Task Assignment
Tasks are the individual work items within a request. When a request is broken down into actionable steps, each step becomes a task assigned to a specific person. Tasks keep work organized and make it clear who is responsible for what.
What Are Tasks?
A task represents a single piece of work that needs to be done as part of a request. For example, a "New Employee Onboarding" request might generate these tasks:
- Set up email account (assigned to IT)
- Order laptop (assigned to IT)
- Prepare onboarding documents (assigned to HR)
- Schedule orientation meeting (assigned to the hiring manager)
Each task has an owner, a status, and lives in the assignee's personal inbox until completed.
Creating Tasks Within a Request
Tasks can be created in two ways:
Automatically from a Workflow
When a workflow runs, Process phases can automatically generate tasks and assign them. This is the most common way tasks are created. The workflow defines what tasks to create, who to assign them to, and in what order.
Manually by a Team Member
Anyone working on a request can add tasks manually:
- Open the request from your inbox or the request detail view.
- Go to the Tasks tab.
- Click Add Task.
- Enter a task name and description.
- Assign it to a person.
- Click Save.
Manual tasks are useful when the work required becomes clear only after reviewing the request, or when you need to add steps that were not part of the original workflow.
Assigning Tasks to Users
When creating or editing a task, you choose who is responsible for it:
- Specific person — Assign directly to a named individual. The task appears in their personal inbox.
- Team — Assign to a team inbox. Any team member can pick it up by accepting it.
- Role — Assign to anyone with a specific role. Useful when you need "any manager" or "any developer" rather than a specific person.
Reassigning Tasks
If a task needs to go to someone else, open the task and click Reassign. Choose the new assignee and add an optional note. The task moves from the current assignee's inbox to the new person's inbox, and both are notified.
Common reasons to reassign:
- The original assignee is unavailable or overloaded.
- Someone else has better expertise for this particular task.
- The task was assigned to the wrong person initially.
Task Order and Priority
Drag to Reorder
Within a request, you can reorder tasks by dragging them up or down in the task list. The order suggests the sequence in which tasks should be completed, though team members can work on them in any order unless dependencies are set.
Reordering is useful when:
- Some tasks should be done before others.
- You want to highlight which tasks are most important.
- New tasks are added and need to be placed in the right position.
Task Priority
Tasks inherit the priority of their parent request by default, but you can override the priority on individual tasks if some are more urgent than others.
Task Details
Each task includes:
- Name — A short description of what needs to be done.
- Description — Additional details, instructions, or context.
- Assignee — Who is responsible.
- Status — Current state (Open, In Progress, Completed).
- Due date — Optional deadline for completion.
- Parent request — The request this task belongs to.
Tips for Effective Task Assignment
- Be specific. "Configure VPN access for new hire" is better than "IT setup."
- One task per action. If a task has multiple unrelated steps, split it into separate tasks.
- Assign to the right level. Assign to a specific person when you know who should do it. Assign to a team when anyone on the team can handle it.
- Set due dates when there are real deadlines. Avoid setting arbitrary due dates on every task.
- Check workload. Before assigning, consider whether the person already has a full plate. The dashboard shows each person's current task count.