Using software or websites to organize the team?

[Gr8Flux]

Hello all,

I'm one of the leaders for my team and have been working on figuring out how to organize my team more efficiently. We typically discuss issues as they come up at meetings and move from there, however not all members can attend every meeting. And when it comes time to work on things we don't always have a clearly defined list of problems or things which need to be addressed by that day. I'm hoping to change this by utilizing some form of software or website application to input all of our tasks with deadlines and notes so everyone from the team can access them at any given moment and pick-up where they can on a given issue.

That said, my adviser has suggested asana or doodle poll, both websites. I've looked into both, so far asana seems to be the best fit. Before I delve too deep down the rabbit hole I wanted to see if anyone has any other suggestions for managing and coordinating projects electronically. Or, alternatively, if anyone has experience and opinions of either of those sites?

Thanks in advance!

[hughm]

I've had some experience with Asana, it is quite powerful but you need to make sure your management team is onboard with the idea and that you can effectively force the team into it. My team went back to tasking through our private Facebook group just because everyone was on there and it meant that updates were automatically appearing in front of the people that needed to see them. Now with the Asana apps on iPhone and Android it should better be able to integrate with peoples workflow.

[craigorydean]

We here at UTSA only have "Meetings" once a week but we also have a GroupMe with all the members that we all chat on. So when we are not all there we can hash things out. As far as the private group on Facebook we never tried it cause most of our team uses it. I have never herd of Asana ill look in to it. I Still personally think the best way to
do these things are in person.

I will personally tell you that if you are in the middle of a build and you are tiring to change the way your group is communicating it may cause more issues then its worth. Here we added a new person to take care of deadlines enforcing them but the more that this happened some members became alienated as they couldn't hold up to the deadlines. This was too rapid of a change for most.

I think SAE Teams are either mircomanaged or have a complete lack of management. Finding that sweet balance is a hard thing with students and volunteers.

[Freddie]

Regarding softwares we've only used Google Drive or our PLM software for that, with okay results. Now there's a wiki page being built up as well, that sometimes' used for the same thing. But before you go look for a software solution, wouldn't some simple form of Visual planning do the same task?

Also, before going for software solutions I would recommend you to (if you haven't done it already) describe the organization of the team, and describe the process a component follows from blank sheet to finished car. It really helps peoople understand what they are supposed to do and who they should probably talk to.

[Dylan Edmiston]

Microsoft Project is an excellent tool to use. You can set tasks, start/end dates (or duration), resources (person or machine), dependencies on other tasks, percent complete, etc... It can then generate graphs for you showing how each resource is being allocated and whether or not you need to reallocate some work or shift start/end dates. My university offers the program for free, but if you are unable to get copies you can also make a similar thing in excel. There are also free programs online to view Project files so you really only need one master program for editing.

What I've done in the past, which worked successfully, was created the project with all tasks, resources, etc... which took quite a bit of time. Then to save myself from micromanaging so much that I didn't have time to do anything on the car, we had weekly meetings to get updates on each task and begin marking off tasks, adding new ones, or delaying start dates that have dependencies. A quick 30-60 minutes just focused on getting everyone up to date on where the car is and what needs to be done next week and what's coming up soon. I would also print out a weekly deadline list which showed the task, due date, and person responsible.

Just don't get yourself sucked into it so much that this is all you are doing because, unless your team is really large, your team needs you for more things.

Then you can either use a server or something like Google Drive to hold the copy for the team to download (or weekly emails).

[Jonny Rochester]

We have a private group on Facebook. We had all our files including CAD assembly on Dropbox. Dropbox space is limited for most people so we have moved off dropbox and have space on the uni server. We now have a new wiki, which works well for my style. I love to go on the wiki and add a little bit here and there. I'm not sure other people like me editing their part!

We use AutoDesk Inventor. I am curious if anyone uses AutoDesk 360, as an online group project? We probably should be using it but I havn't looked at it.

[Meer]

We are using Trello. It is like Asana but simpler and with no limitation on members. It has lists and "cards"(which represent tasks). You can assign cards to members, you can attach files on cards, create checklists, write comments on them etc. Another handy feature is the calendar, where you can see when the deadlines are coming up etc. Trello also helps us with keeping up with documentation of knowledge, because members use their cards as "Log Sheets" for their work.

Coupled with SCRUM (http://www.sjbaker.org/wiki/index.php?title=An_Engineer%27s_guide_to_Scrum), it has noticeably sped things up around here.

Please note: Most of the software suggested in this thread is good and rather easy to learn; However it is crucial that everyone in the team uses and updates it. You are going to have to persuade them on it's importance and effectiveness.

Regards,
Myron

[Claude Rouelle]

Gr8Flux,

1. Don't you think that it would be worth, polite and courteous to introduce yourself?

2. I believe there are some good "organizational" and communication software on the market. I believe in software (my company sell simulation software) but I also am very worry about outside in solutions (even more as a starting point) instead of inside out solutions. You did not mention if you made enough of personal and team "introspecting", brainstorming job. I hope you already did. There isn't any perfect organizational software for your team no more than there isn't any magic pill with a given, standard dosage for different patients. There is nothing more productive than first honest, open mind, self evaluations of your team as a group and each individual team member strengths, weakness, experience, hopes and fears, realistic problems and solution evaluation and power of imagination. There is more in the guts and the heart and the brain of each of your team members than there is in any software. You will not find creativity in your laptop either.

Now... who are you? .

[Aspire2More]

Gr8Flux,

As Claude said, would be nice if you intro'd yourself if you're asking for help.

I speak from a team that has been utilising One Unified Online Team Management Site for the last 3 years.

I won't recommend a specific one, as the choices are as diverse as the teams in FSAE. But I will offer you some of the insights I learned through the process.

(1) - The Software is not the hard part.
It people adopting and utilising it that is hard. I can't stress how crucial it is that members of the team need to adopt the software otherwise it loses all value.
Current members as well as future prospective members. Consider some training process for new members so that they get familiar with it early on. Lower all barriers to members being scared away.

(2) - The initial Setup is Critical, but Don't wait for perfection.
Again to encourage member adoption, but also to ensure that the site actually improves production, efficiency, time management, etc it MUST be set up in a manner that is intuitive to navigate, and relevant information is readily available.
Spending time thinking of a good structure that everyone agrees on can save a LOT of time, and even ensure that this system works for more than just 1 year.

At the same time, Do Not wait to adopt the tool because you are waiting for the right setup. The plan will change. It will morph into something completely different as other members use it. And that's totally fine!

(3) - Sometimes Nothing Beats Physical
We had previous senior members spend MONTHS implementing our current online management system, and it really does do an amazing job. However we have seen a better performance in small-scale short-deadline tasks by simply having a folder full of task that we update regularly.

Lastly, you asked for software suggestions so here you go, roughly in order of extensive-ness (all of these could theoretically be used, it's up to you and your team):

- WunderList (https://www.wunderlist.com/) - literally just a group To-Do List
- Trello (https://trello.com/)
- Aha! (http://www.aha.io/)
- Flow (https://www.getflow.com/)
- FogBuzz (http://www.fogcreek.com/fogbugz/)
- Producteev (https://www.producteev.com/)
- Mijura (https://mijura.com/)
- Campfire (https://campfirenow.com/)
- Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence), Confluence & JIRA

There are literally HUNDREDS of Apps. But the reason I so happily share all these, is because it is NOT the App that ever makes it work. It's YOU and YOUR TEAM.

Please do share your experience with this on here once you have trialled some things. I don't think there is enough discussion on Project Management, considering this is such a project management intensive project.

Good Luck Mate!

[Gr8Flux]

Gr8Flux,

1. Don't you think that it would be worth, polite and courteous to introduce yourself?

/snip/

Now... who are you? .

Curious, I've been on a number of forums over the majority of my life and never once had this come up. Most people seem perfectly comfortable identifying an individual by their user name and leave it at that. That said, my apologizes for not following the protocol on this forum.

My name is Scott Schmitz, I am the Vice President of Wazzu Racing, the Formula SAE team of Washington State University. Our team has been on hiatus for the last several years, for a number of reasons, and I am working to restore it with the hopes of being the competitive team I know we are capable of, for generations to come.

I appreciate all the insight! It's good to hear others experiences with various software. Whatever system I implement I don't intend to bring it in full force until next season. However, I wanted to begin reviewing the options so I can better understand how they may effect our everyday while I'm in the thick of it. The way I see it is, I'm writing a lot of things down at various points in time that need to be done or should be done or whatever. Being that a large part of our teams problems have been keeping a flow of information throughout the flux of students, I'd like to have information such as my notes for projects and schedules recorded somewhere that can be referenced in the future if needed. My goal is to bring all the scattered bits of information together in an efficiently accessible manner so once we get the ball rolling, the momentum from the past can carry forward. A large piece of that seems to be having a central source for the current tasks, and keeping track of how long said tasks take an individual with a given set of skills.