List and Table Sort by WBS (work breakdown structure)

When creating a project in the table or list view, the tasks, behind the scenes, should be auto-assigned a WBS tag that preserves the order in which they are entered. Then they can sorted by WBS rather than alphabetical which seems to be the default. Project, Smartsheet, and many other tools preserve the order in which things are entered because most times there is a rhyme and a reason for the order they're entered.

For instance, I entered the following in the logical order:

Kitchen Cabinets (parent task)

Determine Finish

Order Cabinets

Schedule Installation

Installation

But when I exit and re-enter the list and/or table view, the tasks seem to be sorted alphabetically and/or I can sort them by date. I don't want to sort them by any other order than I've entered them in and I don't want to be stuck prefacing with 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. That is a mess when adding in additional tasks in between already prefaced tasks.

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Comments

Eirik Kvilstad Heskja

In table view, you can add the ID as a column in Wrike as seen in attached screenshot.

Once you enable the ID column, you can sort in ascending og descending by ID, thus sorting the table in the order the task was created.

Megan Caldwell

Thanks for the feedback, and I can see where that would work IF and ONLY IF you are not adding any extra tasks in after the original structure is setup. If I added a task right now between Schedule Installation and Installation (such as prep the space for the installation) that would take on a number out of sequence and therefore when sorted would be at the bottom.

Eirik Kvilstad Heskja

Hi,

Sorry for misunderstanding, I read "I don't want to sort them by any other order than I've entered them in", so I assumed you wanted things to be added in a specified order. If you alter the structure after, I agree that my solution is sub-optimal. I do agree that some sort of numeration scheme would be beneficial.

Megan Caldwell

Thanks for the suggestion, though! And I can use that where things are not changing after the items are entered. I hope that Wrike can listen to the customers' needs and wants. There are a lot of ideas out here that can transform their product into something everyone can use with ease.

Jim Gardner

I understand the idea of assigning the ID but our experience is even with the ID added when moving from Gantt to Table view the sort order still changes. We are new users and had we known that this flaw existed it may have been enough of an issue to re-consider simple because we have users who aren't familiar with Gantt and will be using the table views.

I've seen very little response from Wrike on this.

Phil Ferguson

I have to agree with this overall topic. Getting tasks in the correct order and keeping them there has been a real challenge. Putting in numerical prefixes is a workaround, but should not be needed. We are building timelines. Tasks in a specific date order. Alphabetical sort should be way down on the list of possible sort options.

I suggest Wrike look at the overall rules that govern sorting of tasks.

Also, once the sort is established on a particular view, it should be maintained until the user selects another sort option on that same view. I find myself click cascade sort or due date sort over and over again with every new task or section I add to my timeline.

Thanks for listening!

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hi everyone! Thank you for bumping up this thread and for your continued support for this suggestion! I can see how this feature would help your teams, and I really like the idea. It's passed to our Product team, and once I have news, I'll get back to you.

For now, it would be great if this suggestion could get more votes from the Community members - this is how our Product team assesses the popularity of requests here 👍

Joshua Lamorie

Hey wrike forum post followers, there is a bit of WBS related momentum in a different post (which you might already be following). If we can get a few more votes there, it might encourage wrike to consider some development.

/hc/en-us/community/posts/360000281465-New-feature-WBS

I assume (hope) that there will be an opportunity to help wrike product developers figure out the scope to best deliver the specific feature you are interested in.

Lucinda Gilman

I'm a new Wrike user and I bumped up against this constraint almost immediately. I think in Gantt charts but sometimes it's useful to look at table or list view, and I notice that my coworkers aren't as Gantt-friendly as I am; and then the tasks aren't listed in the same order, which is disconcerting. Simply making sort order persist between views would be a huge help. WBS capability isn't as important to me (although it would be nice).

Alanna Snedigar

Any update on WBS functionality? Looks like its been talked about in a number of different threads, as early as 2018 and I'm not seeing any recent updates.