Project Schedule and Estimating Activity Duration

 When it comes to an instructional design project (ID), one of the project manager's roles is to manage the schedule, budget, and task breakdown. There are various tools and resources that can make a significant difference in creating the "ideal" schedule that a project manager could use. This week, I explored different resources and found two that would be useful for future ID projects.

Trello: www.trello.com

 

Trello is a user-friendly project management tool with a visually appealing interface that users would find helpful (Trello, n.d). I set up a free trial with Trello and found many features that would make a project manager's role more effective. It can help a project manager break down tasks into boards, lists, and cards, which would help organize and prioritize different tasks (Trello, n.d). Trello can allow the user to map out tasks, assign responsibilities, and track progress in real-time. Trello has templates for users to use and share, and it integrates with Google Calendar. What I found to be extremely helpful was the ability to create a board and use cards as a way to detail each task breakdown with clear due dates. You can also generate Gantt charts from your Trello boards through integration with Placker. This allows the project manager or whoever can visualize project timelines and dependencies (Placker, n.d).

 

Smartsheet: www.smartsheet.com

 

Smartsheet is an advanced platform designed for different cases, such as project management, event management, capital projects, etc (Smartsheet, n.d). It is very useful for more complex projects that require detailed scheduling, budgeting, and resource allocation (Smartsheet, n.d). Smartsheet allows the user to create Gantt charts, track budgets, and set up dependencies. This is ideal for any ID project with a large scope or tight deadlines. I also set up a free trial and found various templates that a user could use. As a project manager, Smartsheet (n.d) has a template called "Project with Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS)." This would be an ideal template for an ID project. There are different dashboards, such as task tracker, project dashboard, tasks by status, tasks due, WBS phase, and process map. If you don't want to use a template, you can create one from scratch. Smartsheet also features a Gantt chart for the user to implement into their design. The templates are downloadable and can be shared with team members.

 

Conclusion:

 

Both Trello and Smartsheet are effective tools for planning and managing an instructional design project. Trello uses boards, lists, and cards for a visual approach. It is easy to learn and use, with features that can make collaboration strong and file sharing easy. It is less robust when it comes to complete data management or reporting, and has less data analysis compared to Smartsheet. Smartsheet, on the other hand, features a spreadsheet-like interface with flexible views, such as a Gantt chart. It can handle large datasets and complex projects and has strong analysis and data management capabilities. However, it may take the user some time to learn Smartsheet. Either way, both have features that project managers could use to create ideal schedules, break down each task, and track progress.

 

References

 

Placker. (n.d.). https://placker.com/index.html

 

Smartsheet. (n.d.). Modern project & work management Platform | SmartSheet. https://www.smartsheet.com/

 

Trello. (n.d.). Capture, organize, and tackle your to-dos from anywhere | https://trello.com/home

 

 

 

Comments

  1. CaitlynnHamMarch 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM

    Great breakdown of Trello and Smartsheet! I appreciated how you highlighted the unique strengths of each tool—Trello’s intuitive, visual task management versus Smartsheet’s robust data handling and scheduling capabilities.

    A thought to consider: How might a project manager decide which tool to use when managing a team with varying levels of tech-savviness? Could the learning curve of a tool like Smartsheet impact team efficiency or adoption in an ID project?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kimberley By DesignMarch 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM

    Heather, your post clearly shows the similarities and differences between Trello and Smartsheet as ideal tools for project management, particularly with instructional design projects. From my reading, I discovered that “Trello’s easy-to-use interface makes it perfect for creating custom workflows; it lays out each project and task in a graphical manner to maximize the transparency, and team members get the latest developments in a project instantaneously as updates are made” (Chen & Chen, 2017, p.19). From reading your analysis of Trello and Smartsheet’s capabilities, I have gained a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of both tools.

    You mentioned the value of Gantt charts and how both tools integrate tracking features. This would be in keeping with the step five approach Larsen and Larsen (2012) present about developing a scope baseline where one identifies the work to be done. In doing so, projects with tight deadlines can be managed effectively. Do you believe one tool is more intuitive for new users, particularly for instructional designers with limited project management experience?

    References
    Chen, L. & Chen, X. (2017). How to Manage Library Projects With Trello. Computers in Libraries, 37(4), 19–23.

    Larson, E., & Larson R. (2012). 10 Steps to Creating a Project Plan. Retrieved from: https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/10-steps-to-creating-a-project-plan.html

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