Parent tasks not automatically updating when two statuses equate as "New" | Community
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Holly_Benjamin
Holly_Benjamin
Level 2
April 12, 2024
Solved

Parent tasks not automatically updating when two statuses equate as "New"

  • April 12, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 800 views

Not sure if this is expected behaviour or not, but looking for suggestions - 

 

I have two task statuses that equate to "New", they are 'Not Ready' and 'New'.

 

I have set 'Not Ready' to be the default task status for new tasks on my projects, and project settings to 'Automatically update' for the parent tasks, however when I change child tasks to 'New' it doesn't automatically update the Parent task to show New. 

 

I'm assuming this is because both statuses equate to New, so the system doesn't recognise a change of status?

 

I'm using the two statuses to differentiate between tasks ready for my resourcing team to schedule, vs those that are not ready to be assigned to a specific team member yet, and can't have this action at a project level as our business can't schedule too far in advance for complex projects.

 

Does anyone have any alternative suggestions that would work? It's not a huge issue with the Parent Tasks staying as 'Not Ready', but isn't a true reflection of status, if all the tasks underneath are new and scheduled with staff. 

I can't swap the status update to be manual as I need it to calculate up "percentage complete" automatically everywhere else. 

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Best answer by KellieGardner

Sorry I misunderstood that completely. I see what you are saying now.

 

You are correct in your thinking that it's because the 2 statuses both mean New that it won't auto update. The default status is what it's going to update to. It would do the same thing if you had multiple statuses that equate to "in progress".

 

Unfortunately, I can't think of a scenario other than an automation that could help with this. You might just need to rework how the statuses are used and not apply the custom status to the parent task.

1 reply

KellieGardner
Community Advisor
KellieGardnerCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
April 12, 2024

Hi Holly -

 

The predecessor relationships will not change or update statuses on tasks. The intent of the predecessors is to create a timeline for the project and then also help determine when tasks are ready to show up on a work list (aka "can start"). 

 

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/tasks/use-task-predecessors/predecessors-overview

 

The only way to get task statuses to update based on predecessors would be through an automation (Fusion would be a good option for this).

    Holly_Benjamin
    Holly_BenjaminAuthor
    Level 2
    April 12, 2024

    Thanks for your reply - but I'm only talking about status, not predecessors, there are no predecessors in my example.

     

    The functionality works as expected if I don't have two 'New' Statuses, I've added a screenshot for visual reference to show my set up. 

     

    The order of my statuses is Not Ready (New) > New (New) > In Progress (INP), what I'm trying to determine is if once all the tasks statuses are 'New' under a parent that the parent can also take the same status. I am unable to change the parent status manually as this won't work in our process and add hours of admin effort. 

     

    As you can see in my example, 'Not ready' wouldn't be a useful status anymore as all my tasks are 'New' and ready to be worked on.

     

    When one of my child tasks move to In Progress, the parent task updates to In Progress as expected, it's just the New/Not Ready that's blocking me. 

     

    KellieGardner
    Community Advisor
    KellieGardnerCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
    Community Advisor
    April 12, 2024

    Sorry I misunderstood that completely. I see what you are saying now.

     

    You are correct in your thinking that it's because the 2 statuses both mean New that it won't auto update. The default status is what it's going to update to. It would do the same thing if you had multiple statuses that equate to "in progress".

     

    Unfortunately, I can't think of a scenario other than an automation that could help with this. You might just need to rework how the statuses are used and not apply the custom status to the parent task.

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