Overview
Task relationships allow you to specify when one task on an engagement blocks another and notify task owners when a blocking task has been completed.
How it works
Imagine you have two tasks that need to be completed in succession:
Getting updated contractor agreements from a client; and,
Creating a sample of those contractor agreements.
Set a task relationship to show that the second task is blocked by the first task. Fieldguide will send an email notification to the owner of the second task as soon as it's unblocked and ready for them to work on.
Manage task relationships
To set up a task relationship:
Click on a task and go to the new Relationships section in the task drawer. Click click +Add.
In the Add Relationship modal, select the type of relationship you’d like to create (blocking or blocked by) and select the impacted task from the dropdown menu. You can only create relationships with other tasks in the same engagement.
A relationship will display on both the blocking and the blocked task. Additionally, on task tables blocked tasks will display with a blocked icon and the number of tasks blocking it.
To edit or delete a task relationship, click the triple-dot menu next to the relationship.
Completing blocking tasks
When you complete a blocking task in Fieldguide, two things happen:
First, any formerly blocking relationships will continue to display but in the past tense, allowing you to understand both the historical relationship and the current status. Unblocked tasks will no longer display with a blocked icon – unless, of course, they are still blocked by other, unrelated tasks.
Second, any users assigned to the task that was unblocked will receive an email notification with a link to their now unblocked task.
Use task relationships in engagement templates
Task relationships can be added to tasks inside engagement templates. The steps to adding task relationships to an engagement template are the same as adding them to a regular engagement. If you add task relationships to an existing engagement template, you can push these updates to active engagements.