Trying Trello
2012-08-10Who doesn’t love to make lists? It is common for BTU Engineering to manage multiple projects at once, and we keep our lives organized using checklists. We're trying a great free (financially efficient) way to manage multiple projects with multiple team members in multiple locations through a web-based app called Trello.
Example of Trello Checklist and Comments on Card
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Familiar and User-Friendly
Whether they’re written on post-it notes, markerboards or Moleskine notebooks, we make and use checklists to keep our lives organized. Markerboards have their advantages: extremely long battery life and a simple user interface for starters, but they fall short in aggregation. Despite our best efforts, we have difficulty in getting multiple boards to sync together. There has to be a better way.
Enter Trello. The team of software designers describe Trello as “a super simple, web-based team coordination system”, and they hit the nail right on the head. Trello is straightforward: it does one thing, but it does it well. Project collaboration becomes easy and, as Lifehacker puts it, “kind of enjoyable”. Better yet, it's fast - the real time updates from multiple users, intuitive menus, and drag-and-drop interface make this a tool that can be implemented quickly and get projects done
Trello allows us to lay out a project on a “board”. Everything we add or assign on that project appears on the board - it is not unlike a markerboard. Each board is then divided into lists, and each list into separate cards. For example, let’s say we were managing a lemonade stand:
Example of Trello Board with Cards
We’ve set up a board for the lemonade stand, which we’ve named “lemonade stand” (engineers tend to make boring, but accurate, names for things). We are grouping the tasks associated with the lemonade stand into three separate lists: “To Do”, “Doing” and “Done” - the defaults of a Trello board closely match a GTD (Getting Things Done®) system. The advantage of the online nature of Trello is that if anyone creates or modifies any item on the board, it is mirrored across to every other user: we all see the same board at all times.
We’ve set up a board for the lemonade stand, which we’ve named “lemonade stand” (engineers tend to make boring, but accurate, names for things). We are grouping the tasks associated with the lemonade stand into three separate lists: “To Do”, “Doing” and “Done” - the defaults of a Trello board closely match a GTD (Getting Things Done®) system. The advantage of the online nature of Trello is that if anyone creates or modifies any item on the board, it is mirrored across to every other user: we all see the same board at all times.
Powerful and Flexible
Once a task (or “card”) is created, members of the board can be assigned to it. This is useful for a number of purposes. First of all, it makes it easy for everyone to see how tasks are assigned between team members. If one person completes a task and has some room for extra work, he or she can be assigned (or volunteer) to work on a new task. Additionally, it allows a user to choose to view only the tasks assigned to them. When projects become more complex, it is nice to be able to focus only on your specific tasks. Additionally, tasks can be given a due date, allowing a user to view their tasks in order of priority. You can even view all of your tasks across all currently active projects!
Within a specific task, users and discuss the state of the tasks and create checklists. Going back to the lemonade stand example, let’s look at the specific task of buying supplies to build the stand:
As you can see, a checklist has been created containing all necessary supplies to build the lemonade stand. All users can see that the task is three-quarters of the way finished. Furthermore, users can discuss the task itself within this box. John has asked what color paint should be used. Anyone associated with this task would receive a notification that a new comment was made, allowing them to quickly address the problem of the paint color.
We have been using Trello for over a month now, in that time, it has become one of the most useful tools we use to organize our projects. It is an astoundingly convenient way to organize tasks and keep track of project progress. It is a central location for us to record everything that has been done and what is left to be done, allowing us to finish projects quickly and efficiently.
What project management system does your team use? How does it compare to the free and flexible Trello? Let us know at Facebook or Twitter (#Trello).
~ BTU Engineering Team
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What project management system does your team use? How does it compare to the free and flexible Trello? Let us know at Facebook or Twitter (#Trello).
~ BTU Engineering Team
[Comments Policy]
