Grief... nested tasks won't appear if parent isn't due
Nested tasks with due dates that pre-empt their parent's due date, won't appear. For example,
Blue Parent Task (Due in 3 days)
... Red Sub Task (Due tomorrow)
... ... Red Sub Sub Task (due yesterday)
... Green Sub Task (Due 2 days ago)
In the above example, no matter what viewing method you use (dashboards, project view, my work) you cannot guarantee that you will see your sub tasks with due dates, if the parent isn't due yet.
We all use Wrike differently. Why I may want to have a parent task that doesn't have a due date until next week, while the children are due in the days before, is my business and may be entirely legitimate. To that end, if you want me to use this application in place of others, why are you dictating how the dates are presented? Allow us to determine that.
I should, if I want, be able to see all tasks (regardless of how deep) appear as due items. For those folks who don't want it to function that way, they can disable it.
I can't tell you how frustrating this is. I cannot rely on this as my go to 'work schedule' every day anymore as I can't rely on the information it's giving me.
For those who will ask, I use parent tasks instead of parent folders because you cannot search folders, but can search tasks. It's simply the way we work, it works for us, period.
So... is this something we should expect to see any time in the near future?
Yes. Had exact same problem. Why would any 'time management' or 'productivity enhancing' tool like this make it so easy to completely miss your (sub)task deadlines?
Doesn't make sense.
Hey Anastasia,
Thanks for the response. I think your answer aptly describes the frustrations we're having actually. The fact that we would have to set parents and sub tasks to have different statuses, or use other workaround methods, in order to reliably see them as due tasks, speak to the problem and the shortcomings.
The entire essence of this tool for those of us who use it as a daily work reminder, is that I can quickly create a task with anything, anywhere, under any parent, set a due date, and reliably leave it knowing it will appear when it's due. If I also have to consider the status I'm giving it, along with other things, to ensure I satisfy your filtering requirements, then the tool becomes unreliable and I have to manually do passes through all of my projects.
So in short, while there may be some small workarounds, I don't feel they work reliably and I don't feel they solve the problem. We really need an 'on/off' switch for showing due dates, or some more control for these items to realiably show up.
Thanks!
Hi Joey, jumping in for Anastasia here. I understand, and thanks for providing that additional information.
I know you said subtasks work best for your team (which is great!) and you should definitely keep using them if they're the best option. I just want to offer one last approach just in case it helps you or someone else reading this thread.
Making tasks instead of subtasks and using naming conventions is a potential option for some teams. The tasks wouldn't be linked together directly (like tasks and subtasks) but you could start all related tasks with the same prefix so that it's easier to see which tasks go together. For example, tasks about a particular area would start with the prefix "Post-November Release". Additional information can then be added after the prefix:
Again, I completely understand wanting to stick with subtasks and that this is a workaround not the solution you're looking for.
On a final note: you mentioned searching for Folders/Projects. While the task search (located at the top of the Workspace) is much more heavy-duty, there is a Folder/Project search field in the left-hand Navigation panel. You can search for Folders/Projects by title to find the one you're looking for.
Thanks Stephanie.
I looked at the folder search on the left and that does work for folders, you're right. It still doesn't give me a unified searching mechanism which covers everything though, so again it's a workaround.
I appreciate all of the suggestions. They are all truly good suggestions. I think you guys agree they are workarounds though so we'll leave it there. I'm really looking forward to getting some great features added here so I don't need to go back to using JIRA or something heavy.
Thanks guys,
No problem! Let us know about any other questions or product requests that come up.
I second the frustration, I'm a new wrike user and I'm disappointing that subtasks arent more visible in dashboards etc. Like Joey, I also work with a lot of subtasks with dates that are due earlier than the parent task. I think this is pretty common for project management. I am crossing my fingers that this is high up on the development list.
Hi Stefan, thank you for commenting here, it's great to hear your feedback about this. I understand that this thread has quite a few workaround suggestions, but one which I think could be particularly helpful for your use case is creating separate Custom Widgets for different date criteria. For example, if you have separate widgets for "Today" and "Next Week", a subtask due today will show up separately from a parent task which is due at a later time. Please let me know if you have any questions on setting this up, I'll be happy to help!
Not to add fuel to the fire, but rather than dealing with workarounds, can we get a simple answer as to whether or not there is an item in the development queue to look at a toggle for showing subtasks independent of their parent tasks in dashboards that DON'T use the date-based workaround as described?
As a for instance, my primary personal dashboard is built around the Eisenhower Matrix model, which relies on a metatag for the pane separation. When I look at it, I see the due date for the parent task, but none of the child tasks until expanded, and many of them can/will have a due date that's earlier than the parent, by definition.
Thanks.
Hi Alan, thanks for commenting here and sorry for the delay in getting back to you (we wanted to get you a straight answer). I understand how this would be important for the use case you described, and because of the comments here, I went ahead and spoke with a Product Manger and brought up this issue. The functionality isn't on our current roadmap, but we've at least made sure that our PMs know about this request and why it's important to teams. Again, I just want to thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns, as well as voting for requests, this does help us start conversations with our Product Team and begin discussing things internally.
I find myself having to constantly update the due date of my parent tasks to match the earliest due date of my subtasks. It's a frustrating workaround. If my tasks are as follows ...
> Item (Oct 17)
>> Draft item (Oct 1)
>> Redraft item with stakeholder edits (Oct 12)
> Host Event (Nov 12)
>> Secure Event Space (Oct 1)
... I should (at least have the option to) see these show up on my dashboard on Oct 1. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that subtasks are collapsed into parents in the dashboard. I would, however, like to have the parent task listed in line with the earliest subtask. Otherwise, I have to continually change the date of the parent task to keep it on (what I consider to be) the correct date, which makes it disapear from the timeline when I'm trying to view my big picture. Or I find myself having to constantly swap back and forth between my Dashboards and the My Work tab, which would be not-as-horrible if it weren't for the frustration of not being able to interact with tasks in My Work the same way as every other list (why no right-click options in My Work?).
TAKEAWAY: Please allow an option to default to displaying parent tasks based on the earliest subtask. I'm honestly surprised this isn't the standard default.
Paul Fox We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. - Vonnegut
Could someone @Wrike give an update on this topic, It still is a big frustration!
@wrike team. any updates on this request? It is still something I am struggling with ever since starting to use wrike.
Agreed here. We need an option to configure whether or not to hide subtasks in list views and dashboards.
Scott Henderson Arizona Community Foundation azfoundation.org
@Scott Hey, thanks for bumping this thread!
@Everyone, there's no update currently, the suggestion is not on the roadmap at the moment. Please +1 Joey's request if you haven't already. Once it reaches 60 votes, we'll add a Product Feedback status here.
Thank you!
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover