Asana in details and how to use it


Projects on which developers work can often be considered as one (or several) large tasks. And to make it easier to solve a large problem, it must be divided into smaller ones. Asana, a collaborative task management application , is perfect for this . Under habrakat description of this system and one use-case that we successfully use in the development of sites. The article is large and with pictures. Who cares only how we use Asana at work, you can go right to the example, or for example in the pictures. Also on the hub was already an overview of this system , but it is outdated, and the system has moved much further since then.

What is asana


Asana is not just a list of tasks, but a whole system of small tools that will help replace almost any application for managing tasks, customer relationships, projects and much more. I must say that there is only an English version.
The responsiveness of the application is so high that sometimes it seems that it is not a web - but a locally installed program. Almost everything can be controlled using only the keyboard.

Go to battle


This is what my desktop looks like (this is with a monitor width of 1280, with smaller sizes - the site adapts differently):
image

If it looks massive or complicated, this is just the first impression. Let's take it all on the shelves.

How does it work?


The first in the hierarchy are workspaces. They are convenient for dividing access into groups (one desktop for work, another for family, etc.). Up to 30 users can have access to one desktop free of charge, then for a fee. There are two types of desktops - standard and own projects. This article will only cover standard desktops. Who cares about their own projects - you can read on the blog .


Here you can see all the desktops and projects at once, but in order to focus it is better to switch to the desktop in which we want to work. This is done by clicking on the project title.

Users can be added to the entire desktop (all projects will be available), and only give access to one project.


Each desktop always has two sections: My tasks and Inbox, and three types of categories (maybe it’s not a category, but it looks very painful): projects, tags and users.



If you select one project, tag or user, only those that correspond to the selection will be shown in the task window.

In My Tasks are all tasks that are assigned to this user.


In the inbox there is a news feed of all task changes (adding a new one, commenting, assigning, etc.) to which this user is subscribed.


Now let's look at all the tasks of the project:


Visually, tasks are simple or priority heading. Headings are used to visually divide tasks into categories, while their functionality is the same as for ordinary tasks. The list shows:
  • heading
  • designated user avatar
  • tags
  • a priority
  • parent task (if any)

The status of tasks, the assigned user, and the title can be changed directly from the list. Also, to create a heading, just add a colon to the end of the name.

Completed tasks are placed at the top of the list, and so that they disappear from there, they can be archived (for example, by the end of the day when a review is completed of the day):


When you open one task, the following details are available: title, description, assigned user, the project to which the task belongs , child tasks, deadline, tags, files, subscribers, comments and activity feed.


Basic functions are also available here:


Of the interesting functions here are:
  • The description may contain links to other tasks or other users (smart autofill appears after entering the @ sign)
  • Sub-tasks are nothing but the same tasks that are quickly accessed through the parent task
  • One task may not belong to the project at all (for example, child tasks) or to many
  • The term can be either one simple date or a repeating one (repeating creates the same task only with a term extended by the specified interval)
  • A task can only be assigned to one person (with the possibility of change), but then the task can be monitored (all changes will appear in the Inbox)
  • A task can be assigned to a person who is not added to the desktop / project. To do this, you need to specify his email address, he will receive a notification email with the ability to register and gain access to this desktop or task (depending on what you selected during the appointment). If even a person does not want to register, he simply can answer this letter and his answer will be a comment in this task
  • Smart auto-fill also works in the comments.




Where can I find out more or see examples of work


To feel the full power of the application, you need to try it in work. And it is advisable to initially watch Asana in 2 minutes (eng) and How to use it (eng).

Example usage for a small web studio


We are a team of 5 people who make sites on rails (Ruby on Rails):
  • Project Manager / Task Manager / Customer Relations
  • Designer / UI / UX
  • Front End Maidens / UI / UX
  • Back-end dev / Models / Database
  • Back-end dev / Supervisors / Helpers / Tests


For each site we create a project. All tasks are separated by priority headers that correspond to the pages of the site (see the picture above with tasks). The order of tasks in the list is not important for us, for this we use tags. Here is a list of priorities for completing tasks depending on the tag (in descending order):
  • bug
  • urgently
  • (task without tag)
  • incomplete description
  • Do not rush
  • for the future

There is also a documentation tag that is assigned to informative tasks. They do not need to be performed. Much more information is stored in the priority headers for each page.

For subtasks, we use a text list where each element has blank square brackets, and at the end of each element is the name of the one who will have to perform this task. Under the subtask has an indent of two spaces from the parent subtask.

Almost all tasks go through the following life cycle:
  1. Task created by Task Manager
  2. Sub-tasks and links to those who will have to complete them are added to the task description
  3. If there is some additional information - it is added in the comments.
  4. The task is assigned to the person specified in the first outstanding task
  5. The subtask is performed, the symbol x is put in the brackets of the subtask, step 4 is repeated
  6. If there are no more subtasks, the task is assigned as completed

But of course, not all tasks go smoothly, different situations require different actions:
  • If after completing a subtask, you need to share some information that may be useful in performing the remaining subtasks, you need to unsubscribe in the comments
  • If during the execution of a subtask it turns out that one of the previous subtasks was not performed correctly / buggy then we write about it in the comments, empty the brackets of this subtask and reassign the task to the one who is responsible for this subtask
  • If, when completing a subtask, it turns out that something is missing in the description, assign an incomplete description tag to this task and reassign it to Task Manager
  • If for the performance of a certain subtask it is necessary that a certain subtask be performed from another task, we remove the assignment from the current task, and write in the comments of another task that after its completion we need to assign the current task back to us
  • If you completed a certain subtask and already reassigned it to someone else, and then suddenly remembered that you had not completed something:
    • If the one to whom you assigned the task has already indicated the priority (today, later, upcoming), you need to write to him and ask the task back
    • If not, then you can safely select the task back


The same only in pictures


This is what Tax Manager


is doing. But this is all (including Task Manager)


Why we do not use the built-in subtasks


When we started using this scheme, there were no subtasks yet. And now, as far as I understand, they are in a beta release (once I indicated that I agree on beta features long ago, and in the project we use marking of subtasks that they themselves recommended in their video as a possible scenario for using the system).

But even when subtasks became available to us, we encountered the inconvenience of using them. If you have only one-level subtasks, then everything is simple. Although even in this case they do not suit us since when assigning a subtask this will appear in the Inbox of the corresponding user and in his Personal Tasks, and we tried to ensure that in Personal Tasks there were only tasks that a person can already work on, and in Inbox there should be an excess of unnecessary events. And if your subtasks have their own subtasks, then it will not be possible to visually evaluate all the subtasks of one task, and this will greatly complicate the understanding of progress and the number of subtasks. It also brings fragmentation of comments and files that are directly related to tasks.

results


At the end of each day, you can analyze statistics:
  • The number of closed tasks per day
  • The number of remaining assigned tasks for each team member

That's how we have been working for about a month, during this time:
  • Productivity has grown significantly
  • The time spent on reddit, reader, and other non-work sites has fallen from an average of 2 hours per person to 30 minutes (RescueTime)
  • No one else complains that he has nothing to do
  • Less bugs and less things to forget
  • More realistic timing calculation


UPD Now subtasks are officially announced .

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