As your team settles into remote work in Fall 2020, we wanted to share some of our suggestions for project management tools that can help you keep track of what’s going on and ensure that everyone’s on the same page. Members of the OVPUE community have used all of the tools below and they each have their own great qualities and shortcomings.

If you have questions about any of these tools, you can reach out to IT by submitting a help ticket and we can arrange a time to meet with you to discuss your needs and find the perfect solution for your team.

Microsoft Teams

Great for: Keeping track of what’s happening, working with shared documents, and staying focused

Killer features: Channels for projects; Easy video meetings; MS Office 365 integrations

Microsoft Teams is included in IU’s Microsoft Office 365 license, meaning your team can use all of its features at no cost. The IT team has been using Teams for several weeks and we’ve found it’s a great way to keep organized and move all of our various other tools and documents into one place. Once your team is set up, you control who is a member (only members can view the team and its contents). Members can chat with any other IU Teams user in their Chat tab. Set up “Channels” for different topics or projects and keep everything related to the channel in one place. Each channel has a threaded chat area for posting questions and updates, a folder on Microsoft OneDrive to store related files, and as many other apps as you like (some of our favorites are OneNote notebooks, the project Wiki, Planner, Web apps, and Miro for sharing “White boards” and plans). Members can join any public channel, and any private channel they’re invited to.

Working with documents in Microsoft Teams is very easy. You can create a Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or OneNote file directly from the “Files” tab in any Channel and it’s instantly available for everyone in the channel to work on simultaneously, and saved to OneDrive automatically.

With apps, you can make all sorts of additional things happen in teams. For instance, we use the Google Analytics app to show important analytics reports automatically once a week to anyone interested on our “Web Analytics” channel; you can use Polly to take polls; Microsoft Forms and Excel can be integrated to collect information from outside your team and easily display it; and Microsoft Planner (see below) allows you to keep separate task lists organized for each channel. There are hundreds of apps available in Teams and more are added weekly.

We think Microsoft Teams is a great solution for bringing all of your various tools to one place.

Price: Free (Included in IU’s Microsoft Office 365 Licensing)

Pros: IU Licensing means Teams should be available consistently at IU; Integration with Microsoft Office, OneDrive, and Planner; Channel-based chat; Great for bringing multiple tools together in one place.

Cons: Can’t replace email or Skype for Business just yet (meaning you’ll need multiple apps to stay connected); Somewhat steep learning curve.

Get Started with Teams: Contact IT to set up your Microsoft Teams site (your department may already have one); For the best experience, install the Teams app on your computer (and your mobile device if you like)–the browser-based version misses out on some features. Reach out to OVPUE IT if you need any help.

Learn more: Microsoft Teams Essentials (LinkedIn Learning); Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide

 

Airtable

Great for: Tracking projects, collaborating with your team, and anything a spreadsheet can do, Airtable can do better.

Killer features: Share views of your “bases” with anyone (no log-in required); View your data as a spreadsheet, grouped records, “cards”, or a calendar, all without changing the data itself; Use Airtable as a simple database for features on your website (work with OVPUE IT to implement this)

Airtable is one of the most flexible tools we’ve come across for managing just about any type of information. If your first thought is “I guess I could track this in Excel…” then Airtable can probably bring a lot to the project. Airtable is basically a spreadsheet with the power of a project management tool and a database that you can design with simple settings. The video above has some great examples of how you can customize an Airtable “base” to meet your needs.

The OVPUE IT team uses Airtable in two main ways: to track projects that involve a lot of information, and as a simple back-end for websites and applications. We’ve used Airtable to track website updates, application migrations and testing, and our ongoing PDF remediation project. Airtable is also how we manage the records for all sorts of websites including the OVPUE staff directory, the NSA awards listing, CEW&T’s REUW project listing, the Fall 2020 Intersession course listing, and the Fall 2020 Big Ten Academic Alliance course sharing initiative (among others).

Price: Free (see cons); Additional features available on a monthly paid plan.

Pros: Extremely flexible and easy to learn

Cons: Free plan keeps only 2 weeks of edit history, and is limited to 1200 records and 2 gigabytes of attachments per base; You may end up with 100+ bases to keep straight if your team ends up using a different base for each project; No IU licensing so terms may change over time

Get started with Airtable: Visit airtable.com and create an account. Anyone you want to collaborate with will also need an account. Use a template, spreadsheet, or a blank base to start. Reach out to OVPUE IT if you need any help.

Learn more: Live training webinars from Airtable; On-demand video training from Airtable

 

Asana

Great for: Project tracking and to-do lists

Killer features: My tasks; Threaded conversations on each task; Seamless collaboration

If you just want a tool to keep track of all of the work that needs to get done, then Asana is a great option. Asana is like a configurable to-do list you can share with your team (up to 15 users can join a free Asana team plan). View your tasks as a project-focused “list” or in “buckets” (See Trello below), or as a calendar based on due dates. Each task can have subtasks (if it’s complicated) and can house a threaded conversation around what needs to get done. You can upload files to tasks for references, and organize your lists into sections.

Asana is really good at keeping track of tasks and progress because it is extremely narrowly focused on just that–tasks and progress. In all likelihood you’ll need another tool for team communication but Asana can be your entire solution to staying on track and focused on making progress on your projects.

We think Asana is especially useful when you meet as a team regularly to review the key projects and review the project lists.

Price: Free (see cons); Additional features available on a monthly paid plan.

Pros: Powerful and easy to use; Excellent communication around individual tasks

Cons: Free plan lacks some useful features; paid plans are rather expensive; No IU licensing so terms may change over time

Get Started with Asana: Visit asana.com and create an account. Once you’ve logged in, you can invite other team members (up to 15 members total for the free plan) to create an Asana account and join your team. Reach out to OVPUE IT if you need any help.

Learn more: Quick start guide from Asana; Asana tips

 

Microsoft Planner

Great for: Task management inside Microsoft Teams

Killer features: My tasks view shows your tasks from all projects in a single place

Microsoft Planner is included in IU’s Microsoft Office 365 licensing, which means you get all of the features for free. Unfortunately, it’s less robust than many of the other project management options like Asana. Planner allows “buckets” (see Trello below) for your tasks and allows you to assign tasks to individual or multiple team members. Analytics for each project are a nice touch, and you can view project break downs by calendar dates as well. Not all features are available inside teams or on the mobile app for Microsoft Planner, so at times you may have to switch to the browser app.

The best feature of Planner is how well it integrates with your Microsoft Teams channels. You can add a plan to any channel you want, and the people on your team will be available as assignees. No other planning tool currently integrates as well with Microsoft Teams.

If you do choose to try out Planner in Teams, consider adding a Planner tab to the left side of the Teams application. This will allow you to quickly see all of your own assignments across all plans.

Price: Free (Included in IU’s Microsoft Office 365 Licensing)

Pros: IU Licensing means Teams should be available consistently at IU; Integrates well with Microsoft Teams; Simple to learn

Cons: Limited features; Lack of personal space for your own tasks (all tasks are visible to everyone in your team–an upcoming integration with Microsoft To-Do may resolve this); No way to @-mention other team members directly in tasks

Get Started with Planner: Log into office.iu.edu to explore the browser app or set up Microsoft Teams in consultation with OVPUE IT. If you work with Planner inside Teams, you can just add a plan to any channel by adding a tab to the channel; To add the Planner tab to the left side menu, click the three-dot contextual button and choose “Planner” from the app options.

Learn more: How to use Microsoft Planner in Teams and outside of Teams (Youtube);

 

Trello

Great for: Tracking tasks that share a common approval or review process

Killer features: Very simple to use

Trello allows you to organize “cards” into lists. You can use the lists as a workflow visualization (aka Kanban) where items start in a general list on the left and as they’re reviewed, researched, worked on, and completed, they move across the board from list to list (or “bucket” to “bucket”). This method is good for keeping track of tasks that have a common review and processing workflow. Individual cards can contain other information like assignee, comments, and tags. Trello is a focused and simple took for this workflow, it’s one of the best software options if this is the way your team works (other options that allow Kanban include Asana and Microsoft Planner).

If your team doesn’t used a Kanban style workflow, you can still use lists (or “buckets”) to organize work. Where Kanban might use lists for “backlog”, “on deck”, “needs more information”, “in progress”, “ready for review”, and “completed”, your team might use lists for “documentation tasks”, “faculty requests”, and “reports”. Sort and move your cards around in a way that works for your team.

Many people love the simplicity of Trello but it isn’t something we in OVPUE IT have used much.

Price: Free; Additional features available with a paid plan

Pros: @-mentions and conversations within individual tasks; Simple concept that’s easy to learn; Easy sharing inside and outside IU

Cons: No IU licensing so terms may change over time; Limited integrations with other applications; Limited flexibility

Get started with Trello: Visit trello.com and create a free account (consider logging in with your Google at IU account). Once you create a Trello board you can invite others to join as well.

Learn More: Trello Getting Started Guide; Getting Started with Trello (YouTube)