FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Project Milestone Tracking
[YourCompany.com] · Operations Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for the Project Milestone Tracking automation. It explains exactly what the system does on its own, what your team is responsible for, how to handle things when something goes wrong, and who to contact for each type of issue. FullSpec has built, tested, and launched this automation end to end. Your role is to review escalated items, keep contact details current, and carry out the light monthly checks described in Section 05.
01Process overview
The Project Milestone Tracking automation runs every weekday morning and monitors all active Asana projects for milestones that are overdue or have no completion status recorded. When an overdue milestone is found, the system logs it to the central Google Sheets tracking log, sends a personalised Gmail reminder to the task owner, and checks whether the escalation threshold has been breached. If a milestone is more than three days overdue or has had no owner response within 24 hours of the first reminder, a Slack alert is posted to the relevant stakeholder. Every Monday at 7:30 am, a formatted status report is written to Notion and a digest is posted to the leadership Slack channel. The one step that stays with your team is reviewing the escalated items the system has flagged as blocked or high-risk and deciding how to proceed.
Process name
Project Milestone Tracking
Trigger
A milestone due date arrives or passes in Asana without a completion status recorded. The system also runs on a fixed daily schedule at 8 am.
Final output
Overdue milestones logged in Google Sheets, reminder emails sent to owners, escalation alerts posted in Slack, and a weekly Notion status report with a Slack digest delivered every Monday morning.
Agents running
Milestone Monitor Agent, Owner Reminder Agent, Report Builder Agent
Tools involved
Asana, Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, Notion
Weekly volume
Approximately 40 milestone check-ins per week across active projects
Human checkpoint
Operations Manager reviews escalated and blocked items flagged by the Milestone Monitor Agent and decides the next action (approximately 45 minutes per week)
Process owner
Operations Manager
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02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: There is one human step in this entire process. After the Milestone Monitor Agent has run its daily scan and flagged escalated items, the Operations Manager opens the Google Sheets tracking log or the Slack escalation alert, reviews the flagged milestones, and decides what action to take on each blocked or high-risk item. Everything else is handled automatically.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
Every morning at 8 am, the Milestone Monitor Agent connects to Asana and scans all active projects for milestones whose due date is today or earlier and whose status is not marked complete. This scan runs automatically without anyone opening Asana or initiating the check.
Milestone Monitor Agent
Automated
2
Each overdue milestone found during the scan, including its project name, task owner, original due date, and current status, is written automatically to the central Google Sheets tracking log. The sheet is updated in real time with a timestamp for each entry.
Milestone Monitor Agent
Automated
3
The Owner Reminder Agent sends a personalised reminder email via Gmail to each milestone owner. The email pulls the task name, due date, and project context directly from the Asana record so each message is specific rather than generic.
Owner Reminder Agent
Automated
4
When a task owner updates their Asana task status or the system detects a change to the record, the tracking sheet is automatically updated with the new status and a response timestamp. No manual logging is needed.
Milestone Monitor Agent
Automated
5
The Milestone Monitor Agent evaluates each open item against the escalation threshold. Any milestone that is more than three days overdue or has received no owner response within 24 hours of the initial reminder is flagged for escalation. Items below the threshold are logged only.
Milestone Monitor Agent
Automated
6
For every item that breaches the escalation threshold, the Owner Reminder Agent posts a structured alert to the designated Slack project channel, tagging the relevant stakeholder and including a direct link to the Asana task.
Owner Reminder Agent
Automated
7
The Operations Manager reviews the escalation alerts in Slack or the flagged rows in the Google Sheets tracking log, assesses each blocked or high-risk milestone, and decides on the next action: whether to intervene directly, reassign the task, push the deadline, or escalate further to leadership.
Operations Manager
Human
8
Every Monday at 7:30 am, the Report Builder Agent reads the current tracking sheet and assembles a formatted milestone status report in Notion, grouped by project and status. The report is written and published without anyone compiling data manually.
Report Builder Agent
Automated
9
Immediately after the Notion report is created, the Report Builder Agent posts a summary digest to the leadership Slack channel. The digest includes the total count of milestones on track, at risk, and overdue, along with a link to the full Notion report page.
Report Builder Agent
Automated
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03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
A milestone in Asana is missing required fields such as owner name, due date, or project name
The Milestone Monitor Agent skips the incomplete record and writes it to a separate holding section of the Google Sheet labelled 'Incomplete Data'. No reminder email is sent for that item.
Open the tracking sheet and locate the Incomplete Data section. Go to Asana and fill in the missing fields on the flagged task. The agent will pick up the corrected record on its next scheduled run.
The same milestone appears as overdue on two consecutive days and a duplicate row is written to the tracking sheet
The system checks for an existing row with a matching Asana task ID before writing. If a duplicate is detected, the existing row is updated rather than a new row being created. A de-duplication log entry is added.
No action is needed in most cases. If you notice a duplicate row that has persisted, flag it to FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com so the de-duplication logic can be reviewed.
A reminder email is sent but the task owner's email address is no longer active or bounces
The Owner Reminder Agent receives the bounce notification via Gmail and marks the tracking sheet row with a 'Delivery Failed' status. A Slack alert is sent to the Operations Manager listing the affected task and owner.
Update the owner's contact details in Asana and in any internal directory. Once corrected, the reminder will be resent on the next daily run. If the owner has left the business, reassign the milestone in Asana before the next run.
An escalation alert is posted in Slack but the Operations Manager does not review or act on it within 48 hours
The Milestone Monitor Agent re-evaluates the item on its next daily run. If it remains unresolved and no status change is recorded in Asana, a second escalation alert is posted and the item is also flagged in the Monday Notion report under a dedicated 'Stale Escalations' section.
Review any items in the Stale Escalations section of the Notion report each Monday. If an item has been escalated multiple times without resolution, bring it to the attention of the Head of Ops directly and update the Asana task with a decision or comment so the system recognises the record has been acknowledged.
A task owner receives the Gmail reminder but does not respond and does not update the Asana task status
After 24 hours without a status change or Asana task update, the escalation threshold is considered breached. The Owner Reminder Agent sends a second reminder and the item is added to the escalation Slack alert for the relevant stakeholder.
If the second reminder also produces no response, use the Slack alert as the basis for a direct conversation with the task owner or their manager. You do not need to send a manual email. The system has already created the paper trail in the tracking sheet.
Asana, Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, or Notion is unavailable due to a service outage
The automation platform detects the connection failure and retries the affected step automatically at 15-minute intervals for up to two hours. If the tool remains unavailable after two hours, the entire run is logged as failed and a notification is sent to the Operations Manager via the fallback Slack channel or by email if Slack is the unavailable tool.
Check the status page of the affected tool (status.asana.com, workspace.google.com/status, or status.slack.com) to confirm the outage. No manual intervention is needed during the retry window. If the outage persists beyond two hours, manually scan the Asana board for critical overdue items and send any urgent chase emails directly. Notify FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com if a run fails and does not self-recover within the day.
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04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. The FullSpec rows are fixed and do not need to be changed. Share this table with everyone involved in the process so the right person is reached without delay when a decision or escalation is needed.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (Operations Manager)
[Your name]
[Your email or Slack handle]
Head of Ops (escalation point for blocked milestones)
[Rep name]
[Rep email or Slack handle]
Project Lead (queries about specific project milestones)
[Rep name]
[Rep email or Slack handle]
FullSpec builder (technical changes, threshold updates, agent configuration)
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support (errors, failed runs, unexpected behaviour)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
For anything that looks like a technical fault, such as a run that did not fire, a report that was not created, or a Slack alert that did not arrive, contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com before attempting any manual fix. Most issues are resolved remotely without any action needed on your side.
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever a new project is added to Asana
Confirm the new project follows the agreed milestone naming convention and that all tasks have an assigned owner and due date. If the project structure is inconsistent, the Milestone Monitor Agent may not read it correctly. Notify FullSpec if you are unsure whether a new project structure is compatible.
Operations Manager
Whenever escalation thresholds need to change
Do not edit the automation directly. Contact FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com and specify the new threshold values, for example a different number of days overdue before a Slack alert fires. FullSpec will update and test the configuration before it goes live.
Operations Manager + FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (first Monday of each month)
Open the Google Sheets tracking log and the most recent Notion report. Confirm that all active projects are appearing in the log, that completed milestones are not re-appearing as overdue, and that the report structure looks correct. The spot-check should take no more than 10 minutes.
Operations Manager
Monthly error-log review
The automation platform logs every failed step. FullSpec will send a monthly summary of any errors or retries to the process owner by email. Review this summary and flag anything that appears regularly or that relates to a project you know was active during that period.
Operations Manager + FullSpec
When a team member changes role or leaves
Update the relevant Asana task assignments immediately so reminder emails are not sent to inactive addresses. If the departing person was listed as a Slack escalation recipient, contact FullSpec to update the channel routing before the next daily run.
Operations Manager + FullSpec
Quarterly volume review
At the end of each quarter, review the total number of milestones processed and compare it to the benchmark of approximately 40 per week. If volume has grown significantly, confirm that the current automation platform subscription tier supports the increased run count and notify FullSpec to assess whether any capacity adjustments are needed.
Operations Manager + FullSpec
The most common maintenance issue for this process is inconsistent Asana task structure. When new projects are added without following the agreed milestone naming conventions or without assigned owners and due dates, the Milestone Monitor Agent either skips those items or logs them to the Incomplete Data section without sending reminders. A brief data check whenever a new project is set up in Asana prevents the majority of missed detections.
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