Create task, box, board, or add slices?

When you create a project or a recipe you are presented with some nice options. It depends on how simple or robust your project will be.

It's important to note that you have the luxury of starting with one of the above options when you're not sure which is better and later add the others. For example, if you're not sure, start with just creating tasks first. You can then add slices, which will automatically move your tasks into the first slice and then you can drag them into other slices. Can also also start with tasks and add boxes later with the same idea. Now on to the different option explained in detail, but first check out the How-To Video.

How-To Video

When to use one over the other?

Good question! The answer can be very subjective and is totally up to you. However, let's think about this together.

• When should I use slices? One nice benefit of using slices is to be able to look at the Project List page portfolio of projects and see what the progress is at different project phases. The same with an open project. It's nice to see what is going on at a glance without needing to drill down to see high-level progress. A second reason to use slices is to beak up a larger project that has a lot of content. 
• What about using a lot of boxes instead of slices? You could do this, but you would miss out on the slice visualization on the Project List page. If you end up with more than 7 or so boxes and feel you have to scroll horizontally to see more boxes, consider the balance of adding more slices that contain fewer boxes.
• When should I user just a list of task with no slices or boxes? If you have a super small projects with only a dozen or so tasks, this is a good approach. No need to add depth with structure from slices and boxes and it's so simple.
• When should I use boxes? If you have a lot of tasks in one list, such as more than 15 or 20, consider grouping them with boxes. This will visually break up long lists into more consumable buckets of work. Also, consider boxes to be your key deliverables for that part of the project. With that mindset, then the box would contain the tasks needed to get done to deliver that deliverable. For example, a box could be labeled "Create Project Charter" and the tasks would be what to do to build the components of the charter including the reviews and sign-offs. In addition, the boxes have a nice process flow visual to them. Of course your team can execute the tasks under the box based on the task start and due dates without needing to think about the order of the boxes, but the box order is helpful for the most part for an orderly flow.
• When should I use a board? The board is nice to use when you want to visually see all tasks at once and to see them grouped by their progress states rather than by their due dates. Many people give their board columns labels that specify the state, such as "not started", "in progress", etc. If you use a board this way, then when you drag a task from one column to the next, you're basically showing their progress. The board is excellent for an agile model because you can easily drag the tasks back to a previous board to represent starting the task over for correction or improvement. That's why many developers use the board view for managing development requirements and bug tickets.

For a really small project — Click Create Task

Let's say you have a quick and dirty project that has only a dozen to to two dozens tasks. Instead of reaching for that spreadsheet to list them, throw them under a Pie project.

1. Create project. (Same with create a recipe.)
2. Then immediately click Create Task.
3. To create a board with tasks, click on Create Board. 

That's it! Just go ahead and create a list of tasks in the task list view or if you created a board, create tasks under any column. If you don't know if you project will have a lot of tasks yet, no worries. You can start with tasks only and add more structure (such as add slices) later. 

The following is an example simple project with only tasks.

As you can see above, the project has only seven tasks for planning a vacation. It's so simple that I didn't need to slice up the pie.

For a medium sized project — Click Add Slices, then Create Task

Ok, now you find yourself with more than 20 tasks and you start to think about grouping them into phases. Let's say you have your planning or setup tasks, then your building tasks, and then closing things out tasks. 

1. Create project. (Same with create a recipe.)
2. Click Add Slices button and follow the steps to add slices, which are like project phases. For example, you can choose an existing slice set like "Plan, Build, Close" or create your own.
3. Then select a slice and click Create Task to build a list of task for that slice.
   
    

The term "slice" is synonymous with "phase" or "stage".

If you had already started a project with only tasks and no slices, when you add slices, Pie will automatically place all of your tasks inside the first slice. From there, you can drag and drop to move them to other slices.

The following is an example project with slices and tasks. 

In the above image, the medium sized project was sliced up into three phases, Interview, Set Up, and Exit for onboarding a new employee. Note the first slice was clicked to show its tasks. Clicking other slices would show their tasks.

For larger projects — Add Slices, Create Box, then Create Task

What happens if slicing up the pie is not deep enough and you need a process flow and a work breakdown structure for a more robust project. That's where "process boxes" come into play. Think of a box like a project sub-phase, milestone, or deliverable that contains its own list of tasks for getting that work done. Create a few boxes in a row based on your process needs.

1. Create project. (Same with create a recipe.)
2. Click add slices as in the medium example above.
3. Click Create Box and label it for a group of tasks. 
4. Then click Create Task and add a list of tasks for each box. You can drag and drop task between boxes.
   
   

See help article on creating, editing, and moving boxes.

See help article on who can and can't do things with boxes.

If you started your project or recipe with only slices and tasks, you can click on the kabab (three blue dots) to the right of the Create Task button and then click "Create box to contain these tasks" to convert your slice with tasks into a slice with a box and tasks. You can then create more boxes and drag your tasks into any box.

The following is an example of a project with slices, process boxes, and tasks.

In the above example, we have a systems implementation project with five slices for phases. I clicked on the Plan slice and you can see the three process boxes under that phase. I then clicked on the first box Determine Project Needs to reveal its tasks.

Our goal with this pie and process model is to make it easier for your team members to consume work that needs to be done without feeling overwhelmed by the complexities sometimes found in other project tools that are more task list based. Give it a try! You're like it!

Create a board

You can easily create a kanban board as an option for a simple, medium, or large project. Just click the Create Board button to get start. Watch the How-To Video at the top of this page for details on how to set up a board and best strategies for using which button option.

Can I create boxes or a board without slices?

Yep! No problem. When you create a project (or recipe) you can first create boxes and tasks without slicing up your pie. The only difference is on the Project List page, you won't see the box divisions as you would if you used slices. The pie visual will look like any other non-sliced pie. Other than that, you're welcome to just use boxes without slices.

You can also create a project with no slices and a single board. Just like the above, but instead of clicking create boxes, click create board.

It's best to watch the How-To Video at the top of this page for a better explanation.

Enjoy!