Task Dependencies - the missing piece

Yeah, I set up task dependencies for the first time today and noticed that they’re pretty pointless with the current setup. They should not appear on “My tasks” until the task they depend on is completed.

I don’t think we’ll be using task dependencies as they are now, we’ll be using a manual “assign the person on the next task when you finish this task” system, as that approximates the correct behavior, though it’s a silly workaround.

3 Likes

ASANA acknowledge this isn’t finished and I’m OK about that, and would rather wait for well-designed execution of this.

The key features imo are -

  • relative dependency eg start immediately, or X days after task Y is completed
  • changing base due dates flows on to affect dependent tasks’ due dates.
  • colour coding - tasks text or highlight colour varies based on on-time or late dependencies
  • positioning and/or hack to show dependent tasks last, separately or not at all
8 Likes

Is this feature in the pipeline?

2 Likes

Love the UX and understand the “checklist” mentality, but having more manual rework because the dates no longer remain in sequence leaves a lot to be desired. At minimum, if a task is dependent upon completion, just change the start date to the dependent task’s end date and modify the successor tasks end date based on prior duration.

2 Likes

Another vote for this. Just upgraded to pro last month and am really missing the ability to automatically push dependant tasks forward once the original task is delayed

3 Likes

Another vote for this. Makes dependencies less useful, especially for members of our team who aren’t as proficient on Asana. I don’t want them to get confused by seeing a task that it isn’t time for them to complete.

6 Likes

Hi - is anyone from Asana reviewing this board? If so, can you chime in and provide some sort of update/roadmap for this feature (or which of the mentioned solutions/approaches are being developed)? Maturity of the task dependency features is very much needed and seems to have plenty of interest here from your premium customers. Would love to see some sort of update/gameplan if possible.

Thanks!

7 Likes

Chiming in again to see if anyone from Asana is looking at this. We love Asana and it’s been helpful but this would tip it over the edge into something we can use to actually automate processes and would likely win over the few people in our org who still aren’t convinced. Is this something we can expect to change in the near (or far) future?

4 Likes

Agreed that this is a major limitation to what could be an incredibly useful automation tool for our organization. Something as simple as a little “waiting” icon on the task list (without having to click into the task itself) would be immensely helpful.

Defined dependencies such as Start Start, Start Finish, Finish Finish along with the ability to add lag would be amazing. This with durations vs fixed dates and the ability to save all this into templates would be excellent. We would then have the power of MS project but in a seriously social and effective tool.

2 Likes

Ana is so right with this. We just started using Asana and this was one of the major problems we noticed. Having to change manually all subsequent task is a productivity issue, but it could also lead to major problems if you forget some…

2 Likes

Hey, Asana! Any update on OP’s question? My company recently upgraded to Premium and, quite frankly, are pretty disappointed with the functionality of this feature so far. Dependencies was a big sell for us when we were contemplating and upgrade - to help collaborators easily prioritize work that’s ready to be done than weeding through everything in their tasks.

In its current state, this is practically the same thing as getting a notification as a board collaborator when something is checked off. Please, please add this soon. Is it on any road map any time soon?

6 Likes

Hi Asana team! Is there an update as to when the dependency feature will be fixed and functional? My team upgraded to premium to get a lot of use out of this feature and it’s pretty much useless. Some of the pain points our team experienced are as follows:

  1. When first task completes the next person waiting isn’t notified.
  2. You can complete the parent task that has dependent subtasks before those subtasks are completed and without notification.
  3. When you change the date on one task, all the dates for the other dependent. tasks/subtasks doesn’t move as well.
  4. No way to report on all the dependencies you have set up at a high level.
  5. Not available in advanced search.
  6. Setting up dependencies is very cumbersome. List gets chopped off and the complete selection is not available.

Just to name a few …
Please let us know when the dependency feature will be fixed.

6 Likes

Is there a way to add “dependencies” into the export?

1 Like

I want to add my voice here - Dependencies are nice in terms of notifying “downstream” task assignees that something they’re waiting on is finished. Yet, overall, it’s not that great, as Asana should automatically (or as an option) update downstream dependent tasks when an upstream task’s date changes.

1 Like

I would love it if there was a column for the precedent task or dependent task in the CSV download. Right now my reporting is showing team members with late tasks but they are really late due to being dependent on others work and there’s no easy way to address this.

A full featured task dependancy system for projects would be really helpful.
I’m adding my vote to have, at the very least: Tasks not be able to be marked as complete until parent tasks are completed. Dependant tasks to be hidden or marked clearly as waiting on other tasks to be completed.

In addition, an ideal senario would also have Dependcies be able to be built into a template for common tasks/projects.
If Sub-tasks were as full featured as tasks with the ability to create dependencies as well that would be ideal.

I can see that it might get overly complex if you were able to drill down ‘Inception Style’ into layers of tasks within tasks, but having a bit more depth would be great.

1 Like

Does the option exist to make tasks dependent on completing all subtasks without having to manually assign dependencies? I want any task I create a subtask under to be automatically dependent on that subtask.

Please help!

1 Like

Thanks for your feedback @Spencer2! We already have a thread on this topic in the #productfeedback category, so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with the main thread to consolidate feedback :slight_smile:

Marie,

Is anyone from Asana reviewing these boards? There seems like there are quite a few “Premium” members, that are paying for promoted “features” only to find out they don’t work and with no real response from Asana.

1 Like