How can I Prevent Group Members from editing Start / Due Dates on Tickets

Question

Background: I own and operate a Home Renovation Company

I have automation in place to set the START DATE of a Card to NOW as prompted when my Custom Label of "In Progress" is triggered by the Member.  Upon completion of the task, my team is instructed to Label the Card from "In Progress" to "Done (Pending Approval)" which has a subsequent automation in place to set the DUE DATE of the card to this current time.

Use Case:
Card is "Paint 8ft by 10ft Bedroom" 
Member 1 sets to "In Progress" at 8:00am and "Done (Pending Approval)" at 12:00pm.
Member 2 paints an identical bedroom with "In Progress" at 8:00am and "Done (Pending Approval)" at 2:30pm.

The Data I'm attempting to collect with this Workflow is the total time my team is working on their task list, and, with the help of a Virtual Assistant, using this workflow as a means to measure efficiency and to ensure productivity.

Without me having to be physically present on the Job Site, I can safely conclude that Member 1 is a more efficient painter than Member 2 and use this knowledge make future decisions.

The initial problem that I foresee is that, currently, all of the Members can currently set their own Start and Due Dates on the Cards.  Once it becomes known that these dates / times are performance metrics, it would become very difficult to prevent Members from adjusting their own times.

Genti Tola_xy79ji · Answer

Hello there!

Card Time In List for Trello can be used to track times spent on each list, measuring even previous times it has been on the same list.

It also supports measuring cumulative duration spent on certain lists.

It measures all these automatically, and the durations cannot be changed by the users.

Cheers!

Cody · Answer

Hi Mike! I'm afraid we don't have a built-in way to restrict the editing of Start and Due dates, but I can understand how it would be useful in your situation.

There may be some decent Power-Ups that offer time tracking that is a bit more set in stone: https://trello.com/power-ups/search?q=time%20tracking

Alternatively, perhaps a time-in-list Power-Up could serve the same goal. You could have lists named To Do, In Progress, and Done, then review the data behind the time-in-list Power-Up to see how long each task sat in each list without moving: https://trello.com/power-ups/search?q=time%20in%20list

I'm not certain whether individuals can update the values for those types of Power-Ups but I think that's where I'd look next if it were me!