In project management, a task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time or by a deadline to work towards work-related goals. A task can be broken down into assignments which should also have a defined start and end date or a deadline for completion. One or more assignments on a task puts the task under execution. Completion of all assignments on a specific task normally renders the task completed. Tasks can be linked together to create dependencies.
A task is a single unit of work – an action to accomplish in a project, a single step in a multistep project. A task is accomplished by a set deadline, and must contribute toward work related objectives. Tasks completion generally requires the coordination of others. Coordinated human interaction takes on the role of combining the integration of time, energy, effort, ability, and resources of multiple individuals to meet a common goal. Coordination can also be thought of as the critical mechanism that links or ties together the efforts on the singular level to that of the larger task being completed by multiple members. Coordination allows for the successful completion of the otherwise larger tasks that one might encounter.
In most projects, tasks may suffer one of two major drawbacks:
- Task dependency: Which is normal as most tasks rely on others to get done? However, this can lead to the stagnation of a project when many tasks cannot get started unless others are finished.
- Unclear understanding of the term complete: For example, if a task is 90% complete, does this mean that it will take only 1/9 of the time already spent on this task to finish it? Although this is mathematically sound, it is rarely the case when it comes to
practice.
A project is comprised of a series of different activities with a starting point, middle point and an ending point. Such activities are then divided into a number of tasks assigned to single individuals on the basis of their skills. Projects therefore are unable to complete by a single person or a couple of two because a project needs to have lots of activities to be performed by different skill holders. The process in which a project is organized in terms of time, resources and skills are called project management and the person is known as the project manager.
Through project management, a person classifies all the tasks in different categories, starting and ending time, required skills and qualification, deliverables, measurement plans and resources to be used. For the classification, project manager usually use and design a project task list.
For designing a project management task list, project managers use Microsoft excel however due to the advancement of technology, today project management task list software are also available that made it easy and convenient because such software are particularly designed for the purpose. The biggest benefit of making a project management task list is, it saves time and allocate all the required resources in a sequence and organized manner.
