Project & Task design - Best Practices

[Henry_Holt1]

With most processes, there are a few steps:

Process

1. Trigger
2. Gather Inputs
3. Process that information
4. Create Output
5. Review Output
6. Deliver Output to client

When creating a task, you can have a subtask that represents each of the steps. Is that how most people are designing their tasks?

Then after we have delivered the proposal to the client, we have more steps.

Quoted
7. Follow up with client (do they have any questions about our proposal?)

Process 2
If they show interest, we’ll collect additional information and complete an even more detailed proposal. So now we have subtasks 8-14 (which is essentially a repeat of steps 1-6).

Upon delivery of the more detailed proposal, we then move to subtasks 15 & 16.

Quoted 2
15. Follow Up
16. If they accept or reject proposal, make notes and complete task.

I have 4 sections in this project. (1) Process and (2) Quoted (3) Process 2 (4) Quoted 2. Upon completing each set of steps, I move the task in between these sections.

Acceptance ratio is around (1/20 or 5%). So it make sense that each of these are tasks, not projects.

Some of the questions I have regarding my process are as follows:

• First, is this how most people are designing their tasks and projects? Inputs, process, output, etc? And then if there is a multi-tiered proposal, they have 16 subtasks for every single client proposal? And then move through sections? The reason I ask, is because I haven’t seen any Use Cases / Asana Videos showing something like this. There probably is, and I just haven’t seen it. Please let me know if there is.

• We use task templates, that pre-assign the tasks and add due dates (this really speeds things up). However, because there are multiple handoffs during this process and I am assigned to tasks at the beginning and end of this process, I have 2-3 subtasks assigned to me, which clutters up MyTasks, for a single proposal. Is that what everyone else experiences?

• I don’t assign the second tier proposal tasks in the task template, as many times we don’t get to this step. So then I have to go into the task and assign the tasks and due dates. I don’t believe I can automate this (as much as I would like to) because you can’t create a rule that assigns the next subtasks after another one is completed. Is that right? Is there a better design method here?

• There are quite a few steps in this process, and each step has pretty detailed instructions for completing the step. Are people putting their SOP’s into the asana task, or linking outside? Any thoughts on best practices here? I like having subtasks as steps, because then it ensures each step is getting completed by the assignee. But with so many subtasks, it starts to take a while to load the task.

Any help is much appreciated. Apologies in the advance the long-winded post.

[Stephen_Li]

In our org, we have a similar funnel-like process and use a single project with stage/status sections to manage from top to bottom of the funnel. I think having each task represent a client/proposal with subtasks representing packets of work associated with that proposal makes sense. There’s some relevant information in this Asana Academy course that covers ongoing process projects.

To accomplish your second question, what we do is use rules to create subtasks tasks at different stages of the project (instead of creating all subtasks at once). If you have access to the custom rule builder (think you have to be on a paid plan, not sure which level), you could try something like this. You can dynamically set the due dates based on the date you move the task to that section, which would probably help (but not totally solve your third question).

For your last question, we use the task description (on the task and subtasks) to provide instructions for use.

Hope this helps, and curious if others have input/suggestions!

[Henry_Holt1]

Super helpful. I am going to explore creating rules that create subtasks. Seems like the “best” best practice for my application. Thank you!