Workflow Requests re Custom, Fixed / Flexible, and Auto-Assign Rules
Please see my feedback and suggestions for Workflow options and usability.
FIXED / FLEXIBLE WORKFLOWS
It would be helpful to remove (or alter) the task status checkbox when using a fixed custom workflow. Please see the following example...
In the screenshot below, the first task status is "Not Started", and the user should not be able to select "Completed" from this status.
However, in the next screenshot, the user is still able to check off the task, marking it "Completed" without going through the correct workflow. This pretty much undermines the point of having a fixed workflow.
I read the article on fixed and flexible workflows, but the above loophole is not addressed or explained: https://help.wrike.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005876769-Advanced-Custom-Workflows#create
CUSTOM WORKFLOWS
It would be great to have more flexibility in creating custom workflows with regard to default statuses and status types. For example, I have created a custom workflow for tasks serving as a resources library in our workspace, and it's frustrating to try to work around mandatory "active" and "completed" statuses - we never want these tasks to be marked as completed, so it's an unnecessary extra step to monitor and change completed statuses back to active (I'm using a fixed workflow to try to avoid this as much as possible, but it's not a perfect solution).
I'm guessing these default types are added to dummy-proof the system, but since workflows are only available to admins, this shouldn't be super necessary.
AUTO-ASSIGNING WORKFLOW STATUSES
I am working on several custom workflows that will provide better visibility into our editing and production processes and am finding it difficult to automate because of varying user roles. In many cases, it's not helpful to assign a status to one person forever, but rather to a role that is assigned depending on the project.
For example, the project manager for a content launch would be responsible for collecting a draft from the author and starting the editing process; they also have final sign-off on the draft and are responsible for posting the finished copy.
Unfortunately, this is tricky when using the custom workflow below, because there isn't one user that will always fill the project manager role. For now, I assign myself each of these statuses (see highlighted statuses) and manually reassign them to the project manager when the project is created, but this isn't feasible or scaleable long-term.
It would be amazing if there was a way to auto-assign roles in a custom workflow by mapping them from custom fields in the project view. For example, if a user was selected for the "CA Audience Exec" field below, it would automatically also assign that user to the task statuses above (that are currently my name) - the same could be done with the other roles, allowing us to choose other Designers, etc.
Another great option would be to auto-assign a status to groups. For example, we have a specific task to share a completed press release with our global PR team, and the task status would automatically notify all relevant users that the press release is available.
However, there is no option to assign our "Global Comms Team" user group, so the result is me having to add each member of that group one-by-one to the status, a total of 22 users. This is super tedious and will need to be maintained with each new hire, rather than just being updated naturally within the group.
Please feel free to contact me with questions or more resources on any of the above.
Thank you!
Carolanne
Something that has come up for our team with regards to custom workflows is that we need the ability to re-assign a task when changing statuses, along with the ability to assign someone knew to the process.
For example say Nick on my construction team is assigned the task of "prep list needed" for a project. He completes the prep list in the description of the task and then marks it as "ready to be pulled". Using the current configuration options the task then adds Joe Bailey as an assignee which lets him know to start pulling materials/tools for that particular project.
However, Nick still sees that he is assigned to this task and thinks that there is still something that he needs to do. Obviously not everyone would assume this but with the volume of work our team needs to accomplish in a given day/week it can get confusing. Particularly when a team member is out in the field and just wants to double check something on their phones or tablets and they're bogged down with tasks that they thought they were done with.
This is something that I am manually doing for each task of this type currently. It would be great if that could be automated though.
Please feel free to reach out to me with questions.
Thanks!
Danielle
@Stephanie, also looking for advice / assistance on workflows. Any updates or suggestions?
Hey Carolanne,
We could use many of these features as well. A while ago, I found another post related to one of them: User Groups. I have to imagine that when that thread happens, groups would be available in the custom status assignment as well.
We're especially interested in auto-assigning based on custom fields though I would also want to be able to fill the user custom field from a request form somehow (either directly or putting the routing feature towards a custom field instead of assignees). An alternative could be this thread which asks for a routing feature similar to what they semi-recently added to request forms: Assign on Status Change as Routing Mechanism.