What project management tools are you using?
Just curious on what you guys using to keep things organized. I'm tempted to create one that focuses on multi-project management as I usually find myself working on multiple projects and it will be nice to keep things well organized on a unified place.
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Used Trello, Asana, Google Tasks, Notion & Zoho but I am back to good old Google Sheets! Would always choose flexibility over features and looks.
I can say that Trello is the startup community favorite. Majority of our customers at Draftss.com are startups and use Trello to manage their projects and tasks.
I'm ex-Atlassian, so absolutely biased towards their tools as I know how to use them well.
We tried Trello for detailed tasks but it was too light for managing large backlogs. Epics are quite convenient to group things by topics/components. But Trello happens to be perfect for roadmapping (now, next, later) in our case — we save a lot of time by making it public.
I can see trello being insufficient for non-solo projects.
Do you find most people work on more than one project at the time? For example, their main job, some side projects, home-related tasks, etc..? I wonder if Atlasssian takes this into consideration for their tools?
I think most people don't need project management tools for their side-projects. There are lots of hobbies, projects, etc that you can do without having to formally track things.
That said, there's still a huge huge number of people that start new projects everyday, and that need tooling for that. My own research and XP has shown that usually people like to keep things separate (different Trello boards, different Atlassian instance).
Trello is definitely built for "1 email can manage projects with different groups" whereas Jira is more "1 instance for each group". There are good reasons to take these different approaches in both cases.
Used Both Asana and Basecamp, really wasn't happy with them. Very few beat the simplicity of Trello, assuming you're working alone.
no, I work with multiple teams, in multiple simultaneous projects. Most of these tools just focus on one project. I'm tempted to write something that helps people that like me, work on more than one project at the time.
I have programmed my own, it is organized in tree like structures like Account -> Organizations -> Projects -> Task Lists -> Tasks (which are themselves endless hierarchical in nature). I can attach files, status & priorities to tasks or task sections and the task description is a big text editor always visible and editable. I use it for not only project management but also for documentation.
I may write a tool aswell. Let me ask you if you work/manage more than one project at the time, for example, the main job and then some side projects?
Also if you don't mind, could you elaborate on Documentation? What does it means, what type of tools tasks does it require?
I manage quite a lot projects, both work projects and side project as well as then I get an idea for a project, I fast create a project for that idea writing down what my idea is so I don't need to fear I forget it and I can add to the idea whenever inspiration comes. In addition I use it for to-do lists, for documentation (eg. Javascript & C# problems & solutions, our network like routers, printers, backup machines, resources, hosting & domains), my exercise and eating history, health problems, vaccines, recipes and actually many many more (I think it is at least 6 years since I programmed it). There is no difference between tasks used for documentation and tasks used for project items.
The system is very ad-hoc and easy to navigate, even so with more than a hundred projects in different organizations, a small but convenient feature is a shortcut list on which I can drop different targets, especially tasks, which allows to jump to tasks between projects without going through the path to that task.
I wish I could send you a picture of how it looks like.
Trello, I use a single board for my high-level tasks associated with my consulting firm (create a separate for any projects), and personal stuff. For me its really just keeping track of what needs to get done, making quick notes, and estimating workload.
So If I understand correctly you work in multiple projects at the same time? How do you move between them from the project management point of view?
Good question, it really depends on you though. I was working for a startup as a consultant at one point they had their own board for project specific tasks, and I had my own for firm related and personal tasks.
As far as moving between them it really just comes down to priorities. I get done whats most urgent first, then work my way backwards. It can be a bit tricky for dependencies since AFAIK theres no linking in Trello but you can write notes or stack the cards in order sequence.
Looks like you have a lot to sort through in these comments, but just want to give a shout out to Airtable. I've tried nearly everything mentioned here (not the newer stuff) over the past 15 years, and it's the only one that's flexible enough to unify freelance work, family stuff, personal stuff, and tie it all together via related rows and tables.
If you like Google Sheets or Excel, it's basically that plus relationships, surveys, customizable views, etc. Sometimes I talk myself out of contract work by telling people to just use Airtable. It handles a lot of use cases that people thing they need a developer for.
The only thing I don't like is that you can't host it yourself! If I get a free year one of these days maybe I'll build that.
"Find what feels good" - YouTube yoga instructor Adriene Mischler, but it's also great project management software advice.
Tools aside, how do you personally organize yourself?
I do my best work using only checklists, and I find tickets (Jira) or swimlanes (Trello) don't match up to how I organize (or how I want to assign tasks). Accordingly, I find it challenging/frustrating to use those tools in my day job.
Being on Team Checklist, I found Basecamp to be the best fit for me the last time I had something scaled up to revenue, incorporation, and a cofounder.
Nowadays, if I need to nest a checklist, Apple Notes works just fine - and it's cloud-based, and on all my devices!
I've been using HeySpace off and on the past year. Different agencies I've contracted with for projects all use different software: Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Jira, etc. But for my own projects or directly signed clients, Heyspace has worked.
Heyspace is Slack mixed with Trello.
monday.com - can't praise it enough.
Used trello for years, good but too simple in the real world.
Used asana grudgingly when forced by clients. It works but I despise it for some reason I cant quite pinpoint....
Used a few others.... didn't stand out.
Key benefits of monday:
Flexibility - trello has boards, asana has board OR lists, monday has boards which are lists, depending how you want to view.
Flexibility - so many choices on columns depending on task as hand. Simple to complex are just as easy, so many options available.
Automations - so powerful, no product I have used is so good at automation with such a wide range os situations and 3rd party systems, while so easy to setup my 5 year old could do.
Notifications - the right level, in the right way, at the right time. I think Asanas failure at this is a key part to my hatred of it.....
I use Basecamp. Not the best thing in the world and the UX is honestly aged out now; but for simple documentation organization and task management and shared with one other person, it's not bad (and free). If Trello had a simple documentation feature I'd use that instead.
Do you work on more than one project at the same time? For instance your job, a side project and family related tasks?
A couple projects with one other person. In terms of family tasks - I avoid and plead ignorance at all costs to avoid creations of honey-do lists... 😆
haha, yeah, that list will grow quickly in my case, mostly reminders to fix the garage door.
😂
Back to Basecamp - I think if I had more than 3 people on a project, I probably would use something else. Which makes some sense, 37 Signals made basecamp and in one of their books they say they don't have more than 2 people working on a product/project at one time.
we're using clickup. It's good so far. One of other company is using teamgrid. But i like clickup.
Clickup looks very complicated, I'm trying to keep things simple! Let me ask you if you work on more than one project at the time and if clickup supports switching maintaining multiple independent projects?
Yes, I've two different projects environments and clickup is working ok. But this tool isn't simple. It's busy and little complicated to use.
Hey steban, as a developer I started to like Github Projects lately.
Thank you for the reply, does Github projects support multiple simultaneous projects with different teams? Do you work on more than one project at the same time?
Your welcome.
Concerning your first question:
Github Projects are always tied to one repo. But its possible to have multiple projects running simultaneous for one repo. On the other hand, collaborators are also tied to the repo, so i guess its not possible to have a different set of team members for individual projects.
2:
Yes, i do, for example i have setup different projects for iOS, watchOS, macOS targets etc, but of course they are all related.
Notion
thank you! Will check it out. Does it support working on multiple projects?
Yes
Toggl for time tracking integrated with Trello 🎉Really easy to use and track time against Trello cards. Toggl's reporting is pretty good as well
Do you work on more than one project at the same time? For instance your job, a side project and family related tasks?
Absolutely. I’ve got a board in Trello for each project and corresponding project in Toggl to track the time for each. It’s really flexible
and how do you switch between the different projects?
Using the Toggl integration with Trello gives me a Toggl button on every Trello card. You start the Toggl timer and you’re able to select a project to assign the time to. Simpler than it sounds. Try it out. They both have free tiers 👍
I use Wrike which is project management but also similar to Trello which I used as part of a team in a previous workplace. Wrike seems to just allow for more and nicer to use for projects I find, but that is just for working on my own projects. It might be a bit messy for teams but it has the option for multi users.
My todoist list for general organisation and reminders plus Wrike for projects sees me through though.
Do you work on more than one project at the time?
I do. Any "project" I have going would be anything that's programming based. All these I have in Wrike and can break everything down into as much detail as I need.
While I use todoist for keeping track of all other things. General day to day tasks, hobbies, appointments, meals, workouts etc I will also put each of my projects in there too and schedule time to work on them into my week.
It's once I'm working on the project I use Wrike to track the tasks from there on the given project I'm working.
KANBOARD
I'm suprised to see only one person mention they use Trello. Not a swiss army knife per se, but the power ups (especially connecting it to your Google Calendar) can certainly make it one.
Lots of mentions of Trello now! I think their simplicity is the key.
I use Gitlab to track issues.
The rest is Google Tasks
Do you work on more than one project at the time and if so does Gitlab allow you to switch among different projects?
No, just one project at a time
I guess is the case for most people, just one main focus.
Roll your own, customized for your own workflow.
I may do just that and let others use my solution for free. Let me ask you if you work in more than one project at the time?
Absolutely! Multiple projects, multiple tasks, multiple clients, multiple vendors.
I use Github to track almost everything through issues (meetings, customer interviews, etc.) with a good system of labels, milestones, projects. Some markdown documents which link straight to what is important.
What I like the most is that it is simple, it does not have an emoji bloated UI (looking at you, notion!) and still powerful enough as to get pins on messages, check progress, etc.
Do you work on more than one project at the time?
Yes
I'm using Yodiz, they're super quiet online and seem to do 0 marketing. I decided on Yodiz because:
1.) Free, full version, for up to 3 users so pricing scales with my startup.
2.) Easy story points via XS-XXL point system.
3.) Correctly assigning story points automatically results in burn-down/up.
4.) Ability to associate user stories with release, epic, and component so its possible to view all user stories within an MVP release associated with the login component. I can then work on all user stories for a given component, which I believe is an efficient user of time/resources.
5.) Good sprint planning with a backlog view and drag & drop to a given sprint to move user stories around.
After using Yodiz for a while I discovered you can add user stories by email. I created a mailto bookmark and now I can really quickly add user stories mid-sprint without getting distracted or even logging into Yodiz.
Yodiz looks interesting! Do you work on more than one project at the time? If so, how do you switch between multiple projects?
Yes, on most of the screens there is a drop down at the top left to switch between projects. So, if you're on the backlog and switch you'll be on the backlog of the project you switch to.
What I did omit is that Yodiz seems to rely heavily on session/cookie data. So, as an example there is no way to bookmark a sprint because the URL does not change between sprint #1 and sprint #100. That also means when you open a link in a new tab it often won't open to the location you want/expect. Frustrating but survivable and I think primarily annoying for me because I'm a web dev and could do it better myself.
Finally, one of the other things I omitted that I felt a requirement is unique numbers/id assigned to every task or user story. With a unique ID you can associate notes and things in other apps and code comments back to the PM tool. Trello does assigne a unique ID to every card but they hide it and you have to pay for a power up to display it.
I don't use much anything for my side projects but at work I use Atlassian / Bitbucket - at only $10 per month for up to 10 users I might start using it on my own to better track and manage
Do you work on more than one project at the time?
Yes at work I have about 12 active projects at work - 3 at home / side.
I just looked over the billing and they've changed it now free for up to 10 users and 2gb of storage $10 for 5000 users and 250gb
Interesting! That's was one of my frustrations. $10/month for a team of 1 seemed unreasonable.
How do you switch between these multiple projects?
At work, most of the projects are in maintenance mode with one active project I run as a 2-week sprint. If something comes up outside of the sprint I try not to jump on it unless it's an emergency just add it to the backlog / next sprint.
I'd like to try this more with side projects to keep on task
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
Just signed up for ClickUp. On the onboarding videos now and I like it so far. Thanks for the recommendation!