About task managers, assignees, and lead assignees

There are three job types in Tasks: managers, assignees, and lead assignees. Managers, assignees, and lead assignees have different abilities and responsibilities for each task type.

Jobs are given on a task type basis, so you could be a manager for General tasks, an assignee for Authoring tasks, and a lead assignee for a Review task.

This article explains the functions and interactions of managers, assignees, and lead assignees, including details on how to use roles and permissions to assign these jobs to users.

In this article

About managers

Managers create, edit, and finalise tasks. Managers decide which assignees work on a task, who the lead assignees are, and can monitor the progress of tasks.

For more information on how managers work in Tasks, see Working as a task manager.

About assignees

Assignees complete work within tasks. Assignees are given tasks by managers. These tasks appear on the Tasks screen.

For more information on how assignees work in Tasks, see Working as a task assignee.

About lead assignees

In Authoring and Review tasks, one or more assignees must be chosen to lead the team.

Any assignee can be made a lead assignee for a given task. Lead assignees are elected by managers on a task-by-task basis.

Lead assignees’ abilities depend on the type of task they are working on.

Task type Lead assignee abilities
Authoring (Edit Existing Items)
  • Lead assignees can view all assignees’ created items and make changes or leave comments before submission.
Authoring (Create New Items)
  • Lead assignees can view all assignees’ created items and make changes or leave comments before submission.
  • Lead assignees can create items on assignees’ behalf.
Shared Review
  • Lead assignees can edit items.
  • Lead assignees can see all assignees’ votes.
  • Lead assignees can tally item votes and review comments to make a final decision on each item.
  • Lead assignees can change the item’s workflow status and leave a comment that will be visible in Item Authoring.
Individual Review
  • Lead assignees can edit items.
  • Lead assignees can see all assignees’ edited versions of the original item.
  • Lead assignees can compare assignees’ edited versions and the original item in a side-by-side view.
  • Lead assignees can copy changes from assignees’ edited versions to the original item.
Item Analysis Review
  • Lead assignees can see all assignees’ comments on the items.
  • Lead assignees can vote on items to be accepted, changed or deleted.
Standard Setting
  • Lead assignees can view every item in the task, ignoring any task navigation settings.
  • Lead assignees can download a summary of assignees’ ratings.
  • Lead assignees cannot rate items.

For more information on how lead assignees work in Tasks, see Working as a lead assignee.

Setting up permissions for managers and assignees

IMPORTANT: You must have the Site Settings permission to create roles and the Manage Users (Edit) permission to give roles to users.

To make a user a manager or an assignee, you must give them a role that contains the relevant permissions.

By default, the only Tasks role is Task Administrator. This gives users all Tasks-related permissions, making them both a manager and an assignee for all task types. Users with both manager and assignee permissions can create and edit tasks as a manager and work in tasks as an assignee.

To specify a user as either a manager or an assignee, you must create a custom role from the permissions below. For more information on creating custom roles, see Creating a role.

Permission Description
General Manager Allows the user to create and edit General tasks.
Review Manager Gives the user the Create Review Tasks and Export Items permissions.
Create Review Tasks Allows the user to create and edit Review tasks.
Export Items (Review Tasks) Allows the user to export a Review task as a Word document.
Authoring Manager Allows the user to create and edit Authoring tasks.
Standard Setting Manager

Gives the user the Create Standard Setting Tasks and Export Items permissions.

Create Standard Setting Tasks Allows the user to create and edit Standard Setting  tasks.
Export Items (Standard Setting Tasks) Allows the user to export a Standard Setting task as a Word document.
Comment Manager Allows users to add private comments to items and delete existing private and public comments.
General Assignee Allows the user to be assigned to General tasks.
Review Assignee Allows the user to be assigned to Review tasks.
Authoring Assignee Allows the user to be assigned to Authoring tasks.
Standard Setting Assignee Allows the user to be assigned to Standard Setting tasks.

Further reading

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