Paul, Very detailed article! One issue I have with Asana as a project management app is that managing projects is not only creating tasks or to do lists. Managing real life projects, other tools are needed which are not found in asana. I used asana for a while and I had to switch for the following reasons. 1-Asana does not support dependency, so there are no relationship between tasks 2-It supports sub-tasks only 3 level deep, not enough for complex projects 3-There is no built in Gantt. Yes, there is a third party Gantt that could be used , but it is never like tightly integrated built in tool. 4-The app does not support resource allocation, working hours in a day, hourly tasks, weekend & holiday calendar for the team etc.
For the above reason I tried a few other apps. Clarizen was way too expensive, Basecamp was not much better than asana etc. I have been using binfire.com for the past 18 month. Meg
Thanks for the awesome comment. @tyelmene:disqus said something similar below. It's definitely not a full blown project management tool. But I guess if you want to get an entire team or organisation using is (and not everyone is clued up on project management) then you want to keep things simple. However if you are managing a project and need something more advanced for personal use then there may be better alternatives out there.
Paul, Very detailed article! One issue I have with Asana as a project management app is that managing projects is not only creating tasks or to do lists. Managing real life projects, other tools are needed which are not found in asana. I used asana for a while and I had to switch for the following reasons. 1-Asana does not support dependency, so there are no relationship between tasks 2-It supports sub-tasks only 3 level deep, not enough for complex projects 3-There is no built in Gantt. Yes, there is a third party Gantt that could be used , but it is never like tightly integrated built in tool. 4-The app does not support resource allocation, working hours in a day, hourly tasks, weekend & holiday calendar for the team etc. For the above reason I tried a few other apps. Clarizen was way too expensive, Basecamp was not much better than asana etc. I have been using http://binfire.com for the past 18 month. Meg
Thanks for the awesome comment. @tyelmene:disqus said something similar below. It's definitely not a full blown project management tool. But I guess if you want to get an entire team or organisation using is (and not everyone is clued up on project management) then you want to keep things simple. However if you are managing a project and need something more advanced for personal use then there may be better alternatives out there.
This is without a doubt, the most in-depth post I've ever read about Asana. I've been using it for over 18 months, but I still learned some new stuff here. The effort that went into this article was well spent. Thanks for great insights, Paul.
One question for you though. Do you use Asana both for your work team and your personal task management? I use Asana for work stuff, but for personal projects I use Todoist. I'm on the fence about having two systems. There are pros and cons of both, I know. It would be great to get your thoughts on this.
Thanks for the great feedback Nick. Glad you like the article and are enjoying the longer form content.
Good question - I use Asana at work within a team. I have another account for planning everything I'm doing on the website. For example I have projects for planning out my editorial calendar, listing website improvements I need to make etc... For "personal" stuff I use the Apple Reminders app on my phone. It's very simple but that's fine with me (plus I can ask Siri to "Remind me.." very quickly).
This is without a doubt, the most in-depth post I've ever read about Asana. I've been using it for over 18 months, but I still learned some new stuff here. The effort that went into this article was well spent. Thanks for great insights, Paul. One question for you though. Do you use Asana both for your work team and your personal task management? I use Asana for work stuff, but for personal projects I use Todoist. I'm on the fence about having two systems. There are pros and cons of both, I know. It would be great to get your thoughts on this.
Thanks for the great feedback Nick. Glad you like the article and are enjoying the longer form content. Good question - I use Asana at work within a team. I have another account for planning everything I'm doing on the website. For example I have projects for planning out my editorial calendar, listing website improvements I need to make etc... For "personal" stuff I use the Apple Reminders app on my phone. It's very simple but that's fine with me (plus I can ask Siri to "Remind me.." very quickly).
I really like Asana. It's a GREAT communication tool that can improve the implicit coordination of a team or small group in the context of work management. It correctly position's shared resources (like calendars) and bounded communication channels (like chat) within a conversation construct - all great stuff. And for lots of folks, Asana is a great solution to their coordination issues. But once solved, communicative coordination, may not be the issue. In work involving big or resource-intensive projects, it rarely is. It's important to know that communicative interaction is only half the problem-space in work management, almost always the trickiest half... but it's still only half. With Asana, you're not addressing things like resource capacities, time constraints, the responsibility/ownership of roles, organizational constructs... the other resource/work-processing half of work management. For that, you need to move up to next level tools. In my experience, there are only a few that truly facilitate the full scope of work management well, especially the project-centric work setting that Asana naturally serves. For full scope project-centric work management, I've only found one; TWProject - http://twproject.com/ - I have about 8 years experieince with TWProject (formerly called Teamwork) and have sought/tried many others for over the last ~15 years and though I'm likely biased after that experience, I can still report never finding a more comprehensive system to accomplish the scale/scope of these work management tasks. Asana is definitely going to set the communicative stage for more effective working results, but once you're communicating better within the work, other issues may surface. Just know, there are tools out there that solve those issues as well. - one old process engineer's opinion -
Thanks for the awesome insights! I think you're right - but I guess it depends on what you're looking for. I think this is a great simple solution to get started with. I feel that some of the stuff you're talking about is useful but could be a bit advanced for some people? Asana is great for those people who want a simple solution that gives them a better way to organise work and communicate. What do you think?
Paul I agree with you wholeheartedly. So many folks are struggling without truly collaborative tools like this and Asana works so well, that nearly every team will benefit by adopting it. This is plain, given the way you described your Asana adoption strategy/practices. After the depth you gave us here, I'm looking forward to Part 2
I really like Asana. It's a GREAT communication tool that can improve the implicit coordination of a team or small group in the context of work management. It correctly position's shared resources (like calendars) and bounded communication channels (like chat) within a conversation construct - all great stuff. And for lots of folks, Asana is a great solution to their coordination issues. But once solved, communicative coordination, may not be the issue. In work involving big or resource-intensive projects, it rarely is. It's important to know that communicative interaction is only half the problem-space in work management, almost always the trickiest half... but it's still only half. With Asana, you're not addressing things like resource capacities, time constraints, the responsibility/ownership of roles, organizational constructs... the other resource/work-processing half of work management. For that, you need to move up to next level tools. In my experience, there are only a few that truly facilitate the full scope of work management well, especially the project-centric work setting that Asana naturally serves. For full scope project-centric work management, I've only found one; TWProject - http://twproject.com/ - I have about 8 years experieince with TWProject (formerly called Teamwork) and have sought/tried many others for over the last ~15 years and though I'm likely biased after that experience, I can still report never finding a more comprehensive system to accomplish the scale/scope of these work management tasks. Asana is definitely going to set the communicative stage for more effective working results, but once you're communicating better within the work, other issues may surface. Just know, there are tools out there that solve those issues as well. - one old process engineer's opinion -
Thanks for the awesome insights! I think you're right - but I guess it depends on what you're looking for. I think this is a great simple solution to get started with. I feel that some of the stuff you're talking about is useful but could be a bit advanced for some people? Asana is great for those people who want a simple solution that gives them a better way to organise work and communicate. What do you think?
Paul I agree with you wholeheartedly. So many folks are struggling without truly collaborative tools like this and Asana works so well, that nearly every team will benefit by adopting it. This is plain, given the way you described your Asana adoption strategy/practices. After the depth you gave us here, I'm looking forward to Part 2
Very detailed article! One issue I have with Asana as a project management app is that managing projects is not only creating tasks or to do lists. Managing real life projects, other tools are needed which are not found in asana. I used asana for a while and I had to switch for the following reasons.
1-Asana does not support dependency, so there are no relationship between tasks
2-It supports sub-tasks only 3 level deep, not enough for complex projects
3-There is no built in Gantt. Yes, there is a third party Gantt that could be used , but it is never like tightly integrated built in tool.
4-The app does not support resource allocation, working hours in a day, hourly tasks, weekend & holiday calendar for the team etc.
For the above reason I tried a few other apps. Clarizen was way too expensive, Basecamp was not much better than asana etc. I have been using binfire.com for the past 18 month.
Meg
Very detailed article! One issue I have with Asana as a project management app is that managing projects is not only creating tasks or to do lists. Managing real life projects, other tools are needed which are not found in asana. I used asana for a while and I had to switch for the following reasons.
1-Asana does not support dependency, so there are no relationship between tasks
2-It supports sub-tasks only 3 level deep, not enough for complex projects
3-There is no built in Gantt. Yes, there is a third party Gantt that could be used , but it is never like tightly integrated built in tool.
4-The app does not support resource allocation, working hours in a day, hourly tasks, weekend & holiday calendar for the team etc.
For the above reason I tried a few other apps. Clarizen was way too expensive, Basecamp was not much better than asana etc. I have been using http://binfire.com for the past 18 month.
Meg
One question for you though. Do you use Asana both for your work team and your personal task management? I use Asana for work stuff, but for personal projects I use Todoist. I'm on the fence about having two systems. There are pros and cons of both, I know. It would be great to get your thoughts on this.
Good question - I use Asana at work within a team. I have another account for planning everything I'm doing on the website. For example I have projects for planning out my editorial calendar, listing website improvements I need to make etc... For "personal" stuff I use the Apple Reminders app on my phone. It's very simple but that's fine with me (plus I can ask Siri to "Remind me.." very quickly).
One question for you though. Do you use Asana both for your work team and your personal task management? I use Asana for work stuff, but for personal projects I use Todoist. I'm on the fence about having two systems. There are pros and cons of both, I know. It would be great to get your thoughts on this.
Good question - I use Asana at work within a team. I have another account for planning everything I'm doing on the website. For example I have projects for planning out my editorial calendar, listing website improvements I need to make etc... For "personal" stuff I use the Apple Reminders app on my phone. It's very simple but that's fine with me (plus I can ask Siri to "Remind me.." very quickly).