The advertising description of most task trackers promises that it is their product that will help the team to manage projects more smoothly and achieve outstanding results. But in practice, the bottom line from most attempts to implement a task tracker is something like “abandoned after a month.” Here are 4 reasons why implementing a task tracker may not produce the results you want.
4 Reasons Why Your Task Tracker Isn’t Working
The Best Trackers
LeaderTask
LeaderTask is a product with the widest possibilities, and using it is even easier than creating a Hellspin login. It allows you to work with projects according to different systems: Kanban, Get Things Done, Agile. Besides the function of setting and controlling tasks it includes CRM, calendar and chat. Inside the program you can create working groups on projects and communicate with colleagues in chat.
Things
It’s a German tasker with a concise design. It’s best suited for GTD work. Checklists and tags are provided for tasks. The tool is suitable for short-term planning of work and personal matters.
Trello
Best suited for small IT companies and startups. Its main feature is a convenient visualization of tasks on kanban boards. A separate board is created for each project or client and only the employees involved are invited. The program interface is simple and intuitive.
Thinking “Tasks” Instead of “Value Delivered to Customers”
Example. The goal of a project is to provide a customer with a drug analysis methodology that works in their lab. There are 2 teams working on the project: method development department and validation department. The development department created the methodology, the validation department passed it off. But as a result, the customer was not able to use this methodology on the equipment available to him: that is, the tasks assigned to the project are formally fulfilled, but the goal of the project has not been achieved.
4 Reasons Why Your Task Tracker Isn’t Working
Working only at the level of atomic tasks, often leads to problems:
- No one is responsible for delivering the final, completed result to the customer.
- Specialists don’t see the value in their work, which reduces motivation.
Tasks “Come Down From Above”
Many task trackers are designed in such a way that tasks come down “from above”: the manager creates tasks, assigns people responsible for them, and sets deadlines.
This results in a “double blow” to people’s motivation:
- A person doesn’t take the task explicitly into his/her work (and thus doesn’t assume any commitment), he/she doesn’t “own” the task.
- The specialist has no opportunity to choose a project/task that interests him.
Unlimited Number of Tasks in the Job
A typical situation: 33 tasks are in progress, including 8 urgent, 2 burning tasks, and one from the Supreme Boss. And new tasks keep arriving.
This situation leads to:
- Conflicting priorities (it’s not clear what to grab for first).
- Longer deadlines.
- Unpredictability in terms of time and quality.
- Overloading the team.
Looking at the board, people should know what to do, what to work on first. If the board looks like the picture, you want it to close quickly and never open again.
A Task Tracker Doesn’t Allow You to Measure and Visualize Production Time
Some managers focus on the “number of hours” an employee directly worked on a task, rather than how long it took to deliver the result to the customer.
For example, an employee worked on a task for 1 hour, but waited 8 weeks for the data. The question is, how long did it take the customer to get the result they were waiting for?