How to do Effective Task Management in Orangescrum?

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Task Management is the vital part of Project Management. Effective task management leads to on-time & within budget project delivery. As a result we can achieve higher customer satisfaction and trust which fuels business growth.

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Why Effective Task Management is a challenge?

According to Wikipedia,

“Effective task management requires managing all aspects of a task, including its status, priority, time, human and financial resources assignments, recurrence, dependency, notifications and so on. These can be lumped together broadly into the basic activities of task management.”

When we say Task Management, it doesn’t mean only handling certain to do lists. We also need take care of major aspects such as resource allocation, time estimates, progress tracking and budget. Inconsistency of any one factor affects the entire task management process,causesdelays in project delivery and affects business.

Apart from these, there are other challenges too:-

Poorly defined goals &objectives
Improper task breakdown
Inadequate communication
Insufficient team skills
Ad hoc resource allocation
Decentralized teams
Lack of stakeholder engagement

Having a robust & centralized task management platform can reduce almost all of these instances instantly.

“Have used many, many different Project Management Software, and this so far has been the best!”

My overseas project team has been using this software to keep tickets working, communicate back and forth, and set deadlines. I love the way you can just respond back thru the same email that notified me of the tasks communication. – Cherri Newbury, President at Discount Coffee.com, Inc, USA

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More than the platform, it is the best practices that Orangescrum offers to ensure

Minimum distraction for your teams
Freedom from multiple tools
Absolute transparency of task execution
Instant chats, discussions & real time task progress updates
Better resource allocation & utilization
Improved project delivery and profitability

How to use Orangescrum for Effective Task Management?

Before jumping directly to features & usage, let me first explain the basic fields in Orangescrum’s Create Task form.

In order to Create Tasks, you can follow the below steps-

Click Quick Links > Task
In Create Task form, select the specific project under which you want to add the task.
Provide the below details in the form-
Task Title– Add the task title of the task
Assign To– Add Assignee of the task
Task Type– Choose the type of task. Task types are a custom task attribute that allows you to categorize tasks in a meaningful manner.
Priority– You can set desired task priorities as per the project plan. If the task needs to be completed fast or is important then you can mark it as high. If a task can be finished later, then you can mark it as low.
Task Group– Orangescrum helps to accomplish a specific task in a project in collaboration with proper information sharing without any conflicts.
“You can use Task Groups as a means to break your project into smaller manageable modules or phases.” If the task doesn’t belong to any modules or phase, then you can add it to the Default task group.
Task Description– Add task description for the tasks. Detailed overview of what the task is supposed to accomplish and any relevant instructions for the assignee.
Task Template- Like project template, if you have certain format which you use for task description, then you can create specific task templates and just add it to the task template. E.g. Minutes of Meeting, Task update format etc.
Using Task template, you can save time from defining task description manually while creating tasks.
Attachments– Attachment allows you to attach the files that is related or required for task execution. These could be specific plans, design docs, requirement sheets etc.
Start Date– The date on which the task will be started.
Due Date– The date on which task is to be completed.
Estimated Hour– Minimum hours required to complete the task.
Recurring– If the task is to be performed at certain intervals, then you can mark the task as Recurring & define the Recurring frequency.If you mark any task recurring then you don’t need to create the repetitively.“Orangescrum will auto create the tasks for you and notify you via email on the frequency set by you.”
Time Log– If you have worked on the task previously and you want to log spent hours for the task, then you can directly enter the time in this field while creating the task.Upon adding start time, end time & break hours, the spent hours will be auto-calculated.
Related to- This is task linking feature of Orangescrum. You can relate task to similar task using 3 link types- Related to, duplicated by & derived from. Once you have selected link type from above option, you need to add the task name in Linking task field
Label– Similar to task type, Labels are the custom attributes that are used to categorize tasks. You can assign multiple task labels to a single task.
Checklist– Checklist is type of to-do list or can be used as criteria in order to mark the task as complete. If you are doing any complicated task and there is possibility of missing any details before delivering the task, then you can add those items as checklist items.
Notify via Email– Users selected in this section will receive email notifications of the activities done in the task. If I select Mark Eben here, then he will be informed about the updates done to the task.
Don’t show the task to the Client-If you have clients added to the project &you don’t want client to see some tasks, you can select this option & your client will not be able to view these tasks or get the updates about the task.
Create another– If you would like to create another once this is created, then you can select the checkbox “Create another”. Once the task is created, anothercreate task form will be generated with same task group, assignee, task type & you can create another task. This way you can save time from adding repetitive data.
Once you have added all the details, click on ‘Save‘.

What information can Iget from the Task detail page?

Orangescrum assembles all data of a particular task in a single page. Task detail page of the task provides following information:-

Task title
Project to which it is associated with
Status of the task
Assignee of the task
Total estimated vs. spent hour
Priority
Start date, due date of task
Sub-tasks added under that task
Files attached to task
Checklist details
Time log in the task.
Activity in the task
Comments on the task.

How can I utilize information in the task detail page?

You can get total estimated vs spent hours of the particular task.
You can get information about the category of the task using task labels and task type.
Start date, due date & Assignee helps you know who is accountable and what are his/her deadlines for the task.
Status and progress percentage helps you know if the task is progressing as planned.
Sub-tasks section helps you identify the sub-sections of the task. Additionally, it also informs who is accountable for the sub-task and the deadlines.
Time log section provides information about the total time log & total billable & non-billable hours spent on it. This helps to identify the billable hours and send invoice to your client accordingly.
Activity section helps to main transparency about the activities happening for the task.
Comments section – you can quickly share quick updates, raise concerns, do reviews as required for task completion without using any additional media for communication. So this enhances the collaboration within the team.
Checklist helps you identify the minute yet important activities in that task. So you don’t forget to check this before closing the task.
From task detail page, you can also set task reminder for the task. If you are handling multiple meeting in a day, there is a possibility that you may miss one. In that case, you can create meetings as task with task type meeting and add reminder to it. Orangescrum will remind you 15 min before the actual time.

“Couldn’t be happier! This software looks amazing and works beautifully. Worth every penny!” – Joseph Mehm, President, Mehm.com, USA

What information can I get from task list page of a project?

There are multiple information which you can get from task list page of a project-

The usual task attributes for you to review progress and generate reports.
Task assigned to a particular resources and their status: Select the filter icon and select Assigned To. From the menu, select the resource name. Upon selecting the tasks will be filtered.
Total number of tasks and number of tasks in each status: You can find the total task count beside the project name and number of tasks per each status as shown in the image.
Task & Subtasks details: Click on Sub-task icon to find the parent task name
List of task with a particular status- Click beside the task status strip as shown in image and select the status to filter the task.
Get the list of high priority tasks: Select the filter icon and select Priority. From the menu, select the priority type. Upon selecting the tasks will be filtered.

Apart from this you can also perform move or copy tasks to other projects.

“OrangeScrum has a delightful blend of affordability and features. I love the task dashboards and views that are available.” – Max Jennings, Inbound Marketing Specialist, Infinity Digital Agency