How to manage a team with Trello, Jira and Bitrix24

Effective team management requires not only leadership skills but also organized work processes. It is important to distribute tasks, control employees’ workload and maintain communication. Collaboration tools such as Trello, Jira and Bitrix24 can be used for this.

The main problems of team management

When organizing teamwork, managers face several common problems:

• Employee effectiveness. You need to set suitable KPIs and track their fulfilment.
• Communication in the team. In distributed teams important messages can go unnoticed.
• Collaboration and task management. Suitable tools are needed to distribute tasks and control projects.
• Organizing remote work. It is important to build interaction between employees working from different places.
• Introducing work processes. The team needs clear rules for completing tasks.
• Workload. You need to take into account employees’ capabilities, availability and overtime to reduce the risk of burnout.
• Building trust. It is important for managers to maintain good relationships between team members, even if they are far from each other.

Collaboration tools help systematize tasks and organize employee interaction.

Let’s look at three applications:

• Trello.
• Jira.
• Bitrix24.

Each of these tools offers capabilities for managing work processes.

Trello for project management

Trello is a project management tool based on a system of cards and kanban boards.

You can assign tasks as cards, track their completion and move them between columns that match the stages of work.

This approach lets you build a consistent process of carrying out a task — from setting it to completion.

The team can create as many columns as needed and detail each stage.

For example, when launching a marketing campaign you can use the following columns:

• Idea.
• Tasks.
• Updates.
• Launch.
• Done.

To organize work, you can add tags to cards, attach files and set deadlines.

This helps team members track their own tasks and see the whole picture of the project.

Main features of Trello

• Creating and assigning task cards.
• Organizing step-by-step processes with columns.
• Adding checklists for subtasks.
• Use for small teams, personal projects and business.

More about the tool: “The secret of effective work. Trello (GTD)”.

Jira for planning and controlling tasks

Jira is a task tracking tool that helps teams plan projects, manage work and prepare reports.

The program brings together employees, tasks and work processes, allowing you to organize joint activity.

Teams use Jira to register and organize tasks, assign people responsible and track the completion of work.

The tool offers features for different stages of a project — from creation to completion.

During development it is important to systematically track problems that arise and control deadlines.

In Jira you can create tasks for yourself and team members, set deadlines and configure reminders.

Main features of Jira

• Project templates with customization options.
• Managing employees’ access rights.
• Generating reports to track progress and effectiveness.
• Control of task completion and project requirements.

More: “How to use Jira: a beginner’s guide”.

Bitrix24 for team management

Bitrix24 is a CRM system with tools for managing sales, marketing, clients and work processes.

The service lets you work with potential clients, manage sales funnels, segment the client base and organize e-commerce processes.

Bitrix24 may suit teams that need a CRM to track client interactions and manage sales and online stores.

Besides the CRM, the application offers internal communication features.

Employees can communicate in real time, discuss work questions and coordinate the completion of tasks.

Main features of Bitrix24

• A free plan with an unlimited number of users.
• Configurable access rights.
• Automatic assignment of potential clients.
• Project management tools.
• E-commerce capabilities.
• Creating invoices and commercial proposals.

More: “Why you need Bitrix24 and what kind of thing it is”.

How to choose a tool for a team

When choosing an application, consider the team’s tasks, communication specifics and the need to manage projects or client processes.

Trello offers a clear system of cards, Jira is focused on managing tasks and projects, and Bitrix24 combines a CRM with collaboration tools.

A suitable tool should help employees understand their tasks, track deadlines and interact with each other.