Martin Wright

Could this be a cheap development alternative to a MacbookPro?

• Chromebook
• MacinCloud

Update: an interesting article covering the use of Chromebook for development – Reviewing the $250 Samsung Chromebook as a Developer

Trello is a simple, easy to use to do list. It assists with project planning and task management. Its very easy to quickly create, manage and complete a piece of work with Trello.

As a personal productivity tool its great, but it really comes into its own when used as part of a team. It’s simple to create an account and invite others to your Trello board. There is also another level of user management by creating an organization to assign users.

The Basics

The highest item is a board. A board contains cards. Cards can be flipped to show the details.

Workflow

The three default boards are called To Do, Doing and Done. Add your items to the To Do list. Get started on one of your tasks and move it to the Doing board. When it’s done, move it to the Done board. When all tasks are done, the board can be archived off. Simple.

As an item is being completed, the card can be flipped, with further details added. Comments can be added to keep track of progress. Checklists can be added. (This comes into its own when a card is used as a template and is copied between boards). Checklist items can easily be resorted.

Repeated Tasks

Create a card with a checklist for a task that needs to be repeated. This card can then be used as a template for copying and renaming tasks.

Voting

The voting feature is useful for deciding which tasks should appear on the To Do list. This allows collection of ideas with voting to encourage the best ideas to rise to the top.

Mobility

An iPhone app, Android app and mobile friendly web version are all available. Your mileage may vary. I found that the iPhone app version didn’t really allow to do the nice drag ‘n’ drop gestures of the desktop app. This proved more useful for checking progress on the go than for using.

How much?

From the web site: “Trello is free forever. We may add pay-only features in the future, but everything that’s free today will be free tomorrow and forever.”

Is it safe?

Trello is brought to you and supported by Fog Creek Software – a trusted company. The service hit 500,000 users in July 2012. All your data can be exported as JSON.

How secure?

It’s all done over HTPS/SSL. Login is possible using your Google Account.

So, how are you using Trello?