How to Show 2 Levels Up (and corollaries: why One Assignee Per Task? / why avoid subtasks?)
Currently, we have blueprints for a kind of project that are structured as follows:
- Project XYZ (type: Project / each project have a unique name)
- Step 1 (type: Project / the steps are sub-projects and with the same generic names across all projects of this kind)
- Task 1 (type: Task / each step of this kind of project have predefined tasks assigned to 1 person each)
- Task 2
- ...
- Step 2
- Step 3
- ... so on
My problem is, when I assign these tasks to people, they see the task in its parent project with a generic name, since it is only a step in the larger project. Even if they have permissions to see, they have to hover over the project to see its context (to see 2 levels up).
For example, if I assign Task 1 to person X, he/she sees it under Step 1. Only if she hovers over, she can see the context: "Project XYZ/Step1/Task1". She may have multiple tasks assigned from different projects all with the same name:
Step 1/Task 1
Step 1/Task 1
Step 1/Task 1
Even though these projects belong to different main/mother projects. This obviously creates the confusion, one cannot see which is which at a glance.
As a solution, I thought of changing the type of Steps from projects to tasks and assigning to people also. This way the assignee can see that she is assigned main task Step 1 and multiple subtasks all under Project XYZ. Disadvantage: some steps need to be assigned to multiple people, which I am told is against the rule of thumb advocated: "One Assignee Per Task".
Is there another solution? Any help would be much appreciated!
What is the advantage of always having one assignee per task and avoiding subtasks?
Best,
O.
Hi there! Are the assignees just looking at their inbox for assignments or is there a specific space or dashboard they are to use? Color coding projects and folders can be helpful.
One task to a person is a general rule of thumb because it ties to the Bystander Effect - put simply, if more than one person is accountable, no one is accountable. Sub tasks just have the tendency to get lost.
Color coding is a great idea. Thank you!
They use dashboards to see their tasks. Is it possible in a dashboard widget to show tasks under their respective projects, as opposed to loose items? This way at least generic named tasks belonging to the same project would be grouped together.
Hi Onur R. Yoruk, welcome to the Community 👋🏻
Jessi Beamer explained the idea behind the assignees and subtasks perfectly. Color coding is a great idea!
Alternatively, using the Table View with the "expand all" option from Expand/Collapse section might be helpful for your use case to have a holistic view and to see all tasks and subtasks under the respective projects.
To answer your question on Dashboards, currently, it's only possible to show tasks and the project/folder title as a "tag". If you have specific colors for projects/folders it could help to identify them.
Please let me know if you have any questions 🙋🏻♀️
Is there a way to use the Table View, to view all the tasks assigned to me from different projects?
If I create a Table View in my personal space, it only shows tasks from my personal space only.
I tried creating a table view in Personal > My to-do, but there is no table view option.
In essence, I want to be able to see all tasks assigned to me in one location, with tasks from the same project pooled together. It sounds very intuitive, but I cannot do this in any way, shape or form.
Create a custom report of all tasks assigned to you > Select the Spaces you want tasks to be pulled from > Remove group by Status Group and select By Project or Folder. That should get you what you are looking for!
Thank you Jessi for your help. I really appreciate that. This allows pooling by project name, but unfortunately it is not helping me. Since, sub-projects in my workflow have the same generic name, Wrike pools all tasks under one project as if they are from the same project.
I did all of what you described and looks great. Except it has the same problem described in my original post. I cannot see 2 levels up. Sub-Projects with generic names are all pooled together. I cannot see what the parent project is.
Going back to the example I gave above, if I create a table as you described, I see in my table that I have a project called Step 2 for instance, with multiple tasks with the same name:
Step 2
Task 1
Task 1
Task 1
Even though these tasks are coming from different sub-projects with the same name, they all appear under one. Where in fact I would love to have 2-level context showing me what the parent project is for these subprojects, like:
Project A
Step 1
Task 1
Project B
Step 1
Task 1
Project XYZ
Step 1
Task 1
I ended my previous post with the following:
In essence, I want to be able to see all tasks assigned to me in one location, with tasks from the same project pooled together. It sounds very intuitive, but I cannot do this in any way, shape or form.
In fact, what I should have said is:
In essence, I want to be able to see all tasks assigned to me in one location, with subprojects from the same project pooled together with their respective tasks. It sounds very intuitive, but I cannot do this in any way, shape or form.