Is there a way for me to add a custom field - some sort of status - to keep track of a subtask’s progress.
My workflow goes something like this -
task/subtask is assigned to me
Complete the task locally
Test locally
Push changes to testing server
Test on testing server
Assign task to QA personnel
Task is sent back to step 1 w more instructions or marked as completed
I’m looking for a way to mark subtasks as one of these or something similar. Currently we just use a header task and move the tasks from one section to another, but that gets confusing if there are other headers used to break up the organization of tasks, and its not as explicit. Along with this I have to manually create the headers indicated the status for each subtask.
I have seen a bunch of people suggesting to pretty much not use more than one layer of subtasks, which I don’t really think is a good solution to this problem, as we use hierarchy extensively to organize tasks.
Let me know if you have any ideas or if you have the same problems.
I’ve been using custom fields a lot more recently for just this sort of purpose. For example, for incoming technical requests, I use the custom fields: Incoming, In Progress, In Review, Completed. It’s simplistic, but I have rules set up for when I change the status (send messages, create approvals, record completion date, etc.). The more I use custom fields for this sort of thing, the more I see the value in them.
On the surface, I would have said yes, because I thought subtasks inherited custom fields from tasks. It turns out they do have the same custom fields, but you can set them to a different status than the task custom field’s status. I put the task field as “In Progress” and one of the subtasks as “On Hold,” and it actually triggered the rule.
That is despite the fact that there is nowhere in the rule where you can apply it to subtasks as well as tasks, nor does it say it applies to subtasks. I learned something there, so thanks for that!
Ok - I see that you can click ‘Show inherited fields’ and you can add the same custom fields to the subtasks as you can the parent tasks.
However when going one level down, to a sub-subtask, it does not look like you can do this.
Also there is no way to see these properties on subtasks without opening up the subtask to see the full details/desc. There is no top level view, kind of like when looking at the top level task list.
I wish there was. One of the conventions we’ve set for our company is no subtasks of subtasks. We only go one layer deep there. If I need to go deeper than that, what I’m working on either gets a section developed for it, or if there are enough tasks to justify it, another small project.
Been working hard on this structure and automation thing.
I’d generally recommend using a custom task type that corresponds to your seven steps/stages, and then grouping your view by that type. That would be instead of workflow subtasks. I would recommend that for a few reasons, including that it would address your complaints with implementing a typical pipeline project with sections.
Also, you can vote for the feature here:
And see the post there by @Richard_Sather in that thread that’s marked as a solution for a (complex!) workaround.
Hello Ipb - how do you do what you are describing above.
Also I’ll note that I’ve seen the discussion on the feature mentioned above and that it does not solve the problem I’m talking about here. If you need clarification on my question I can provide that.