Trello is a collaboration and task management tool used for and perfectly fits all kinds of projects or teams. It includes features for content teams, HR tracking, and customer support tracking. As long as you don’t intend to use it for financial purposes, it is an all-around great fit for your business project needs. It is relatively easy to use as its list of features was designed with a good level of convenience.
Trello was authored by Joel Spolsky in 2011 and was named one of the 7 Coolest Startups in that same year. In 2014 alone, the platform raised $10 million from various venture capitalists.
By May 2016, Trello had claimed at least 1 million daily active users and over 13 million registered users. As of October 2019, it recorded over 49 million users.
RELATED: Using GoogleSpace for Effective Project Management
What are the features of Trello for project management?
-
Task management (kanban):
Trello’s task management environment runs precisely on a kanban project management system. This management system allows you access to a broad overview of your project as it progresses in real-time. It also provides you with task cards available on the main dashboard.
Changes made to these cards are notified and updated to all users; and pushed through the workflow.
-
Search Cards feature:
Whenever task cards get lost in your workflow, Trello allows you to search for cards based on the names or labels on them as well as on the users of those cards. This way you save a lot of time than you would if you manually scroll through all the cards on your workflow.
-
Cover photos for cards:
This feature allows users to assign photos to tasks in a bid to give the cards more context. When cards have cover photos, they become easier to navigate and identifiable.
-
Automations:
Using Trello simplifies the routine and seemingly boring processes of your project. This helps you execute regular tasks, and sort and prioritize more relevant tasks.
-
Checklists for task cards:
Trello allows you to create internal checklists within a task and across various tasks. Using these checklists shows you the percentage of completion of a particular task. Project managers need such information as a way to improve project planning and control.
RELATED: How to Use Slack for Project Management
How do I use Trello for Project Management?
Trello is more a collaboration tool than a comprehensive project software. Because of this, there are a few project management basics that the platform does not cover. An example is managing budgets or invoices, but these reports can still be attached to your tasks.
-
Create your Trello project board and task cards:
You’ll first need to fill out the relevant fields that will create your board lists. These lists show the steps to complete that project. Your tasks will be on these lists throughout the execution of the project.
-
Assign task cards to team members:
After you have created the lists, you should plan out your project; by creating task cards. In creating the task cards you will need to fill in the due dates, descriptions, and users of the task cards, include any labels (which categorize the tasks), add any attachments, and upload any card cover photos.
You might need to create a checklist in the card so it displays the percentage of completion of that task. This will give you better control over that task and the execution of the project as a whole.
Users that you add to the tasks will receive all project notifications, as well as comments and any changes made to the cards.
-
Reposition the task cards as steps are completed:
As you gradually execute each phase of your project, you will have to drag the tasks into each step of the process. This should be done from the planning phase to the completion stage. If any tasks are repetitive here, you will need to automate the tasks.
-
Close project after completion:
When you have completed all the tasks in your project, then comes the time to close out the project and perform any post-project analysis to find out the overall performance of the team during the project. This will help to improve team performance on future projects. This analysis can be compiled into a post-project report.
RELATED: Using BaseCamp for Project Management
Setting up your Trello space gives your team the ability to perform future projects in the same way without any hassles. The only thing you will have to do is to reset your cards and adjust your lists where necessary.
SmartSMSSolutions presents your business with an easy way to communicate internally which you can use in addition to Trello, Bulk SMS. This feature enables you to communicate with your team members instantly and conveniently at a very affordable cost. Get started with SmartSMSSolutions now!