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How I use to support client projects

Ian J Seath

Start from the client’s perspective Sometimes, if a client is

relatively “immature” in their approach to project management the last thing they want or need is lots of project templates and Gantt charts

I use Trello as a simple tool to help me (and them)

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Boards, columns and cards Trello has its origins in

agile project management and comprises three core components: boards, columns and cards

I create a new Board for each programme or project

Columns capture when work needs to be done (week or month)

Cards then capture what needs to be done and by whom, with specific deadlines

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First: define Trello’s columns

A “conventional” (simple) agile board would have columns for “To Do”, “In Progress” and “Done”

I find that columns for months or weeks works better for me, for most client projects 

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To do

• Activity F• Activity G

In progress

• Activity C• Activity D• Activity E

Done

• Activity A• Activity B

Use Trello’s labels for RAG status My column headings might be “week commencing” for shorter

projects or “month” for longer ones and for programmes In the case of weekly columns, I use cards to capture activities: the

work that needs to be started or finished in that week Each card is colour-coded with a status such as “On track”,

“Concerns”, “Problems” or “Done”

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Not yet started and Due Dates I have sometimes colour-coded Trello labels blue for “not

yet started”, but found it’s more efficient just to leave off any colour-coding

Any uncoloured card is therefore “not yet started” in a particular time period; everything else is underway

Trello also enables me to put specific due dates on each activity, if needed, and lower levels of detail for tasks can be added by using a checklist on any card

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Due DateStatus: “Done”

Multi-week activities

If an activity spans several weeks I create a card for the first week which says “start doing xyz” and show the Due Date on that card

In the week when the activity is due to end, I create a “complete xyz” card and repeat the Due Date

Everybody then knows exactly what is due to be started and completed each week.

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Longer projects and programmes For projects where I use the

monthly column headings, I tend to use cards to define the milestones and deliverables due in each month

I use the same colour-codes for monthly status as for my weekly boards

The reason I don’t put detailed activity descriptions on the monthly cards is that there is more time available in the project for me to have one-to-one discussions with the people who will be doing the work

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Trello is a collaboration tool, but… Sometimes, I share the

Trello board with my clients

More often, I just want them to focus on doing what’s required and not be distracted by having to log into a system they’ve not seen before (and won’t want to update themselves)

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Useful Trello Extensions

To help with reporting progress I use a Chrome extension called Export for Trello which enables me to export the Trello board to an Excel file

Projects for Trello enables me to label each card with the activity owner’s initials Putting their initials in {parentheses} shows up as a

label on the card and I can then filter the Excel spreadsheet reports by person

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In summary…

As project manager I get all the benefits of visual management of the project when I work in Trello, while the client gets clear, simple communication on what needs to be done next and how things are progressing

Trello’s flexibility means there is no one “right way” to use it and it can be configured to meet a wide range of needs (not just project management)

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I’m a Trello fan! I already use Trello to share my 

Project Management resources via my blog

Trello is such a flexible tool that it’s easy to configure it in a way that will work for many different types of project

Oh, by the way, it’s free! [trello.com]

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• ian.seath@improvement-skills.co.uk

• 07850 728506• @ianjseath

• www.improvement-skills.co.uk

Read more of my Project Management articles here.