I want to revisit this topic to really understand what is the best practice around removing projects. As @James_Shaw mentioned, many projects are created from templates (or imports) and are pre-assigned. Given such, if there is an error with how a project is created or the overall use of such is being abandoned… the expectation might often be to delete all layers associated with this project.
I want to point out that I see @Stephanie_Oberg’s point and definitely agree that freestanding tasks can and often have a lot of value thus not requiring a project relationship. That said, I think the focus here is how to properly “undue” something as a whole when no longer needed. The first step in this process as a best practice, might be exactly what @Stephanie_Oberg suggests by performing a bulk assignment.
Regarding this bulk assignment, I want to understand what happens to subtasks in this scenario. If I were to perform a bulk assignment, this would only apply to parent or level-one subtasks. Would it be better to instead perform an Advanced Search across the project which would show ALL LAYERS of tasks (meaning those subtasks that might be 5 levels deep) before attempting to bulk unassign? At this point, would it be safe to delete the Project knowing there are no assigned tasks at any level?
Historically, I was under the impression that in order to prevent any orphan subtasks, I would need to first delete all parent tasks, prior to deleting a project. I’m not confident that this practice produced the results that I would expect. Can someone confirm that this will also delete subtasks (however many levels deep) associated with this parent task regardless of whether they are assigned? If the behavior matches that of a Project deletion and the subtasks where there are assignments will be retained, perhaps this goes back to the bulk unassignment being the best first step.
Here are two scenarios that I described above. Looking to confirm this behavior and then come to terms on what the best steps are to take when someone wants to undue tasks/subtasks placed on a project:
Scenario Hierarchy
Task (unassigned)
— Subtask (unassigned)
------ Subtask of a Subtask (assigned to me)
--------- Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask (unassigned)
------------ Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask (assigned to me)
Scenario 1 - Project Deletion - Because The Task and Subtask are unassigned they will be deleted. “Subtask of a Subtask” and “Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask” will remain and be assigned to me. Will “Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask” still exist even though it is unassigned? Will the association between “Subtask of a Subtask” and “Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask of a Subtask” be broken if the task in-between is deleted?
Scenario 2 - Parent Task Deletion - When deleting a task or subtask, all layers beneath the layer being removed will be deleted REGARDLESS if they are assigned or multi-homed. Is this correct? If this is correct then perhaps the bulk unassign from the Project view (rather than performing an Advanced Search) is all that is necessary.
Sorry for the long post. Hope this makes sense. If it doesn’t please engage in the conversation. I’m very interested to understand this behavior and assume others are as well!