Having the right tool, or set of tools, to do any job is critical for minimizing frustration and maximizing production and efficiency. The first time I remember being taught this was when I started learning to shovel snow. I say learning because it was a process, and sometimes that process was very frustrating and taught me a lesson. My grandpa had sent me out to shovel his driveway with a flat nose shovel. It did ok, but it took a long time to scoop, toss, step forward… over and over again. I didn’t realize it at the time but he had only intended me to use the flat nose shovel to loosen the compact parts from the car driving through. He had set out the regular snow shovel, but I didn’t bother to stop and ask why. It just never occurred to me to consider swapping out tools for the different parts of the job.
When I was almost done my grandpa came back out and asked me why I was using the little flat nose vs the large snow pusher type shovel and showed me the difference between the two. Both shovels did the job, but they did not to the job equally. I very much felt like I had been trying to take big bites with a little spoon. As an adult I have three shovels for snow- a flat heavy duty one for breaking up compact snow and ice, a lighter one with a long handle for pushing a few inches of snow from one side of the driveway to the other, and a scoop shovel with a special tension handle for scooping and throwing deep snow quickly. I appreciate the lesson my grandpa taught me on this… on using the right tool. My knees and back especially appreciate that lesson the older I get. Like shoveling snow, picking the right tools for software development projects is important for optimizing production and efficiency and minimizing frustration.
Asana is the project management tool that my group is using to track our tasks, schedule resources, plan sprints, and overall manage the workflow of our Wine Data Lake senior project. Jira is another project management tool that I use daily in my job. It is used to schedule sprints, manage tasks, track bugs, and perform overall issue tracking and project workflows. Both products sound similar but they are very different in their usability and user experience. This may be directly correlated to the specifics of the way that they are used or, as was the case with the snow shoveling situation, the size and type of job.
Before getting too far along into using Asana, I recognized right away how easy it is to use. I downloaded the desktop version and within an hour had several tasks scheduled and notifications set. I was so excited with how easy it was to make changes to items, set dependencies, modify the appearance, and setup/filter out notifications. We have a very basic workflow that we are following. Conversely, the way I use JIRA in my job has different workflows for every type of task, bug type, story, etc. Time estimates are based on a point system and some tasks can overlap in points and some track from start to finish. Each ticket has a parent epic and belongs in a very specific project. And each of these things can be linked to each other, to a person, to a requirements repository, software lifecycle processes/control points, etc. I don’t think I can full describe the massive spiderweb of information and controls that are being managed with the JIRA software. But I do think that I have given a little feel for the way I am using both tools. I am using the free basic version of Asana. Jira also has a free version, but I am using the enterprise version for work. Both tools have strengths and weaknesses. While I would love using something like Asana for work, I have come to appreciate that the two tools are better used differently.
The important thing to take away from this (that I have taken away from it) is to look around online, check reviews, check strengths and weaknesses, solicit feedback from other users, maybe play around with free versions of software tools before committing to using one for a project. When we first started discussing tools for this senior project I immediately went towards “use what you know- push to use Jira”. But I am glad that my group member suggested and pushed for Asana. Because JIRA is like a snowblower. It may work great for clearing driveways and sidewalks when the snow is deep but doesn’t really work very well when there is just a little snow and or ice. Where conversely, the way we are using Asana it can handle the ice and small volume of snow and is, essentially, the perfect sized spoon for the perfect sized bite.
