💬 You spoke, we built: additional improvements to dependency auto-shifting

[Vanessa_N]

Hi Community,

I’ve got amazing news to share! This update is so good it deserves more than just a comment in other threads, so here’s a dedicated post!

Previously on Asana:

A few months ago, we introduced improvements to auto-shifting behavior for dependencies. One of the key updates was that, when a project’s setting was set to “Maintain buffer,” only downstream tasks in a dependency chain would shift.

This change aligned with the expectations of many dependency power users and matched how most project management tools work.

However, we heard from many of you that this shift disrupted your workflows, especially if you relied on the previous behavior, where all tasks in a dependency chain would shift, not just downstream ones.

And now on Asana:

Thanks to your feedback, our PMs went back to the drawing board and worked quickly to balance both needs.

They’ve now added a new setting in project dependency, so you can choose your preferred behavior:

“For all dependents”: brings back the classic behavior and shifts all tasks in the chain.
“For downstream dependents only”: keeps the improved buffer-based behavior.

Bonus: this also resolves the issue with multiple dependencies on a single task!

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On a related note, we’ve also launched the AI Studio toggle switch feature that our very own JR had requested here in the Forum! Thank you so much for the shoutout on LinkedIn, @Jan-Rienk!

Your wishes weren’t just heard… they were granted. Proof that when you speak up, we act, and we build better together.

Huge high-fives to everyone who raised this, and to our Forum Leaders and Ambassadors for advocating with clarity and care.

(Honestly, I should’ve titled this post: “A tale of Community power and co-creation!” )

Please keep the ideas and feedback coming in our English Forum > Product Feedback category! We’re always listening, and they help us shape the future of Asana!

[Stephen_Li]

Amazing news! Thanks to the team for actioning on feedback so quickly.

[Esteban_Giannini]

Thank you so much for working this out quickly!

[Mfon_Bassey]

This is one of the reasons why I love Asana.The team listens, pay attention and swing into action.Thank you guys.

[Kateland_Vernon1]

I stumbled across this feature while adjusting dates earlier today and thought I was dreaming. This is so good.

[Michael_Milroy]

@Vanessa_N

Your wishes weren’t just heard… they were granted. Proof that when you speak up, we act, and we build better together.

Except when thousands have asked for over 5 years for ability to create templated status update layout within a project template. Yes, things like this are great, but we also need the ability to do more of the most simplest things that we’re still doing manually for every single project created.

Just some examples:

Templates for project status updates

We use Asana to work on projects together with customers. Meaning: guest accounts are involved in the project. After each milestone in the project we do a status update. For some status updates we almost use the same text (project kick off, postcare, closing). It should be more efficient to have the possibility to create a template for these kind of updates. Now we need to copy/past from a text file.

Formal Project Status Report

The one thing that requires my team to work outside of Asana is the lack of a formal project status report. Ideally, it would be nice to have a 1 page (2 page at most) report that shows details about the project in the header, how long the project has been open, the project manager, the tasks and the due/completed dates, and display the last progress report note at the top. As much as we want to be paperless, our customers (and our executives) still would like to see a paper report. The export f…

Project Status Update Reporting

Hello, Our team is using project’s Status Updates feature on a monthly basis to document progress on projects. We would like to “publish” these status updates to our internal customers (most of them are not Asana’s users) on a pdf format. However, when using the built-in pdf export feature, we are loosing some key information consigned in custom fields. Is there an easy way to print out the information as it appears in status updates ? Any 3rd party integration that can do that ? We tried usin…

Create "Status update" templates

I want to create a status “Status update” template for the projects I’m overseeing with my team. Is it possible to create a template that will pull in the fields I want them to fill out? Right now, the default status update has several fields (Status, Owner, Dates, Priority), Summary, and Next Steps. I’d like to be able to add additional free text fields like Barriers and default certain highlights, like completed and overdue tasks. I know I can add these items when I’m doing an actual update,…

[Rashad_Issa]

Great post @Vanessa_N

[Vanessa_N]

Hi @Michael_Milroy, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

We always encourage users to share feedback here in the Forum, and we genuinely appreciate the time and care you (and many others!) have taken to do so over the years. We know we can’t act on every request as quickly as we’d like, but customer feedback plays a central role in how we prioritize and shape Asana. You can read more about how we build our roadmap and incorporate feedback in this post from our CPO.

I don’t have a concrete update to share today regarding templates for project status updates, but I want to reassure you that we are keeping track of this request, and the feedback continues to be surfaced to the right teams. If anything changes in the future, we’ll be sure to share updates here in the Forum.

In the meantime, a quick tip: when you personalize a status update in a project, Asana will remember your most recent formatting and reuse it the next time you post. I know this isn’t quite the solution you’re looking for, but hopefully it helps reduce some of the manual work for now.

Thanks again for speaking up, and feel free to DM us or reply here if you’d like to chat more.

[John_Gillow]

I love using Asana and appreciate all the updates! I can’t wait to see what else you’ve got cooking up!