Change Project Status for Phased Projects

I'm looking for an automated way to change the overall project status based on the status of the subtasks.

I have a 4-phase project, organized into folders (Phase 1, Phase 2, etc.).

When all the tasks in Phase 1 are completed, I'd like the project's status to change to phase 2.

I'm trying to use the Direct subitems statuses change, but there aren't any filters where if a specific subitem is completed to change status. The 2 options for the trigger are all subitems or any subitems.

Here's the blueprint:

Any thoughts?

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Comments

Eric Fiero

I'm trying to think this through. I haven't tested this but one idea I have is:

Create a new Workflow with Completed Statuses that include "Phase 1 Complete", "Phase 2 Complete", etc.

Change your Folders to Projects for each Phase
Create a custom item type for the parent projects (Let's call it Parent)
Create an automation that applies only to Parent

Trigger: Direct Subitem statuses change to Apply to Any Subitem
Trigger When Status -->Project Workflow Phase 1 Complete
Change Item Status to Phase 2

The stinky thing is you would need a specific automation for each Phase change but you if it saves time or makes things easier it might be worth it to try.

Mike Fank

@Eric Fiero - thanks. I'm working on this now. I have a separate item types for the parent project and each phase. Where I'm stuck, I can trigger an automation when "any direct subitem's status changes", and then if the status is phase 1 move to phase 2. However, the users could easily mix this up, as someone could close the phases out of order, or close the same phase multiple times, which would all trigger the automation.

What I really want is a:

When any direct subitem's status changes
If the subitem's name is Phase 1 (or phase 2, or phase 3) - or if the subitem's type is phase 1 (or phase 2...)
then change the parent status to Phase 2.

However, I cannot get the trigger to look at any property of the subitem.

I tried working with custom fields, but there's no link between child and parent custom fields either.

Kelsey Rudolph

My mind is along the same lines as Eric, except instead of custom item types, I use custom fields. All phases would be converted to projects, then I'd have a custom field called "phase" with the different phases numbered out (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3). Then I would populate the custom field to reflect each phase project.

From there I would have:
1. When any direct subitem changes to: completed
2. And if: The phase custom field is Phase 1
3. Then do this: Change item status to Phase 2

Then repeat for all phases.

Mike Fank

Thanks @Kelsey Rudolph

It's really close, but it'll still end up in the wrong phase too often. Let me add more details:

Here's a typical full project (this picture was before I changed the Phases to subprojects). At the top there could be 2-7 intro tasks that need to be verified before the project can continue.

The trigger "Any subitem" will trigger when each of these tasks is marked complete. These intro tasks are added individually based on responses in the request form. I've got an automation to close each of the Phases when their subtasks are closed. I can't figure out a way to look at which sub-item closed, to know if the top-level project should move to the next phase.

Right now - it's manual to trigger this to move from Phase 1 to 2 and so on. I'd like to automate it, but the automation can't add more work to the project.