Question about Auto-shifting dates for dependent tasks

Tips and Tricks
#1

Thanks @AaronE

When we move the task to a later date the dependent task moves. However, when i move it to an earlier date, the dependent task doesn’t move flawlessly.

What works: My Task 1 finishes on Thursday Nov 5. Task 2 (dependent on Task 1) begins on Friday Nov 6. Now if I move the Task 1 to Next week Wednesday Nov 11, Task 2 automatically moves to Thursday Nov 12.

What doesn’t work: After above step, now if I move the Task 1 back to Nov 5, Task 2 moves to Monday Nov 9, instead of Friday Nov 6.

This looks like some kind of bug.

Increase Task Dependency Options
Give Timeline updates a try
#2

Hi @Vaibhav_Khatri, thanks for reaching out! I’ve moved your post to a separate thread so we can investigate this further.

This seems to be related to the fact the Auto-shifting dates for dependent tasks feature doesn’t currently support weekends. Just to confirm, how are you moving the tasks in Timeline view? For example, are you multi-selecting both tasks or are you moving them one by one?

2 Likes
#3

Hi @Emily_Roman, thanks for the prompt response.
I was moving just one task at a time and checking if the dependent task moves along with it. I wasn’t using it on a live project yet, I was only testing out the functionality before I can show it to my team.

#4

@Vaibhav_Khatri
Actually in Asana’s auto-shifting capability, in this scenario, Task 2 would not move at all when you move Task 1 back to Nov. 5. Asana only moves dependent tasks when you move a precedent and that move creates a date conflict (overlap) between the precedent and its dependent.

So I’m not sure why Task 2 moved to Nov. 9 (or again, moved at all). Are there other tasks in the project, or other dependencies on Task 1 or Task 2?

#5

Hi @Phil_Seeman, it seems you are right. I tried again and Task 2 did not relatively move at all.
However, in timeline, this should still be possible. The dependent task should move back to the date right after the principal task, unless the resource is already assigned another task on that date. Timeline should ideally work like a Gantt chart.

Another important feature missing is that the timeline should show sub-tasks. Sub-tasks that cannot have start date or due date, beyond the start/due-date of the parent task. This is missing too.

#6

Yeah, Asana just doesn’t work that way at present; they chose to only shift dependents when there is a date conflict.

If you want the more universal behavior, the Auto-Adjust Workflow type of my Flowsana integration will do exactly that - it shifts dependents in all cases, regardless of whether there is a conflict situation or not. (It also works in all views, not just Timeline view.)


This is a very popular request; you can add your vote for it here:

2 Likes