Why is it High Time to Find Alternatives to Trello?
Product managers all over the world know Trello as a handy multifunctional tool that is based on Kanban Boards.
However, to be honest, Trello boards look too simplified: they work well only for managing common tasks. If comes to Agile development — these boards are lack of many required things. For companies that use both Scrum and Kanban methodologies for work and have at least some developers, testers, a project manager and a product manager, Trello functionality is not enough.
Of course, the platform is still competitive: every week more than 150K new users join Trello, and the number of monthly active users was about 1.7 million in 2017. However, here we compile the list of things that Trello does not have for complete processes in Agile:
Swimlanes
Swimlanes are horizontal columns on a board. Typically, there are three types of Swimlanes on the board for our developers: Blockers, Tasks/Bugs and Somedays.
Most of the time the team members work on things from Tasks/Bugs column. The tasks that will likely never be implemented are put off to Someday Swimlane.
Tasks and bugs that need to be done right now in real-time can be found into Blockers.
WIP limits
Work in progress limits (WIP limits) allow limiting the number of tasks that may be added to certain columns.
If there are more or fewer tasks than needed then you will see a colored notification message. This is the crucial feature for determining bottlenecks.
It can be a common situation when developers have finished some tasks and their tasks are waiting to be tested. However, there are only 2 testers in the company. There is a long line of tasks and they can’t cope with them. WIP limit is set for queued tasks and if there’s a limit in a column we see a notification about that. One more solution is to hire more testers.
Time tracking
There is no time tracking option in Trello. Actually, not everyone from their audience needs it. For those who need it, Trello proposes to purchase an additional soft (Everhour or Toggl). In fact, these costs are not small.
Versions and Releases
It’s hard to imagine developing software without versions and releases.
Version is a tag, which we label a set of tasks. We release this version when all tasks are ready. The same tag is used for a commit in Git. That will allow us to go back to a previous version in case of a trouble or to find the root of a problem.
Burndown chart
If there is no time tracking — there is no Burndown chart. If there are no Burndown charts — we can’t think about sprints.
Burndown chart is a dashboard for teams that are running a sprint. It can be a motivator/demotivator in worst scenarios.
Projects/collections
There is a mess in a kit of Boards without projects and collections. You have to code a project into Board’s name.
Collections are good but they are available only for Trello Business Class.
Types of columns
The following types of columns are the most common: To do, In Progress and Done.
When your task gets into a Done column it’s considered as a finished task. It’s impossible to run sprints without such division because we need to know when a task was done to reflect it in Burndown chart.
As you see, Trello is not an ideal tool for Agile software development teams. What’s the solution?
Hygger.io can be considered as one of the best Trello alternatives for Agile teams. The platform includes all the above-mentioned features, and also offers the following things:
- A Roadmap board that allows planning future Versions releases, merging several projects into one and seeing the overall picture of a company.
2. A Backlog board that let you collect and estimate ideas for identifying which of them should be done first.
3. Prioritization frameworks, depending on your needs and complexity of tasks. In Hygger, you may find:
· A simple 2x2 matrix for prioritization. You may set the score parameters such as Value/Effort, Value/Risk. Value/Complexity and so on. Comparing these combinations helps to prioritize tasks better and choose the most important ones for development.
· ICE Scoring method with the formula that calculates the final score of the feature value in the following way: Impact*Confidence*Ease = ICE Score. In the formula your assurance in your evaluation is represented by Confidence, the featured effect on the product is Impact, and the Ease is about the easiness of implementation. You need to rate your entire feature request and choose the most valuable ones to implement.
· RICE Scoring with values to evaluate your feature or idea: Reach rates how many people each feature will effect within a certain period of time and how many of them will notice the changes; Impact demonstrates how the feature will contribute to the product and how will the project impact your customers; Confidence shows how I’m sure about all my estimation — both about impact and effort (how much my estimations look like a truth); Effort is estimated as a number of “person-months”, weeks or hours, depending on needs. It is the work that one team member can do in a specific month.
· Weighted Scoring that allows evaluating features by your own criteria. Each criterion can have its own weight and scale (from 0…to 10). Using this prioritization approach, you can take your features or initiatives, rank them with the help of a benefit-versus-cost framework on a number of criteria, and then use the scores you’ve come up with to decide which initiatives make the cut.
To sum it up, let’s say, there is no perfect solution. Trello is really good for millions of people, however, it’s time to think about innovative and interesting platforms to get more success.
Here you may the detailed comparison Trello vs Hygger.
