New feature request - Number of days ..."Waiting" for
Hi,
I would like to request for a new feature - "Number of days waiting for ..." information to be shown in "Waiting" section.
It will be nice and helpful, if the "Waiting" for section shows the number of days that has passed since a task status is changed to "Waiting for someone" so that it will help to decide if I should follow-up with that person or give that person a little more time to get that task completed...
What do others think? Any other suggestion in this regard to make the "waiting" feature little more productive?
Thanks,
- Senthil
2 Posted by travis on 03 Jan, 2012 11:43 PM
+1 Actually would be nice to just have a created and modified date for a task. So I know the last time I made a change to it and when it was created. Which should solve for your request, plus let you know that you created this task 2 months ago and still have not completed it. Would love to be able to sort by this as well, so I can work oldest to newest. I have an issue with buring tasks and would love to work FIFO (First In First Out), not LIFO like I tend to do, then old tasks just get more dust on them until they become fires and I have to get out the garden house and do double time.
Support Staff 3 Posted by David McLaughlin on 04 Jan, 2012 06:53 PM
There's an existing item on the suggestion list to be able to show more meta-data type information; e.g., created, modified, status change date, etc. that you were mentioning.
It's pretty much in a Someday category at this point, so it won't be very soon.
Sorry,
David
4 Posted by Mark S on 06 Jan, 2012 01:22 AM
I normally put a due date on all my "Waiting" tasks for what I feel is an acceptable amount of time to wait for someone else to perform whatever action I am waiting for them to do.
Some of my Waiting tasks are named like "Waiting for feedback from customer ABC on proposal for project XYZ" or "Waiting for Engineering to schedule training for customer XYZ" then I might have a due date for 2 days from when I sent the proposal or the training request so I can make a quick follow up email to check that they got the information and if they have any questions or need additional information.
In nearly all cases this initial follow up gets a response of a more clearly defined timescale for moving forward so I normally make an adjustment of the due date for a longer time period so I can make another follow up if I hear nothing back.
I adjust the due date of the existing task rather than marking it complete as I feel it isn't complete yet.
I haven't had the feedback I need to move things forward.
I rarely (if ever) review my Waiting list as everything in there has a due date so it pops into Focus when I need to follow up on things.
I also find that people (especially colleagues) get back to me much faster when they know that I'm going to be chasing them for progress regularly.
5 Posted by travis on 06 Jan, 2012 05:33 PM
@Mark, I agree I do the same thing with due dates. However some Waiting On's I keep extending and extending, I would like to know when I created it so that I can tell that person, look I have been waiting for 2 months!
6 Posted by Arno on 06 Jan, 2012 06:29 PM
Feature requested would be a nice one indeed for a quick overview
@Travis I add the date of the request in the notes including if it was made by phone or e-mail (most times the wf is created from a forwarded e-mail).