[Automation] Prevent Parent Task from changing status until a trigger happens

Hi.

I have a Parent Task that requires to be in a certain status until all sub-tasks have been completed. For example:

Parent Task is in the "Working" status. All sub-tasks are also in the "Working" Status.

An employee changes the Parent task to "Completed" by mistake.

An automation trigger evaluates if all sub-tasks have also been "Completed". If not, prevent the parent task from having it's status changed to "Completed".

I was told by support that this isn't a functionality but I believe it would be a great asset for the system. Additionaly, does anyone one know work arounds that can be used today?

Thank you!

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Comments

Juan Muttoni

Hi @Rodrigo Caetano, thank you for sharing your case with us! As you correctly pointed out, this option is currently not available, however, you could create an automation rule to @mention the assignees, followers or specific users when they set the status of the task to completed. This way, you can trigger an automatic comment stating 'Please, check that all subtasks are completed!' or similar.

Also, when you complete a task without updating the status of its subtasks, the system will automatically ask you if you'd like to mark them all as completed:

Lastly, I'll move your post to the Product Feedback section so other users will easily find it and upvote it.

If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you!

Rodrigo Caetano

Hi @[Deleted User],

Thank you for your reply and for providing a possible work around.

This would work well if the team followed the process and instructions given by our company. But not everyone does.

Moreover, we are always prone to human error when several people are making changes to the system, specially when we have "Collaborators" also accessing the system.

I hope that the request to implement the feature to prevent parent tasks from changing status gets enough upvotes. It would be a great recourse for us system administrators.

Thank you!

Michael Kelley

Hey Juan - we could use some enhancements to the AE on this one. The "When status changes to" trigger needs an associated If Condition added to search "If any subtask is Active". At that point we could then notify @assignees of the parent task of the issue. Otherwise, as is, the Automation Engine rule would be @mentioning people every time a parent is closed. Users would not be too pleased with all the additional messages in the inboxes. 😀

Juan Muttoni

Hi @Rodrigo Caetano, thank you for your reply and for the additional details, I understand why this improvement would be important for your and your team. I've passed your feedback on to our Product Development Team. We will keep you informed in case there are any changes 👍

Hello @Michael Kelley, thank you for your comment, I completely understand your point. More updates are to be announced related to Automation rules, I'll be glad to share them with you once they're launched 🙂

Raimund Dienst

Full support for this improvement from my side. For me being an Admin I do not even see the notification when closing a task with open sub tasks. I don't know if this changes for a regular user.

Rohan V

Hi @Raimund Dienst, thank you for supporting this feedback. Your comment has been forwarded to the Product Team.

As a workaround, you can create an automation rule to notify users when they attempt to close a parent task with open subtasks. This can be done by setting up a rule that triggers an automatic comment or notification to remind users to check the status of all subtasks before closing the parent task. This way, even if the system doesn't automatically notify you, the automation rule will ensure that a reminder is sent out.

Alternatively, you can set up automation to mark all sub-items as "completed" once the parent task is finished.

I hope this helps with your use case. Please let us know if you have any further questions. Thanks!