One of the things I’m struggling with is the fact that task dependencies aren’t modelled fully.
So, we build out a project, assign tasks, dependencies and due dates. The whole thing at day 1 appears to model the project beautifully. But then. Some tasks start to slip. Suddenly everyone has tasks in their My Tasks list are supposedly due today but in reality can’t be started until those slipped tasks are completed.
The challenge is then …
Do we really have to re-assign Due dates to every single task which has yet to be done! And repeat this every time a task slips its due date?
How do my team quickly determine from their ‘My Tasks’ whether those tasks are genuinely due today or whether that due date is no longer valid. Do they really have to open each task to work it out?
Reassigning Due Dates with multi-selection may speed things up a bit, but yes, it’s a manual process still.
An alternative, in case it may help: Some teams don’t use Due Dates (I try not to unless I have to) and instead sort tasks in a Project in the order to be done, and assignees just pick off their work in order from the top.
In addition, if you’re managing a project, you can view each person’s My Tasks list (seeing only the tasks there to which you have access) and even reorder them there.
I see where you’re coming from. I started out avoiding due dates but then found it was a pain trying to work out what I (and everyone else) was supposed to be doing ‘today’. So went back to using Due Dates.
If Task dependencies, start, and due dates and adjusting as needed are key to your project success, I would suggest the project manager regularly update the Asana Project timeline and ping Task assignees as needed.
Yes, Asana Task dependency needs improvement, but at least in Asana timeline you can easily visualize and update it.
For a more automated approach to having dependent tasks update automatically without your having to manually move them, you might want to check out this solution I’ve developed, now in beta: