Asana governance: naming conventions & custom field taxonomy

Governance is about clarity and consistency. Use a simple naming scheme and a shared custom-field taxonomy so your dashboards, automations, and audits work across teams without manual cleanup. Download the taxonomy CSV and naming guide to adopt in under an hour.

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Custom Field Taxonomy (CSV): Download
Naming Conventions Guide (DOCX): Download

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1) Naming conventions (make things findable)

Project pattern:

[Dept] - [Workflow] - [YYQ#] - [Descriptor optional]

Examples:

OPS - Client Onboarding - 25Q3
IT - Change Requests - 25Q3 - Network
MKT - Campaign - 25Q4 - Q4 Product Launch

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Portfolio pattern:

[Area] Portfolio - [YY]

Operations Portfolio - 25
Strategy Portfolio - 25

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Team names:

[Dept] Team (Ops Team, Finance Team, IT Team)

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Tasks & sections:

Start tasks with a verb (“Create onboarding runbook”).
Sections express stages or categories (Intake, Plan, Execute, Review, Close).

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Keep names short, searchable, and quarter-coded (YYQ#) for time-bounded work.

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2) The custom-field taxonomy that makes reporting work

Adopt a common set of fields across projects. That’s how portfolio dashboards, rules, and audits stay consistent.

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Field	Type	Required?	Options (examples)	Why it matters
Status	Single select	Yes	Not Started; In Progress; Blocked; In Review; Done	Universal status for charts & SLA checks
Priority	Single select	Yes	P1; P2; P3; P4	Drives due-date math & escalations
SLA (days)	Number	No	e.g., 3	Due = Today + SLA via rule
Department	Single select	Yes	Ops; Sales; Marketing; Finance; IT; HR	Portfolio filters & rollups
Stage	Single select	Yes	Intake; Triage; Plan; Execute; Review; Close	Cycle time by stage & WIP limits
Risk	Single select	No	Low; Medium; High	Triggers approvals & visibility
Owner	User	Yes	—	Single assignee for accountability
Approver	User	Conditional	Legal; Finance; CAB	Timestamped approvals for gated steps
Customer Tier	Single select	No	A; B; C	Reporting & routing for services work
Billable	Boolean	No	Yes/No	Hours/effort reporting for agencies/BPO
Data Sensitivity	Single select	No	Restricted; Internal; Public	Privacy handling & project access
Environment	Single select	No	Prod; UAT; Dev	IT change & incident reporting

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Download the complete taxonomy with defaults and notes:
CSV: ISSI_Asana_Governance_Taxonomy.csv

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3) Status, priority, and SLA rules that stick

Standard status: Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, In Review, Done
Priority defaults: P1 (Urgent), P2, P3(Default), P4
SLA offsets: P1 = +1 day, P2 = +3 days, P3 = +5 days, P4 = +10 days

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Automation examples:‍

- When Priority = P1 then Due date= Today + 1 and notify Team Lead.

- When moved to In Review, create Approval assigned to Approver with Due = +2 days.

- If Overdue AND Priority in {P1,P2}, comment @Owner and set Due = Today + 1.

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4) How to roll out governance in 2 weeks

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Week 1

Agree the project naming pattern and field list above.
Create org-approved templates for your 2–3 core workflows.
Enable form mapping so incoming requests populate your fields.

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Week 2

Turn on the SLA/priority rules and approval gates.
Build a portfolio dashboard using Status, Priority, Stage, Department.
Run a 30-minute manager training; publish the naming & fields guide.

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Governance guardrails

● Lock template edits to template owners.

● Quarterly field review to remove duplicates.

● Private-by-default for sensitive projects; restrict guest invites.

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5) Downloads

● Custom Field Taxonomy (CSV): ISSI_Asana_Governance_Taxonomy.csv

● Naming Conventions Guide (DOCX): ISSI_Asana_Naming_Conventions_Guide.docx

FAQs

Why standardize names at all?

So people can find things fast and dashboards roll up correctly. Names encode department, purpose, and time window.

Which fields are mandatory across all projects?

Status, Priority, Department, Stage, and a single Owner. Add Approver where you have gated steps.

How do we stop duplicate fields from popping up?

Publish the taxonomy, lock templates, review fields quarterly, and merge/retire duplicates.

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