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Is it possible to assign a task to multiple people?
Comments
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+1 vote. I agree with the other users. This is a basic function that you should include.
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+1 This would be a great feature to implement.
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+1. It astounds me that this isn't implemented yet. It's a basic feature in almost every other PM software.
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I don't understand why people say other PM software do this.
Nearly all that I know of do not.
Can anyone site ones that do?
Craig
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I've been working in Smartsheet for all of 2016. It seems to me that by allowing tasks to be assigned to a "group" - which is a functional part of Smartsheet already - this could be easily achieved.
Tasks assigned to the group would be displayed as belonging ot the group. If the taks were to be broken out to individuals later, it would be easy enough to change the assignment.
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Craig,
I know that MS Project does. I can't speak for other softwares as this is the main one I've used.
Tim
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Hello Craig,
All the big names that I know of, like MS Project, Primavera or another that I can retrace, do it. But I suggest that you look at simpler solutions like the open source ProjectLibre. You can conviniently assign multiple ressources, by %, to a task.
Maybe we are just blocking on vocabulary here, I would be OK that you can only have one person in charge of a task, But you must be able to assing more than one person to a task in order to keep track of the work load or the availabiilty of everyone. I don't want to create 3 tasks that says "Move this mountain - Employee 1", "Move this mountain - Employee 2" , "Move this mountain - Employee 3". This is only one task, accomplish by three ressources.
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Tim,
My recollection from MS Project is that it does not quite do it the way people are asking for here and other places.
Maybe I need to revisit it.
A main issue is resource loading - which groups could handle but from most user's comments is not what they want. They want (I believe) to be able to assign user A and user Q to task 47 ad-hoc, not create a special group for that instance.
Craig
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Symont,
This is the part I disagree with - moving a mountain is not a task, it is a project.
"move mountain" tells the person(s) assigned to the task very little - what is to be done, how it is to be done, what the acceptance criteria is, how they or their co-workers will know if they are on-schedule or not, etc...
I've worked with too many teams that lost sight of responsiblity for a task because it had been assigned to too many people.
If we are only concerned with team A, which includes Employee 1,2, & 3, are tasked with the moving of the mountain, then lots of project management gets tossed out the window.
I would rather break down the project into chunks small enough to be managed and monitored. I can use join([Assigned To]) or something else to see who it tasked with individual parts of the project.
Of course, each project is different and many don't require the same level of breakdown.
If the project is not broken down, how does one know if 3 people are needed or 16?
Craig
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Craig,
Good to chat again, by the way...
I didn't take the time to research what everyone is asking for here, and if you tell me my understanding of the way MS Project handles resources is incorrect, I probably won't take the time to debate. (way too busy)..
But I posted the below on 11/2/15 in reference to Robin Sherwood's question. (Now i'm not sure I even answered him fully, ) So let me answer you and maybe him again.
As a disclaimer, let me say that I think MS Project can be WAY too cumbersome at times and you can spend all your time just updating project plans. And most people create project plans for initial planning and then don't take the time to update...
And I LOVE Smartsheet!!!!!!
That being said, what a couple of senior managers here would like to see is HOW MUCH a resource is allocated. And they would like SS to allow for multiple resources to be allocated to the same task on the same row and have the % allocated for that Resouce appear in Resource Management. I would also hope that the resource could be assigned at %'s less than 100 for the same task on the same row.
This probably creates more complexity behind the scenes to program but I think SS needs to do it to be a more complete Project Mgmt tool. My guess is the debate within the company has to do with strategy vs resource needs. Do they want to be a very good tool for many things OR do they want to be exceptional at some things? It may be they decided the Proj Mgmt area is too niche and they should focus on being an all in one tool which does many great things......
https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/it-possible-assign-task-multiple-people?page=6
Robin,
In response to your question above: "Thanks for the comment, can you describe what you need? Do you need to split the responsibility of the task, (4hrs for Jane, 6hrs for Mark over 1.25days?) or do you just need multiple people to recive the notification that a task is due?"
The biggest complaint I received from users here was that they wanted to have only 1 row for a task and assign multiple resouces to that same task....and not do it by having multiple columns: Resource 1, Resource 2, etc. To keep this simple, you could assume the users are added at 100% allocation such that the task responsibility is NOT split. However, based on most peoples' experience with MS Project, I think SS will quickly be requested to add functionality to split the % or allocate hours per resource within that duration. So if Task A is 2 days(16hours) in length, then resource A would be allocated 4 hours or (25%) and Resource B woudl be allocated 12 hours or (75%). And so the multiple column process may be a way to do it if you can adjust the hours or % of a resource to the task.
thanks,
Tim
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Hello Craig,
I totally agree with you that moving a mountain was a very bad example to choose. I didn't put any thought into it.
The point remains, if naming only one person in charge of a task is the best pratice, I have to disagree for the ressources. Here is an example from real life (on ProjectLibre) where I plan the down time of an industrial boiler. Task : Inspection of steam tunnel E-02. This is a sub-sub-sub-task and it doesn't need more granularity. This is a two days job for a guy. But on a critical path perspective, it make more sence to allocate 2 men on the job. On a given project, maybe a third of the tasks involve more than one person. And our task force is multi-diciplinary. The SmartSheet Project Ressource View is of no use if I want to come up with a good and efficient planning, unless it gets very ugly with multiple repeating tasks.
In my present and my previous field of work, multi-ressources to a task was and is mandatory. I would much prefer to work with Smartsheet for several good reasons. First of all for its simplicity and great usability. But as it is, our 5 licences have only seen marginal usage... for just this one single reason
.I hope I was more clear this time.
In any case, thank you for your interest in this.
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Tim,
Good to chat again, by the way...
Nice to see your messages again too.
As a disclaimer, let me say that I think MS Project can be WAY too cumbersome at times and you can spend all your time just updating project plans. And most people create project plans for initial planning and then don't take the time to update...
I very much agree with this.
what a couple of senior managers here would like to see is (stuff about allocation)
I know. In my old life, there was a focus on "utilization" but they didn't understand what that meant - how things like training and holidays fit into that equation (or should) and drove me nuts with unrealistic utilzation goals.
My problem is that there are more exceptions than rules.
I have two week "task" that requires a junior engineer at 100% (or as nearly as he can be) and a senior engineer at 25% (or as she sees fit to ensure her junior engineer is successful*) That's two tasks, not one. Because of the structure of Smartsheet, it won't work well. Something like a second or third or Nth column to attach more names to a specific row might work, but many people seem to balk at adding columns and I do too if there is 1000 rows and 6 of them need those extra columns.
Teams won't work because task A may be 100/25 allocation and task B for the same team may be 75/50 because of experience.
In my world view, those are 4 tasks.
And here's another reason why it is 4 tasks - I may be 10 people that can do task A for the junior engineer, but only 2 that can do it for the senior one.
If someone is out unexpectedly, now I need to go update (potentially), a bunch of places to get the system to give me the right numbers.
And I'm back to spending too much time dealing with software tracking and not enough with people tracking.
Symont,
I don't think the mountain was a bad example as I would have gone there if you hadn't. Expecting users to stick to nice project tasks that fit into the requirements often doesn't work because then they come along and don't understand why their mountain task doesn't get finished on time and budget.
I understand that many jobs require multiple people - and that for experienced people telling them "go do that" is enough. Part of my experience background is in training and where I worked it was a given that it took a new engineer up to a year to be productive and independant. My engineers were months because they would learn what to do in a 4 week task that other managers & senior engineers had a single line item.
If we could add a second (or Nth) column for resources, how is that better than a second task row?
Here's some things I can think of off the top of my head:
1. Completion status has to be entered multiple times.
2. Update Requests or other task specific items has to be entered multiple times.
3. Completion % will be wrong
but what else?
(I'm not out of answers, the coffee hasn't kicked in and paid work is calling)
What I would like to see (not from this thread) is a detailed requirements and scope of work. The simple case requests I have seen break under close scrutiny. Or at least, they do in my opinion.
I am NOT opposed to having a solution for this. But a bad solution is worse than no solution.
Gotta go.
(something happened while I was typing, I hope the post makes sense)
Craig
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I am new to Smartsheets. We are "kicking the tires," so-to-speak, and the inability to assign multiple people to a single task is a drawback. Is this feature on the roadmap? If so, what is the timing?
Thanks, paul
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Yupp, one more here wanting the same feature, i.e. to be able to add multiple resources on tasks with different allocation %.
Without this, we can not leave our current excel sheets managing 60 consultants.
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Hello everyone,
Thread revival. I am a fresh user and started my trial 15 minutes ago.
Unfortunately, not being able to allocate multiple resources (at different percentages) is a complete deal-breaker for me, and I thus stop my trial here and now.
Smartsheet product people - listen to your customers.
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