[Status: Backburner ⌛️]Adding Dependencies to tasks with no Date field
I don't know how much of a common need this is for other people but I feel the ability to add dependency to a task without specifying a certain date would be nice. Some of my company's projects happen quite fast and sometimes it is hard to give firm dates on when certain tasks should be done. However it would be nice to still be able to set dependencies on tasks to indicate to my Project Management Team that one task should come before another. In other words, I need to indicate that a Project Manager can't complete a certain task without the completion of the other, without auto generating completion dates for those tasks.
Of course you can give temporary dates for each task when making dependencies but those date are most likely incorrect and indicate that we have a bunch of incomplete tasks when in all actuality that task might not even be started yet. When scanning over statistics for all projects this could be a little misleading.
If this is completely outside the scope of the product I completely understand. It was just a thought. Thanks!
I totally agree!
It would be very useful to have task dependency without the certain dates. Especially for the templates we create. It is a very necessary and needed feature.
Thanks for sharing this idea - looks like other users are asking for this too, and I'm going to go ahead and link them there right now. :)
I would like the ability to use task/sub task dependencies without making adding a date a requirement, in order to use this feature. I would use dependencies on 90% of my tasks but adding dates seems like it should not affect the dependency? Dependencies are manually connecting tasks, when one task is complete it notifies the following task's user, many tasks can be completed in 1 day, where as some tasks take longer. Having to assign dates to all becomes a problem so I just choose not to use this feature until its adjusted.
Amanda Jones Great Lakes MP, Corp
Glad I am not the only one who thought about this! :)
We found dependencies to be really useful and efficient for our development team to have a task template made with a work flow of sub tasks that are dependencies. Once initial coding is done and marked as completed, the lead developer gets notified that their portion of the task is ready (uploading the code to Dev), then when that's completed, our testers are notified that its been uploaded and they can begin testing.. Currently we are sticking to it even with dates "auto filled" in however it is incredibly annoying seeing overdue tasks in the analytics and reports meanwhile, they're not overdue at all as well as seeing tasks that are due that day, even though they are not. I can keep adjusting the dates, but there are hundreds of tasks and that wastes an absurd amount of my time even trying to do so.
It would be incredibly convenient to either not have dates be mandatory, or if they must be mandatory, create a way for when a custom workflow is created, we can have teams assigned to a specific status so when an item gets moved from development to testing, the assignee to the task gets automatically updated and notified. (develoment works with an Agile flow and a custom Kanban Dashboard) We have outsourced developers completing tasks who have collaborator accounts and are unable to re-assign tasks. Only change the status. As of right now, the easiest way for the next person to be notified is with dependencies.
Thanks!
@Stephen, that's great news! I will test it out and give feedback. If all goes well, the team will be really excited for this feature. Thanks!!
We need a proper template feature in Wrike. We need the ability to completely map out complex projects with all dependencies on the GANTT chart view without having to worry about assigning task owners until the project plan is fully formed. In the project planning phase, exact dates are not relevant - only task durations are relevant so we should also not have to worry about assigning specific dates to tasks while still in the planning phase.
@Stephen, The implementation of assigned statuses has been REALLY helpful and a great addition thus far. It has greatly improved communication among our team. Thank you!
That's great to hear Maria! Thanks for getting back to me!
If you're willing to share your approach, we'd love to hear a little bit more about how you're using auto-assign based on Status. Please feel free to post about it in the Best Practices section 🙂
Yes, I also would love the exact ability that Abid described.
I am just starting to implement this tool at my company and as such have to map out complex projects with all dependencies just like @Abid Khwaja. I would love to be able to do that but not be required to have all the dates set. Usually I go through this process to setup my projects/task lists: write out all the tasks I can think of, organize them, set the dependencies, then task duration and finally start or end date. It would be amazing if I could do the first 4 then set the start date and have it populate out based on the task duration.
@Natalie welcome to Wrike! Just in case you haven't seen it yet, when you do duplicate a Project/folder you'll be able to automatically reschedule tasks within the Folder. I know it's not exactly what you're looking here, just wanted to mention it.
@Stephanie Westbrook Another vote here for the ability to set task dependencies without also having to set a date. This has come up for us with building out templates and project plans. Our projects both small and large go across multiple teams with complex scheduling and resource management. This feature is essential for the PMs to lay out the initial project plan when we don't have dates but we are outlining and reporting on all the required work. Looking forward to updates on this feature. Thanks!
Just finished 8 month follow up meeting on the use of Wrike. A frequent comment is that Wrike is a great project management tool, but not a great brainstorming tool for planning the project. I agree the ability to assign dependencies without dates on a template would be a great feature.
For our team this feature is primarily needed when we are building our project templates. Many of the dependent tasks need to be completed within a period of time, however, the task that they are dependent on will not know their task duration or due date until the project goes live (and sometimes not even then).
Are there any good workarounds for this right now?
+40 votes for the current group it is impacting.
I completely agree with this thread. It makes no sense to have to assign dates to create dependencies. This means if a project really has no due dates (or not yet) I have to create fake dates to use the dependencies function and then my real deadlines are mixed in with my fake deadlines and are harder to spot, or I end up wasting time shuffling my fake deadlines around. We should be able to create projects with dependencies (based on task one, task two etc.) without having to assign a date or duration and then (if necessary) assign dates and durations at a later stage.
This was first requested almost a year ago. Not having this feature is incredibly frustrating. As others pointed out, when planning work, dates are often the last part added in (first the tasks, then the dependencies, relationships, etc, THEN the dates). Another project management software I shall not name allows you to designate more nuanced relationships between tasks:
My team is considering purchasing this software, but I am also seeking an option for creating dependencies without dates (1 week out, 5 weeks out) for templates. If this is coming soon, please let us know!
Thanks!
If you're going to force dates for dependent tasks (i.e. restricting a feature by a very specific use case), you should probably force dates for all tasks. Otherwise, why not just remove dates as a requirement? There are plenty of situations where dates don't make sense to apply when we're simply looking to define a relationship. Having them forced upon us clutters everybody's calendars, dashboards, and gantt charts.
Trello has had a nice implementation this for over a year.
Hey Wrike Team - can we get an update on whether or not this is on your roadmap as a feature? It's absolutely critical for my team since we have frequently recurring projects that follow a single template. Others within our org have been piloting Smart Sheets, and we'll likely be forced to migrate over if Wrike isn't prioritizing this feature.
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
I would love this for the project template I am creating!
If anyone is interested in resolving "Adding Dependencies to tasks with no Date field" this issue as part of the new Lead and Lag time implementation, please comment on my post in Lead and Lag times:
https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000170609/comments/360003837513
AGREEE PLEASE ADD
Since this issue is particularly tied to templates, this would be a great feature to add to the new Blueprints. The whole idea behind a Blueprint is to set up timelines, workflows, dependencies, etc., but WITHOUT actual dates.
Please add. It will simplify daily work 😃
Open point since 2 years !!!
Hi everyone, thank you for your continued support here! The status is still "Backburner", I'll keep bringing this up with the Product team for updates. Please, rest assured that your voices are heard, and thanks again for commenting here.
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
Thanks for the update, Lisa. This would definitely be helpful, especially when setting up templates or workflows. This would definitely help reduce project set-up time for my team.
Yes I was counting on using dependencies with no dates and have been disappointed to find that I can't do it. I link related features of my website with dependencies, and there is no date associated with that. But I see now that if I delete the dates, the dependencies just go away. Very disappointing!
One way you guys could solve this would be to implement linked tasks, talked about here: https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115003384329-Feature-Request-Automatically-add-task-references-to-comment-stream-of-referenced-tasks
Thanks guys and hoping for some improvement here!