Task dependent on subtasks with a single click

Hi,

I’ve found a topic with an identical request which was merged with Task Dependencies - the missing piece, even though they’re not addressing the same topic. Therefore, I urge you to read my post before merging it with the aforementioned topic.

It seems like a natural feature to be able to mark a task dependent on all of its subtasks. I often use the list view when planning complex projects, and arrange them in “task trees” - just like old-school Windows folder ore registry trees. It would save a lot of time if I didn’t have to manually make every parent task dependent on its subtasks, but simply do it in one click via the more options menu.

Is this something that is planned to be implemented in the near future, and if not, would it be considered as a feature?

Thanks in advance,
Mateja

Hi @Mateja_Kovac, thanks for sharing this feedback and I can certainly understand how this could improve Asana!

While we don’t have any immediate changes for this planned in the near term, our team is always monitoring all feedback in order to improve the product.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions :wink:

1 Like

@Emily_Roman I also feel this should be standard option to enable. I have many team members that close a task without checking off the necessary subtasks which I find unnerving but could be easily rememdiated but an option to enable task dependency on internal subtask completion.

Hi @Eric_Johnson, thanks for your feedback. I see what you mean and I completely understand how this feature can help your team. In the meantime, you can manually add the subtasks to the project and then mark it as dependant of the main task.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

@Emily_Roman thanks I appreciate that information but I was already aware marking tasks as dependent on it’s subtasks was possible but I found there are three concerns with this process. 1. If you have very few subtasks this is not a big undertaking but if you have a large number of subtasks then this process of marking dependent could take a very long time and the display of what is dependent in the primary task field crowds the entire graphical display. 2. Even after setting the task dependent on the subtasks, my users were still able to mark the primary task complete without checking the subtasks. 3. Timeline view of the project does not show the dependencies of the subtasks on the primary task which would be very useful when trying to display an entire project. Unless of course I have overlooked an option to enable said display mode.

I hope that helps with trying to get this option pushed to the development team.

Thanks for the detailed explanation @Eric_Johnson! It is really important to us to understand your Asana needs and use cases like this. I’ll keep this post updated if we have any news.

Let me know if you have any questions!

The Problem

At the moment, there 2 types of dependencies: “Blocking” and “Blocked By”.
I want to argue that:

  • “Subtask” is a kind of dependency
  • “Subtask” is completely different dependency than “Blocking”

The Reasoning

  • Subtasks by definition blocks other tasks, meaning that the parent task cannot be completed until the subtask is completed
  • Subtasks has no value on their own, meaning the only way a subtask should be valuable for the project is if the parent task is complete entirely. This criteria differentiate a task blocking another task from a subtask blocking its parent task.
  • The drag-and-drop mechanics of converting a task into a subtask of another task is not so intuitive, and quite annoying frankly, since it can be done only from the List tab. Changing dependency is much easier and can be done from all tabs.

Conclusion

I hope you would agree with my suggestion. I think it would add great value to Asana’s subtasks mechanism.

1 Like

Hi @anon75734611, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback :slight_smile:

I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with a similar one to consolidate feedback, I hope you don’t mind!

If I have any updates, I’ll come back here to let you know :slight_smile:

Hey! I wanted to bring this up to see if it reaches the right people. What would the development look like to possibly add the ability to automate subtask dependencies for a parent task. The current way does take time especially if there is a larger description taking up space to have to scroll down to the subtasks and have to Right-Click > Copy task link > Paste as a dependency. And doing this for multiple subtasks (10+) takes a lot of time.
What if there was an automated way in the drop-down to have any subtasks associated with the parent task, to easily make the parent task blocked by all of the subtasks assigned?
Example attached.

You have my vote @Steven_Arnold :grin:

1 Like

All of us wish that functionality :slight_smile: I’m almost sure that Asana already works on it, because it’s one of the most annoying thing about subtasks and great system of dependencies. Fingers crossed to roll it out soon.

2 Likes

Any updates on this?

Any updates on this feature? Would love to get this implemented for everyone!