Sorry … I should say ‘activities’ … not tasks. Pardon my non-PMI-speak.
Early in my coaching career, I worked with a bright project manager on developing his schedule. We talked a little about how to create a WBS and then how to define activities. I gave him those steps as an assignment and left him to it. When we met again, I was surprised to discover that he had no idea how to structure work. His activities ebbed and flowed in different directions. Some bore no relationship to the project, while others seemed to bleed into each other. Imagine defining activities for a dinner party. This fellow would have included activities like:
- “Prepare ingredients in the fridge” (what about the ones in the cupboard),
- “Buy and broil meat” (is that all you are buying … and aren’t there a couple activities in there?)
- “Bring salad to the table holding bowl with 2 hands” (the 2 hands part is a specification, not an activity).
Since then, I have thought more carefully about how I actually define activities so that I can talk about it to the less systematic among us (a group I identify with more as I get older). Apart from saying ‘it looks weird,’ here are some tips that have helped:
- Activities involving performing work. It follows then, that activities should be structured using a verb-noun structure, as in “Do Something.” I worked with an event planning team that included activities like “Hotel.” I asked if they were planning to book it or build it.
- Team members should be able to agree on what done looks like. Most people would say that “Write Draft Document” would end with an essentially-complete first pass at the deliverable, so that’s a good one. “Conduct Research” is trickier. Adding some specifications as a note to your activity may help.
- Completing the effort associated with an activity should move the project measurably forward. “Execute Test Plan” should yield a performance result. I saw a plan once with an activity called “Develop Team.” I suggested they change it to “Hold Team Spa Day.” At least you know there’s no going back once you’ve had sweated it out in a sauna with your analyst.
- Activities can be big or small. There is no hard and fast rule here, but I like each team member to focus on between 1 and 3 activities in a week, plus 1 project administration activity that remains open for the duration of the project. This usually means that activities will range between 8 and 60 hours of effort. Activities that are too small lead to administrative overload when you collect actuals from your team each week (which of course you do …). Activities that are too large are difficult to monitor for progress. “Create Requirements Document” can be a 6 to 8 week process with only 1 measureable deliverable at the end. Without a near-term checkpoint, activities like this long tend to get longer. I was brought into a project once that had spent 12 months on requirements for a supposedly 18-month project. I would break this activity into a set of iterations of draft and review.
- If the effort transitions from 1 person to another, that’s probably a new task. “Write …” is one task. “Review …” is another.
- A waiting time often signifies a break in tasks. Keep this in mind with projects that involve paint or concrete.
Activities are foundational to project monitoring and control. Getting a solid model of defined activities for the project will pay off later with fewer gaps or overlaps in scope and the team’s improved ability to deliver to expectations.
