The development and implementation of the project requires a sensible division of tasks and labour within the team. Students must define fields of activity (‘work packages’), prioritise different tasks and allocate them according to the skills and expertise of the team members.
Students should define the individual work packages, set deadlines and determine how many team members should work on each package. The clearer the tasks in terms of content, estimated time scale and projected resource requirements, the smoother the cooperation among the students.
Some tasks are more important than others. Students should organise their tasks in terms of priority. Several methods can be used for this, e.g. the Pareto Principle, ABC Prioritisation or the Eisenhower Method, which arranges tasks according to urgency and importance.
As a next step, the students distribute the defined work packages among the team members. Tasks can be given to individuals or to sub-groups. The personal resources contributed by each team member form the central aspect in the task allocation process. This includes experience, skills and expertise as well as availability. On accepting a task, students assume responsibility for a certain part of the project and contribute to the overall responsibility of the team.
Students need strict schedules to fulfil their tasks in the available time. Time management, which is relevant both at the overall project level (for the whole group) and at the individual level, is closely linked with prioritisation. Some of the above prioritisation tools combine both aspects.
Trello is a (free) digital time and task management tool that helps teams jointly manage their project, define tasks, maintain checklists, indicate do’s and done’s, etc. Trello comes in a desktop and an app version and can be accessed from any device.