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Note - In the following statement I am differentiating between the “Task List” and the “Tasks” contained within a “Task List”
We have many users creating “Task Lists”. What we have found is that while the “tasks” in the “task list” are assigned to people, the “Task List” itself is not and can not be assigned to anyone. This is causing the “Task List” to show up in all users “Next Actions” list. Even if they are filtering for themselves only. It can really cause a heart attack when you look at your list of “Next Actions” for the day and you see something like “Create Contract for ACME Widgets ASAP” and you have no idea who or what ACME Widgets is. Not to mention our “next action” list is getting filled with “Task Lists” that are not at all relevant to the user, clouding out the ones that really are relevant to the user.
It appears to me that the “task list” should default ownership to whoever created it, while the “tasks” in the list can be assigned to anyone. That way only I would see “task lists” I have created when viewing my “Next Actions” list.
If there is a way to do this today, please let me know. If not, a fix would be most appreciated. |
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Hi Kevin,
The solution is to not assign a milestone date to the tasklist. More info…
A tasklist with a date will appear as a special milestone on the Next Actions and Calendar pages, milestones are general indicators to help the entire team manage their individual activity around milestones do not have any “special powers” of their own.
It is more common that tasklists do not have a milestone date and as you found tasklists themselves are not assigned to any particular person—the activity is actually managed at the task level.
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Hi Kevin, i just tested it and here is what I found:
I created a task list, with 4 tasks with a Milestone:
task 1: assigned to NONE
task 2: assigned to ME
task 3: assigned to a workgroup
task 4: assigned to a colleague
When I go to next actions assigned to ME, I only see task 2 and 3, and the Task List listed in black. If you remove the milestone, the part in black Task List disappears from next actions assigned to.
Image Attachments
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Ahh I see that EngSpecOps replied while I was writing my reply and pasting my pics. Those guys are too quick! Haha!
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Thank you for the quick reply. I understand your solution and we will put it in place immediately. But, I have to reply that I see this as a workaround, not a solution to our issue.
Point 1 - A task list will often need a “milestone” (due date). The tasks inside the task list need to be finished by that date. Each task in the list may have different dates, but the group of tasks all need to be done by the milestone (due date) for the task list.
Point 2 - We will have 20+ users when we finish rolling out phase 1 of Solve360, potentially 20 more in phase 2, if we continue adding different locations and departments. These users have many different roles in our company, and different products they deal with. These users have no reason or desire to see a task list milestone on their “next actions list” that has absolutely no relevance to them at all. Or to put it slightly differently, our entire “team” does not ever work on the same task or project, and has no need (or interest) to see a task list in their next activities that is not directly related to them. If it was relevant to them, they would have been assigned a task inside of the task list.
I hope this makes sense. If not feel free to give me a call.
Thanks so much for all the help. You guys are great.
Thanks,
Kevin
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Hi Dave, same issue, I didn’t see your reply as I was replying to Solve’s response. Thanks for the reply. Please see my recent response.
Thanks,
Kevin
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Kevin - Apr 22, 2010 12:05pm Hi Dave, same issue, I didn’t see your reply as I was replying to Solve’s response. Thanks for the reply. Please see my recent response.
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi Kevin, I read your reply - thanks for the more detailed info, so if you look at the pic i posted, when I filtered MY next actions assigned to, I only see 2 of the 4 tasks: a task assigned to ME and and Task assigned to a WorkGroup that I belong to (AMECO). I don’t see the task assigned to ‘none’, nor to my colleague ‘James’.
I do see the Task List in Black, since I have ownership of 1+ task in that list.
So I think this is what you are after no?
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Not quite. In you example, give your task list a milestone date and now pick another user at your company that is not assigned a task in the list. Look at that users next actions, and you will see the Task list there. Even though it is not relevant to them.
Kevin
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Kevin - Apr 22, 2010 12:19pm Not quite. In you example, give your task list a milestone date and now pick another user at your company that is not assigned a task in the list. Look at that users next actions, and you will see the Task list there. Even though it is not relevant to them.
Kevin
OK got it. So I guess the ‘work around’ would be to just ignore the Task List that shows up, and only look at the individual Tasks for each team member? That might not be practical for you, we are a small team, not like your 20 + 20 person team.
Maybe what Solve needs to do, is to only show Task Lists where you, as the user, have a Task assigned within that Task List. But then that might open up another issue with say a manager who needs to oversee a project, but might not be assigned a task or part of the workgroup. But the pros might outweigh the cons, since that is one of the reasons to create workgroups
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Yes, ignoring items in your Next Action list that are not for you gets more difficult as the number of task lists grows. It also is frustrating if you have already filtered the list to show “your” next actions only. If I want or need to see everyone’s task lists, I can filter on “anyone” or our “workgroup”
You mention using multiple workgroups, and we have found that more than 2 - 3 workgroups is difficult to deal with. We simplified to 1 workgroup. But that is a conversation for another post…
I agree that a change by Solve will be necessary. Let’s see what Engineering SpecialOps has to say.
Thanks for the help,
Kevin
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The ability to choose who sees a milestone was added to our June 14 update http://norada.com/forums/viewthread/1262/
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Thank you for the enhancement. We just notified our users. It will make a big difference for us.
Kevin
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Engineering SpecialOps - Jun 24, 2010 12:03pm The ability to choose who sees a milestone was added to our June 14 update http://norada.com/forums/viewthread/1262/
Another simple, yet highly effective feature. Well done
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