the whole task complete. Problem is, many managers check off my task and I scroll through my inbox multiple times per day in order to catch these.

The solutions listed on similar threads won’t work. The ‘sticky task’ rule would bounce all completed tasks back to incomplete, but these tasks do eventually need to be marked complete. I cannot make the account managers comment only. They have subtasks they need to have access to complete. I can’t have a rule populate a follow-up task, because many managers get task-happy and complete everything that’s open, regardless of assignee.

Does anyone have a good solution for this? Or maybe a roadmap update for when this feature could be added?

It does seem to me that, in an environment where we are restricted from assigning a task to more than a single user, we should also have better control over users completing tasks not assigned to them. The current brief popup that says “you have completed a task not assigned to you” with an undo button, is not a sufficient fix for this issue with users like @Kala_M’s and many of mine, who are habitually click-happy. It would be very helpful if task completion would be locked for anyone it isn’t assigned to unless they had owner or admin privileges to the project.

Relying on other people to become more conscientious is, unfortunately, a losing game.

@Kala_M Welcome back to the forums!

You can prevent people from completing tasks not assigned to them by making them Commenters in the project. Here is an excerpt from the Task permissions article:

Being assigned a task grants you temporary “elevated” permissions while you are the assignee, even if your project-level access is restricted.

  • For Commenters: If a Commenter is assigned a task, they can complete it, change the assignee, and adjust the due date for that task.

  • For Viewers: If a Viewer is assigned a task, they can comment on and like it.

As stated, they will still be able to complete their tasks and see everything, they just are not able to complete tasks assigned to anyone else.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Ron! I did forget this in my post, but the users also change the parent task progress to ‘Done’ so I know it’s ready for review. Changing them to comment-only would require at least some tweaks in the process. Wouldn’t be the end of the world if it’s the only solution, but I was hoping I wouldn’t need to rework anything.

@Kala_M Understood about not wanting to rework the process. This could be a simple rule (possibly, depending on your workflow).

When: All subtasks are complete

Check If: Add any conditions here you may need (like being in a different status)

Do this: Change Status to Done

This will automate changing the status versus the team or you having to manually do it.

Hi @Kala_M

Honestly though, I agree with you that none of the current workarounds fully solve the core issue. A native “restrict completion to assignee/project owner” feature would make a huge difference for operational workflows like this but maybe you can try dependencies making parent task dependent on all subtask or you can try making the task as approval task because since approvals have Approve/Request changes states, users are sometimes less likely to prematurely complete them.