Expand my Community achievements bar.

Join us LIVE in San Francisco on November 14th for Experience Makers The Skill Exchange. Don't miss out on this free learning event!

Task Number

Avatar

Level 2

4/20/18

In Workfront, do you know if there is a way to "lock down" task numbers such that Workfront does not renumber existing tasks when new tasks are inserted?

Below is an example that will show what I mean.

Let's say I have this situation...

Task number=420; Task Name=Task A

Task number=421; Task Name=Task B

Task number=422; Task Name=Task C

Later, if I insert a new task (Task D) between tasks 420 and 421, I will end up with this...


Task number=420; Task Name=Task A

Task number=421; Task Name=Task D

Task number=422; Task Name=Task B
Task number=423; Task Name=Task C

Notice tasks B and C get renumbered. ALL task numbers, higher than the inserted task get renumbered (increased by one).

I would like to be able to enter a task, have a task number assigned to that task, and for that task to permanently keep that task number. I don't need the task numbers to be in order. For the example above, I would like to end up with something like this.

Task number=420; Task Name=Task A

Task number=423; Task Name=Task D

Task number=421; Task Name=Task B
Task number=422; Task Name=Task C

If numbers were kept constant/fixed, they would serve as an easy "task reference" in other systems, documentation, and interactions. For example, I could tell Rex: "Regarding issue X, please see Workfront task 422."

2 Comments

Avatar

Level 3

4/24/18

I agree with the need. I often send reminders to team members to update their tasks and I include the ID. They have problems finding the tasks if anyone has added or deleted tasks somewhere else in the schedule.

A solution that lets me add a separate column with the unique identifier would be fine. That way the schedule could be in order, but the reference for a specific task could be found by the permanent number. For reference, MS Project has a field called Unique ID that does exactly what you are asking about.

Avatar

Level 10

7/21/18

Hi,

Just in case you didn't know, tasks do have a Reference # which is unique to them upon creation. Most of my PMs like that the Task Number adjust as they insert tasks, but I do have one brand that doesn't. So we created a Standard (w/ Ref) view for them.