Trouble with Trello

In a previous post, I announced my excitement and anticipation of a Trello extension in Slack. I was eager to start using the application, and I promised a follow-up blog post about it. Well, here it is! For those of you whose memory eludes them, our very own classmate, Tim Bahula, did a wonderful blog post about Trello. If you don't have time to check that out, I'll give you a quick rundown about the software. Trello is a collaborative tool that helps users organize and allocate tasks to members working on a project. Essentially, the application consists of "lists" and "cards" that you use to coordinate and designate tasks.

Trello looked promising, and maybe it still is, but the honeymoon period wore off pretty quick for me. I was most excited about its seemingly seamless integration into our team's existing Slack communication platform. Trello appeared to have what Slack was lacking in task management tools. This is what Davis (1989) referred to in his Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (depicted below) as perceived usefulness (PU). Davis (1989) described that the successful adopt of a new technology is dependent on two factors: perceived ease of use (PEU) and PU. Both of these factors are believed to directly affect an individual's (or group's) behavioral intention (BI) to use or continue using a technology. What is important to note is that not only does PEU directly affect BI, but it also affects PU.

Although I originally perceived the tool as both easy to use and useful, I did not perceive it in the same way after integrating it with Slack. That is to say, I still see the efficacy of Trello on its own, but making it work with slack wasn't (still isn't) so easy. This mostly because of the long the list of commands that need to be referenced to in order to initiate an action from the Slack environment in Trello (I included a screenshot below of this command list). The commands are also too rigid, and frankly a pain in the neck, to work with a Trello board that has several "lists" also known as tasks. Since only one list can be assigned to each communication channel in Slack at a time, assigning participants to different lists and editing becomes cumbersome. 

Perhaps, it wouldn't be so difficult if I spent the time to learn the commands without having to look at a reference sheet. But, this is where my PEU of the tool is directly affecting my PU of it. The time required to develop the skills required to make Trello work seamlessly definitely isn't worth it for me (right now). But, I won't abandon the organizational tool just yet. This just means that I will continue to use Trello separately and not integrated directly with Slack. 

References:

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340.