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Why We Are Here => Hardware & Technology => Topic started by: rcjordan on October 06, 2015, 11:31:07 AM

Title: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 06, 2015, 11:31:07 AM
Currently testing it on Win10, IOS, & Android. Keeper, I think.  Sorta like moving stickynotes around.

trello.com
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Adam C on October 06, 2015, 11:58:39 AM
We use it a little.  Mostly for documenting and sharing tasks across teams.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Brad on October 06, 2015, 12:01:07 PM
I use Trello.   Very handy for group todo lists.  Roughly we have Planned, Initiated and Completed columns.  The ability to attach notes gives an update to everyone as to progress.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Gurtie on October 06, 2015, 12:10:31 PM
is great except frustratingly limited on catogorisation by colour - so for anything big you can end up with making extra lists just because you can't group in any other way!

But, its free, it works, and its incredibly easy to use.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Mackin USA on October 06, 2015, 12:30:30 PM
Is it resident on your computer  ???
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 06, 2015, 12:44:58 PM
>resident

No, as best I can tell it is mostly hosted. I'm guessing that the apps sync up with your account on their server.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Rupert on October 06, 2015, 01:24:43 PM
Use it, love it... 
have 4 constant boards.
One is with my developer, it was his idea, as we used to use an old forum.

this way we can move stuff about more easily when done, or when a tasked is passed back to another to work on,

Another with a designer for jobs for him.

dont use the app, its purely desk top based for me.

Evernote is for the phone... and I use that for notes.  different to work management.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: jetboy on October 06, 2015, 04:00:22 PM
I was reading about this a couple of days ago. Always helps to know that some of you find it useful. IIRC Joel Spolsky (FogBugz, Stack Overflow)'s behind it.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Mackin USA on October 06, 2015, 08:32:09 PM
Funny how ya see something and then see it again

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492592,00.asp
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 06, 2015, 11:20:52 PM
Well, I'd not read anything on project managing, I just decided I might be able to use one and went looking for one that was cross-platform. I think lifehacker was where I picked it up, one of those Top 5 type of articles.  I'm sorta shocked by how many here are using it.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Rupert on October 07, 2015, 05:50:36 AM
OOPs

sorry RC..   It was a tool that just kinda crept up on me.  In fact it was a band I know who I used it with first.

The organised their play list, rehersals and gigs with it.  The lead guitar is a web dev.


note to self... share useful tools  :-[
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: ergophobe on October 08, 2015, 04:01:20 AM
I used to use it a lot. I found once things get complex, it is really hard to manage.

Also, at least as of six months ago, only titles were searchable, so if you have lot of info in comments, it's basically lost.

So the interface is less "fun" but I find Asana way more functional for complex projects. And then once you commit to a tool, it's easiest to use the same one for everything.

Personally, I like Asana better than Basecamp too.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Gurtie on October 08, 2015, 06:39:29 AM
replacing trello is on my to-do list, but as a diverse company every team has its own set of needs and I'd like us to all use the same one rather than different teams/projects being on different systems.

So if anyone has any other suggestions would love to hear them too - Trello doesn't scale (enough) but many that do are so finikity to use that people hate them and give up.

Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Rupert on October 08, 2015, 07:16:15 AM
Odoo.com
Personally I never got my head round it.  A supplier still uses it.

He moved from basecamp, which I agree will scale better than trello, and I prefer to Odoo, but these 2 I have only ever been a 3rd party user of the info. Not a project driver. 
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: ergophobe on October 08, 2015, 09:06:41 PM
>> Sorta like moving stickynotes around

Yes, it's actually an online Kanban board, used a lot in agile dev, but with much older roots.

QuoteThe Kanban technique emerged in the late 1940s as Toyota's reimagined approach to manufacturing and engineering. Line-workers displayed colored kanbans — actual cards — to notify their downstream counterparts that demand existed for parts and assembly work. (Kanban is the Japanese word for "visual signal" or "card.") The system's highly visual nature allowed teams to communicate more easily on what work needed to be done and when. It also standardized cues and refined processes, which helped to reduce waste and maximize value.

http://leankit.com/kanban/kanban-board/
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 28, 2015, 01:06:53 PM
Fear me, I have Trello minions now.

>doesn't scale

Where are you hitting the wall on this?  Number of members?
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: Gurtie on October 28, 2015, 02:33:20 PM
I've never run into a problem with members, but there are limited colours to colour code and scrolling left/right gets to be a pain in the arse once you have a lot of grouped cards, so you end up with either an unweildy interface, very general groupings, or lots of seperate boards.

The problem for me is I need to manage multiple clients across multiple channels, several projects per client at any one time, and multiple staff on each project. Thats when it stops working - if you just want to load all cards for a project with deadlines and allocate to different people, then it works brilliantly even at high volume I suspect.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 28, 2015, 03:23:42 PM
>you just want to load all cards for a project with deadlines and allocate to different people, then it works brilliantly

That's me.  I am one-track to a fault, so whatever I'm working on is THE focus. Meanwhile, everything else can go to hell.

>scrolling left/right

Yeah.  I also tend to be minimalist --VERY conservative when it comes to allocating screen real estate. That helps, but scrolling is definitely a UI issue.

>minions

Now I need a couple of a telepresence bots and I can really be a PITA on the jobsite, hhh.

Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: ergophobe on October 28, 2015, 03:37:38 PM
Quote from: rcjordan on October 28, 2015, 01:06:53 PM
Fear me, I have Trello minions now.

>doesn't scale

Where are you hitting the wall on this?  Number of members?

I find that when the number of tasks gets large, it somehow starts to feel like there's a lot more "friction"

The big thing, which may have been corrected, is that only the card titles are searchable. So if you get into an extended discussion in the comments, that's not available in search (or wasn't a year ago). So that means that once the conversations get beyond what you can hold in your head, you can't find shit. Which is why it didn't scale for me.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 28, 2015, 08:22:00 PM
>only the card titles are searchable

I'll check that out, thanks.  It would be a minor annoyance for me in my use, but good to know.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: ergophobe on October 28, 2015, 08:43:17 PM
I found that we would create a task and there would be discussion in the comments on best approach, "how about this" and so on. Where it got really tough was when the task was a bug fix or involved code and you'd start to wonder "Where were we discussing the code for Feature X?" and could never fricken find it.

I think if you use it as a simple Kanban and don't have discussion, no problem. If you do need to have discussion, though, you need to have a forum for that - Basecamp, Asana, etc. With Asana, though, I never really have to leave . I don't get the visual Kanban, but I have all the discussion, attachments, due dates etc etc.

So eventually I just abandoned Trello.

But for a visual overview as a classic Kanban, it's good.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on October 28, 2015, 08:58:58 PM
>for a visual overview
>UI

In my case,  the simple 'move sticky notes around on bulletin boards' concept has the advantage of allowing me to recruit anyone with a tablet or smartphone as a member. A construction crew would be a good example. One or two of them are going to be capable enough to pick up on how to use it on their smartphone after a 3 minute explanation.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: ergophobe on October 28, 2015, 10:14:59 PM
Makes sense. I could see where it would work great there.
Title: Re: App of interest: Trello
Post by: rcjordan on August 23, 2016, 03:39:25 PM
update:

Trello makes its Power-Ups available to free users

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/23/trellos-power-ups-are-now-available-to-free-users-too/