Best Practices for Managing Small Projects and Agile Teams in Asana

[Jan-Rienk]

Hi @Frank_So ,

Interesting questions.

@Frank_So

I’m opening this discussion to gather insights and ideas on Asana best practices for managing small projects (e.g., 2-week duration) with smaller teams (around 10 people).

I would refrain from giving “best practice” advice, as work management is too complex. Every team is different, and I don’t fully know your context, and I’m sceptical towards anyone claiming to know what’s best. I have some ideas about good practice and continuous improvement though.

@Frank_So

1. Task and Subtask Structure:

• Do you recommend creating a single project with main tasks and subtasks under each main task, or is there a better approach for small, agile projects?

I don’t have nearly enough context to start answering this. How are you working currently? What do you like about it and what don’t you?

@Frank_So

2. Managing Notifications:

Team members have expressed concerns about receiving too many tasks in their inbox. They prefer tasks to be assigned only when needed to avoid overload. How can we manage assignments and notifications more effectively while maintaining clarity and accountability?

What’s the need for assigning work? If you’re working in an agile way, isn’t it sufficient to make the team collaborators on the desired outcome (Which I’d use the milestone for) and leave it up to them to self assign work?

@Frank_So

3. Agile Workflow and Date Ranges:

• Since this is an agile project, tasks aren’t worked on serially but collaboratively within a defined date range. For example:
  • All tasks might have the same start and end date (e.g., Week 1-2).
• Would adding milestones at the end of each task be a good way to track progress? Or are there other strategies to balance collaboration while avoiding rigid due dates?

Milestones are a desired state of things. Good practice would be to start describing tasks with a verb, as it is an activity, and use milestones to describe the valuable outcome you want your team to achieve. This is why milestones can’t have a start date.

I’m begining to wonder what you mean by “agile project”. Is there a specific framework you are using?

@Frank_So

We’re transitioning from a very serial approach where a single task was reassigned between team members as work progressed. While this approach kept notifications manageable, it also created inefficiencies and limited collaboration.

Agile Software Development was born as a counter to traditional project(mis)management, in software. I generally don’t care about whether something is agile or not, but if it works, which often requires using the right tool for the job. In my experience (within the spirit of agility) it is often good to iterate on the current process to improve. Keep wat works, find ways to improve what doesn’t work.

So how are you working now, and what’s the most important think you’d want to change to make it more collaborative?

Regarding bundles, see this article to find my reccommended practice when using bundles: Streamline work using Bundles