Overview of 5 control systems for cleaning up tasks

In large teams of 20 employees there is such a problem – a mess in the tasks. Timing breaks down, work is slowed down. Therefore, on the market there are many systems for managing tasks that somehow solve this problem.

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For over 2 years we have been developing our YouGile management system. And, of course, we often test competitor systems and study them in detail. We look who offers what tools. We draw conclusions, get inspired and improve our functionality.

What is a task management system? What functions allow you to clean up your tasks?

We thought for a long time. And after a 3-week brainstorm, communication with customers and surveys, 5 criteria were identified. According to these criteria, we made this review.

Criteria and review of 5 task management systems, including our own – below.

5 criteria of a task management system:

1. Ease of setting a task for yourself and your colleagues

The button for creating tasks in the system interface should be a priority. So that any new employee who works in the system for 2 minutes can easily find it.

2. The convenience of a personal planner

Convenience refers to the classification and sorting of tasks. So that any user can immediately see: yeah, these are my tasks, but those that I set. Here are all the tasks of Petit, and here the deadline is already approaching. But my private tasks, they are available only to me.

3. The ability to create a company structure with departments

If the team has more than 20 people, a clear structure is needed. Hierarchy of employees and division of departments. The structure determines who can pose what task to whom and who sees what tasks.

4. Workflow transparency

It is important to understand who is overloaded with tasks and who is “underloaded”, who should set the task, and who better not to distract. This is convenient not only in the paradigm of “manager-employee”, but also “employee-employee”. Why again pull a colleague, if you can just look into his task.

5. The completeness of the picture of the results of work on the tasks in the reports

The report should give an understanding: which tasks were completed and which were not. Which employee / department completed the plan, and which – not to the end. What tasks required the greatest amount of time.

Overview of 5 task management systems

Yougile

Convenient task setting

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Create a task in YouGile in 1 click

Previously, in our system, tasks could only be set on the boards. But customers asked us for a “magic button” to create cards in 1 click. This really greatly simplifies the work of ordinary employees.

Manage your tasks

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Personal planner: “Tasks on me”, “Assigned by me”, “Personal tasks”, “Chosen ones”

The personal planner is presented in the form of the section “My Tasks”. There, each user sees what he installed and what was delivered to him. Keeps its private tasks. We consider the availability of privacy to be very valuable, because this often happens: I want to make a draft card for myself, start working on it – and only then share it with my colleagues.

Task classification

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Development board with stickers

YouGile uses stickers to classify tasks, text labels similar to tags. With their help, the card is assigned a certain value: status, priority, status. You can create absolutely any text sticker.

Company structure with departments

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Company structure with departments and employees in YouGile

The structure is needed to divide employees into departments, indicate positions and choose the rules of interaction within the department. Configure task management and access rights. Assign managers to each department with group management capabilities.

Work transparency

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The Alien Tasks section of YouGile

In the “Alien Tasks” section, you can see who is working on what, who has set what task, and which tasks have not been completed. Access to other people’s tasks is regulated within the department. You can make everyone see each other’s tasks, set without the structure of the boards. And you can give this privilege only to leaders.

Performance evaluation

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Tool for evaluating workload by project and employee

YouGile has reports and summaries, and in the near future we plan to release another tool. I want to clearly see who and what was downloaded, and what download will be in the near future to each employee or department.

Asana

Convenient task setting

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1-click task setting in Asana

The task can be set in 1 click without binding to the boards. All tasks are displayed in the My Tasks section. At any time, the task can be attached to one of the projects by clicking “Add to projects”. In the project, all tasks are already displayed systematically, in the form of a list of tasks, calendar, timeline (available in the paid version) or classic boards.

Manage your tasks

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Classification of their tasks by priority

Any newly created task will be private until you link it to a public project. You can also sign up colleagues for a task. This is very convenient: you can create a “go to dinner” card, invite your friends there and discuss.

In the personal planner “My Tasks” tasks are sorted by the groups “Today”, “Upcoming”, “Later”. In the paid version, you can also display separately all the tasks that you created and which you assigned to your colleagues.

Task classification

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Tags on tasks in Asana

Each task can be assigned any tag, denoting it with its color. For example: “advertising”, “text”, “video”, “online school”. If you think through and implement a common tag system for all, there will be order in the tasks.

Company structure with departments

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Marketing Department: Employees and Projects

Asana has the opportunity to create as many different departments as you like, add employees there and begin work on projects and tasks. However, there is no rigid hierarchy, the system of rights is very democratic, and the ordinary employee essentially has the same rights as the head.

Work transparency

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Asana Marketing Task Calendar

Asana’s workflows are very transparent, and access rights are democratic. In the calendar, everyone can see all the tasks of colleagues. Both for a specific project and for a specific employee (except for private ones).

Performance evaluation

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Progress tool for viewing overall work results

The Progress tool displays the number of completed, unfinished, and past due tasks for a project. The Reports tool displays all your tasks and tasks that you set for your colleagues.

Pyrus

Convenient task setting

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Create a task in Pyrus in 1 click

In Pyrus interfaces, task creation is a priority. Everything is easy and intuitive, long-term employee training is not required.

Manage your tasks

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Personal Scheduler in Pyrus: My Tasks and My Tasks

In Personal Scheduler, too, everything is simple and logical: tasks from me, tasks for me. Separately displayed active, separately – completed. There should not be a mess.

Task classification

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Classification of tasks in Pyrus: “Deferred”, “On control”, “Recent”

This system has many cool features for working with tasks. Can be postponed until later. You can put it in control. You can do repetitive tasks. Sorting is by activity of tasks and by time.

Company structure with departments

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Company structure with departments in Pyrus

It’s easy to “draw” a clear structure with departments and subdivisions. True, the system of rights and access to tasks is quite complicated: there is an administrator, leader, manager and accountant.

Work transparency

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Foreign tasks in Pyrus. Work transparency

Workflows are transparent, even too much. You can display all the tasks of any employee. There are essentially no private tasks. Only a user with administrator privileges can set privacy.

Performance evaluation

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Evaluation of time spent by employees and tasks

One of Pyrus’ “chips” is the calculation of the time spent by each employee on all tasks for a selected period of time.

Wrike

Convenient task setting

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Create a task in Wrike in 1 click

This system also has a “magic button” for setting tasks in the form of a green plus sign, which is hard to miss. And besides this, the tasks can be posed in several other ways.

Manage your tasks

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Personal planner in Wrike

Wrike provides many options: copy and repeat tasks, make it private or public, add to Favorites and transfer from projects to My Tasks. You can follow the selected task or suggest colleagues to follow. Add dependencies and relationships between tasks.

There are also their own “chips.” Sending a colleague an automatic question about how things are progressing on the task. The function of mass change tasks. Milestones are tasks that are used as milestones to mark an important event or decision point.

Task classification

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Sort tasks in Wrike

Wrike is generally imprisoned for complex multi-stage projects, but the average user will have enough understanding of where his tasks are and how to sort them. Sorting – by date, priority, status, importance. Only active tasks or only expired ones can be displayed separately.

Work transparency

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The tasks of colleagues are displayed in a separate list only if you are their author

The tasks that you entrusted lie in the “Created by Me” section. In general, transparency in the work is a bit lacking. You can display all the tasks of colleagues in a separate list only by creating your own widget in the premium version.

Project Workload Evaluation

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Wrike Reports and Workload Evaluation

Reports available in the paid version allow you to see the general state of affairs for projects and teams, and they are updated in real time with each new opening. You can find out how tasks are overdue and what slows down the team.

Ganttpro

Convenient task setting

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Adding a task to a project in GanttPro

At first glance, the system does not seem very “public”: you need to understand what the Gantt chart is, where is the button for setting tasks … But it isn’t – tasks are set only within the framework of the project. But if the project is created, then it is not so difficult to train users to add tasks.

Manage your tasks

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My Tasks at GanttPro

The functionality for managing tasks in this system is very wide. There is “My Tasks” for employees, where everything is simple and clear. And there is a Gantt chart for managers and connoisseurs, where it’s convenient to change task levels, set priority, dependencies and time, track progress and “play” tasks as you like, dragging them right on the scale.

Task classification

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Sorted “My Tasks”

You can sort tasks by 17 parameters: date of creation, executor, priority, status, time spent, progress, cost …

Company structure with departments

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Employees and rights in the system

The company’s complex and clear structure cannot be built, but it’s easy to set up a rights system. Participants can only work on the tasks that are assigned to them. Administrators can create projects and view their cost.

Project Workload Evaluation

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GanttPro Reports and Workload Evaluation

Cool function GanttPro – you can calculate the cost of the task and the project as a whole, depending on the resources expended. You can create reports over time that employees spend on tasks.

Conclusions:

  • On yougile – The emphasis is on task management for teams of 20 people or more.
  • In Asana – the broadest functionality for working with tasks that can be set both in the structure of boards in projects and in the Personal Planner. However, there are difficulties with excessive democratic user rights.
  • In pyrus – A large number of unique “chips”, from counting time and pending tasks to creating chat bots for routine tasks and integration with internal company systems. There is not enough opportunity for all employees to create private tasks.
  • In wrike – many functions: repeat tasks, transfer from projects to the scheduler, create milestone tasks (breakpoints), edit tasks in bulk. However, in general, the system is focused on working with complex multi-stage projects, and not with tasks as such.
  • At ganttpro – a lot of cool “tricks” for managers and managers: calculating the cost of tasks and projects, counting the resources spent, counting time, sorting tasks by 17 parameters. True, it requires a little longer training of ordinary employees.

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