How do web development teams typically structure Trello boards—one board per project or per feature?

[Kamal Deep Pareek]

Web development teams often use Trello to manage tasks, but there’s no universal approach to board structure. Some teams prefer one board per entire project to keep everything centralized, while others break it down into separate boards for features, sprints, or departments (e.g., design, frontend, backend). What’s worked best for your team? Do you find it more productive to segment boards or keep everything in one place? Let’s share setups, pros and cons, and lessons learned.

[Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kamal Deep Pareek 

Trello is an amazing tool for Digital Marketing and Web Development teams.  I am biased but it is the very best fit in the market for these use cases right now.

Trello's greatest strength can also be its greatest challenge. It is so simple/flexible/powerful, you can make Trello do what you want instead of other tools that tell you how to do things.

But that amount of freedom is overwhelming, there is no right or wrong and aside from a few templates, very little guidance.

My advice is to visualise how your team(s) work, on a whiteboard, paper, it doesn't really matter (I use Canva whiteboards for this). Then basically set Trello up in the same way). You're unlikely to get it right first time so start simple and continually adapt as you understand more the things you do and don't want.

I've consulted for a fair few web dev teams and how they use Trello is wide ranging and varied. 

What they all do is fit Trello to their process, which is why there is no set rule. 

There are a few best practice tips though:

1. Scale boards sensibly. As a rule, I say you need different boards when:
   1. The team is different
   2. The context is different (E.g I wouldn't have the same board for projects and CRM)
2. Trello works best when it is moving - Structure lists as your workflow stages and cards move through the workflow
3. Utilise Members, labels and filters 
4. Think of a central source of truth and utilise Trello card mirroring to encourage that
   1. You have a board of customer projects, where the project goes through 3 teams, Creative, Web-dev, and SEO.  
   2. The master card is on the projects board and follows the high level project workflow
   3. When it is time for Creative team to pick the card up, mirror it to their board and they can run the mirror through their workflow. When they have finished, it is handed off to Web-dev using a mirror on their board etc...

[James Wood]

The structure of Trello boards can vary depending on the team size and project complexity, but most web development teams prefer organizing boards per project rather than per feature. Having one board per project helps centralize all tasks, bugs, and discussions related to that project in a single place, making it easier to track progress and collaborate. Within the board, teams usually create lists or cards for different features, sprints, or stages of development. However, for very large projects, some teams might break down boards by major features or components to keep things manageable. It’s all about finding a balance that fits your workflow and keeps communication clear.