Two fields that look similar and mean completely different things.
| Field | How many | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Assigned to | Exactly one | This person is responsible for it getting done. |
| Mark to | As many as you like | These people are kept in the loop. None of them owns it. |
Why only one assignee
Because a task assigned to three people is a task assigned to nobody. Each of them assumes one of the others has it, and it surfaces a fortnight later with nothing done and nobody at fault.
If genuinely three people must do something, that is three tasks — or one task with three subtasks. Either is better than a shared responsibility that evaporates.
“Who is doing this?” should have a one-word answer. If it does not, the task is wrong, not the field.
What mark to is for
- A manager who wants to know when it moves without doing it.
- The person who will pick it up next in the chain.
- Whoever raised it, so they see it land.
- Somebody whose work depends on it finishing.
They see it, they are notified, and it does not appear as theirs when they filter All tasks to their own name. That last part is the point — a “keep me informed” that clutters somebody’s own list stops being used within a week.
Who can be assigned
Anybody on the project’s roster: its owner, people added individually, and every member of a group added to it. Adding a group puts all its members in the pool without naming them one at a time — and somebody joining that group later can be assigned without anybody touching the project.
Reassigning
Change the assignee and it moves. The history keeps who had it before, which matters when you are trying to work out why something sat still for three weeks.
A worked handover
A design task that goes out for client approval:
| Stage | Assigned to | Marked to |
|---|---|---|
| Drawing the concepts | Arjun | Rohan (owner) |
| Internal review | Rohan | Arjun |
| Sent for client approval | Priya | Rohan, Arjun |
| Amends after feedback | Arjun | Priya |
At every stage exactly one person is responsible, and the people who need to know are informed without it appearing on their own list. That is the whole distinction, and it is the reason a task never has two assignees.
When somebody is away
Reassign rather than leaving it and hoping. A task assigned to somebody on leave is invisible to everybody else — it will not appear in anybody’s “mine” filter, and it will simply be late when they return.
The history keeps who had it before, so reassigning loses nothing.
Where to go next
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.