Predefine projectroles in project, before creating template

Hi Asana team,

We would like to request a feature related to project roles and templates, based on how we work with very large, complex projects in Asana.

Our setup

  • We work with very large Asana projects.

  • These projects use dynamic project roles (assignees are resolved via project roles instead of fixed users).

  • All projects are created from a project template.

  • This template is updated once per quarter.

How we currently manage template updates

Because our projects are very large, updating the template directly is not practical. Instead, we follow this process:

  1. We maintain and update a regular project

  2. Once per quarter, we convert that project into a template

  3. This way, we can:

    • Work safely without disturbing users

    • Apply all changes at a fixed moment

    • Avoid modifying a live template while it is being used

This approach works well — except for one major limitation.

The problem

When converting a project into a template:

  • The relationship between tasks and project roles is not preserved in a scalable way

  • As a result, we have to manually reassign project roles on every task

  • For large projects, this is extremely time‑consuming and error‑prone

In short:

We lose the implicit “this task belongs to this role” information when turning a project into a template.

Feature request

We would like to be able to define, at project level, which project role a task belongs to, in a way that:

  • Is clearly stored on the task

  • Survives:

    • Project → template conversion

    • Template → project creation

  • Does not require reconfiguring assignees manually per task afterward

Conceptually, something like:

  • A dedicated field or property such as “Task role”

  • Or a persistent mapping between tasks and project roles when converting to a template

Why this matters

For teams working with:

  • Large projects

  • Role‑based assignment

  • Controlled, periodic template updates

this would:

  • Significantly reduce maintenance effort

  • Prevent configuration errors

  • Make templates more reliable and scalable

Summary

We deliberately use a project‑first → template‑later approach because:

  • Our projects are too large to manage template changes directly

  • We want to apply changes in a controlled, non‑disruptive way

Being able to preserve task–project role relationships during this process would be a major improvement.

Thanks for considering this request — happy to provide examples or clarify our use case further.

Best regards,
Arjen