See dependent tasks

We can mark a task as dependent on a “preceding” task. That’s good, and the “preceding” tasks are listed in the dependent task’s view.

But is there a way to see the reverse, i.e. for a “preceding” task to find the list of dependent ones?

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@Kjell_Rilbe Good question - we haven’t been able to figure this out either. Would be great also if you could have a “diagram” of the tasks in order.

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These tasks are noted among the “stories” as “thin gray line with blue dependent task title” amongst task comments.

@Myroslav_Opyr is correct that when a task is marked as a dependent it shows up in the conversation and in Advanced Search more you can look for “blocking” tasks. As simple fix would be to allow the story comment to have a drop down bar just like other comments to pin to the top. Then you could see all tasks dependent on the current task which of course you can use Advanced Search to look for “Blocking” tasks.

Frankly speaking, “pinning” the story manually is not the thing I’d like to do since besides marking some task as being dependent upon the task would additionally require user to switch to “parent” task, locate the relevant story and pin it. That will often be omitted by users.

I’d suggest adding a section below the task tags that would appear as soon as there are dependencies, with text similar to

Dependent: 2 tasks, the earliest is due Tomorrow.

The wording and colors should be in sync with the rest of Asana UI. There is similar section is in Asana App for subtasks in one of the task screens.

Clicking this text would expand the section in the detailed list of tasks with assignees and due dates (possibly sorted by due date and creation date if none). The list should be clickable, and probably not editable.

If there is single task dependednt, it can be displayed in that section without summarizing:

Dependent: {title} from {assignee} due {due-date}

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@Matt_Bramlage Is Dependent Task a field in the current API.

@Myroslav_Opyr do you think a first step would be to have Precedent Task or Blocking Task as used in the advanced search show the same amount of detail as the dependent task does and in the same location, with an extra feature of listing the due date that would refresh just like the Assignee currently refreshes on the Blocked Task. Dependent Task & Precedent Task Not sure I am fond of Blocked, Blocking and Not Blocked as descriptions in Advanced Search but it does allow the search. May "Precedent of Task Name with Assignee and Due Date of task dependent on it… Even this would be a significant improvement on viability

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Not sure I understood every detail of that, but it did sound like an improvenet at least.

What I would like, is for a preceding task to show a list of dependent tasks below the list of task that it’s dependent on. This would form a logical “flow”: first a list of tasks that need to completed before this one, then a list of tasks that cannot be completed until this one is completed.

The info that’s presented in either list is of less importance than actually having the list, but I guess due dates would be useful for the list of dependent tasks, in addition to the info that’s show in the present “dependent on” list.

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Yes, agree with this all seems like an obvious need. Surprise that about 2 yrs later Asana doesn’t include this visiblity, very hard to know if a task precedes another - how would you even know to look in the comments, where it isn’t very easy to pick up that amongst all the other activity.

Does anybody know if this is planned? Really bummed to see this not implemented…

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Has there been an improvement on this recently?

Looks like the discussion has moved to More robust dependency control