Trello is a visual tool for work management that champions collaboration and organisation on projects.
When using Trello, you will come across terms such as Workspaces and Boards. A workspace represents the overarching team/department/product you work within or on. At Thoth Tech, our workspaces are represented by the product you are working on (eg SplashKit). Each workspace contains one or more boards within. Boards are used to represent projects or teams within the workspace. Thoth Tech divides their boards into teams.
Workspaces can be found and navigated under the "Workspaces" tab at the top left of the screen. A drop-down list will appear with all the workspaces you are a member of.
To access boards, you need to select a workspace. You can view a list of the boards within a workspace by selecting the "Boards" tab on the left hand side menu. Below this is the My Boards section. It will show the boards that you are a member of within the current workspace.
In the "My Boards" section of the left menu, you can favourite boards that you use most often. These will be pushed to the top of this list. Favourite boards can be accessed regardless of which workspace you have currently selected. This is done by selecting the "Starred" option on the top menu. Favouriting allows for quick navigation between your active projects. This is handy when you have joined a large number of boards across multiple workspaces.
Cards are the units that make up a Trello board. They can represent anything inlcuding:
The main form for cards within Thoth Tech's boards will be as tasks.
There are three ways to move a card on a board.
A card can be moved for multiple reasons. It can be moved from the backlog into the current sprint, it can be moved when you pick it up to work on it and again when you finish your work on it.
An easy way to monitor a card is to subscribe to notifications for the card. There are two ways to do this. You can open a card and press "Join", but this should only be done if you are actively working on a card. To get notifications without joining a card, you can select "Watch" which is under the "Action" header on the right hand side of the card.
A description should succinctly tell anyone who could pick up the card its background, knowledge and resources required, steps on how to complete it and its definition of done. You should be able to read a card's description and immediately be able to action it.
The activity section keeps track of all changes made to a card. It will show edits, comments and moves from column to column. Comments should be added when issues arise, when new information is found, or if you need to clarify something with your delivery lead/colleagues. Often this will be utilised during the testing phase. If a test fails, the tester can leave details of the issue on the card and reassign it to the developer, allowing them to input the neccessary changes.
For cards that have similar structure or tasks that will be repeated over and over, you can create a card and designate it as a template. By writing cards in a formulaic or structured way, it allows you to create multiple cards with the same elaborate structures by copying the template and altering smaller details. A card can be designated as a template by ticking the "Template" option under the "Action" header on the right hand side menu.
Member assignment to Trello cards allows team members and the delivery lead to know who is currently working on a specific card or task. This makes it easier to determine who to contact if new information arises for a task or if a specific card is a blocker for your own current card.
To assign a person to a card, select the card you want to assign the person to bring up its details.
Navigate to the menu on the right hand side of the card, select "Join". Your initials should appear at the top of the card next to the "Members" header.
Navigate to the menu on the right hand side of the card, select "Members". In the search box, search the name of the team member you would like to add. Select their name. Their initials should appear at the top of the card next to the "Members" header.
Labels are a handy tool within Trello that allow you to add context to a card. These labels could represent the projects being undertaken on the board, the semester/time that the work is expected to be undertaken, or anything that you think is required to be categorised.
At the top of the Trello board, there are some tabs that run to the right hand side of the board. The furthest right tab is labelled "Show menu". Selecting this will bring up a menu with additional functions.
Select "More". An option for "Labels" will appear. Pressing this will show six default colours. Selecting the edit pencil will allow you to add a title to the label.
If all 6 colours are in use, select "Create a new label". This will give you options for 4 other colours or to double up on a colour (not recommended). You can also create a label without a colour. It will not appear on the board but can be viewed when the card is selected.
Hover over the card that you want to assign a label to and select the edit pencil icon. An option to "Edit Labels" will appear. Selecting this will bring up the "Labels" menu as shown above. Here you can assign pre-made labels or create a new one.
Creating a column is quite simple. At the top of the board there is an option to "Add a list". Enter the title for the column and save. You can create as many columns as you like.
There is no set way to organise columns within an Agile framework. The basic three columns you need are:
At Thoth Tech, we recommend adding a few extra columns to ensure that the board is more informative, and easier to use. Here is the list of columns that are recommended, in order:
Checklists are a simple way to track progress of a task as they show how many subtasks have been completed for each task. This progress will appear in the bottom left corner of a card when looking at the board.
To attach a checklist to a card, select the card and navigate to the menu on the right hand side. The third option under the "Add to card" header is "Checklists". Selecting this allows you to title the checklist, and to automatically populate the checklist if it is the same as a checklist on another card.
From here, a checklist header will appear in the main section of the card above "Activity". Select the "Add an item" button, which will allow you to create a new item for the checklist. There is no limit on number of items to add to a checklist, but if a task has too many subtasks, consider either breaking the task down or turning the task into a new user story.
You can attach images, UML diagrams, Trello cards and many other items to a Trello Card. This gives a card greater context. To add an attachment, select the target card and go to the menu on the right hand side. Under "Add to card" you will find an option for "Attachments". From here, select where the attachment you want to add is currently located. This will prompt you to browse for and select your desired item to attach. Attached items will appear just below the description of the card.
You can personalise your board by using stickers. By selecting the "Show menu" option at the top right of the page, you will find an option for stickers. There are pre-loaded stickers to be used, as well as options to add your own images and GIFs to be used as stickers on your board.
TBC
When you select a card, there is an option to add Power-ups. These are extra tools that you can utilise to better streamline your board and the Agile process. Below are two popular examples of Power-ups that you can utilise, but there are many more that can be accessed and utilised.
There are two Power-ups that are recommended to use within your Trello board to make it more Agile.
Corello have created a Power-up called Agile Tools which allows Story Points to be added to cards,
whilst the Power-up Limit Lists allows a team to set work in progress limits on columns.
To install a Power-up, select the Power-ups menu option at the top of your Trello board. This will
show all your current installed Power-ups and allow you to add more by selecting the option
Add Power-ups. Use the search function to look for different tools you can utilise within your
Trello board.
Story Points are an important facet of an Agile development style, as they give context to how much work is required, how difficult a card is, or how long a card will take to complete. There is no hard or fast rule on how to set Story Points, but they are required to successfully plan a sprint.
A good idea to get started with Story points is to have each point represent an amount of time. Each number can represent a length of time (1 = 1 hour or 1 day, 2 = 2 hours etc), or even represent a range of times (1 = 1 to 2 hours work, 2 = 2 to 5 hours work). It is important set these story points at the start of the development process. There is scope to alter them if they aren't relevant or need work, but they should not be changed all the time or on a whim.
The information on how your teams story points work needs to be easily accessible and clear, to ensure tasks are given the correct amount of time to complete.
Once you install Agile Tools, Story Points can be set by selecting a card and navigating to the
Power-ups heading on the right hand side of the card. A default scale of Story Points will appear
in the form of a Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21). As the numbers increase, the difficulty
or time should increase. Set the card to the Story Point level you have discussed within your Sprint
planning session.
Adding List Limits to columns on a Trello board is an effective way to ensure that the team is utilising Agile practices and completes work efficiently.
Often a team will find most of their members are comfortable with either the developing or the testing side of the development cycle. This can lead to bottlenecks during a sprint where work is not reaching a specific column because either too much is being started or there is a lack of people picking up cards. Work in progress caps can alleviate these bottlenecks.
By setting a limit to how many cards can be in the done column, you force people to start picking up those cards and testing them. This ensures that tasks consistently get developed to completion. These limits will depend on how many members are on your team and how you define the roles, but should be constantly discussed in planning meetings and retrospectives to reach an optimal value.
Once the Power-up List Limits is installed, list limits can be set on a column byselecting the
... at the top right of the column and navigating down to Set list limit. This allows you to set
individual limits on cards within a column. Although you can still place cards in the column, as
soon as its full you should be actioning the cards within to remove them. Each list can have a
different limit within it.
(Give an example, demo your board SplashKit Modules)