Task Assigned

When a task is assigned to us it is expected that we will turn up with the completed task and the relevant deliverables at the end of scheduled time. From the time of task being assigned to us and till the the time task is delivered it is our responsibility to execute the task. We are the full in charge for this part of the work and we are the King of the situation.

We have all the powers to make this execution smooth or blow it up. The task can be delivered in time with no pressure or it can get late with lots of pressure from the Project Manager for the deliverables. My point is what will happen with my task is a choice I can make. Yes this is very much a choice!

When a task is assigned to me it is not always completely known to me.

(Image courtesy Josh Russell)

The magnitude of work involved is hidden and the scheduled time alloted to the task is a estimate, which can be a good estimate according to the past experience of the designer or Project Manager. But as soon as I receive that task it becomes my responsibility to make the task successful and for this I must know all the things which must be delivered for this task.

We can do that through study of the task and finding out hidden activities involved in the task. These activities can be easily tracked by reverse engineering the acceptance criteria for the task. many a times the acceptance criteria is not clearly laid out. The acceptance criteria is a vital thing for any task and must be very clearly laid out. If our task has no clear acceptance criteria it is already on a failure track.

To write down the acceptance criteria getting it accepted by the Project manager and then reverse engineering the acceptance criteria will lead us to many hidden activities and constraints we have to encounter while doing this task.

(Image courtesy StormCab)

This was the actual form of the task becomes clear in front of us. Most of the times what we receive and what we derive from it by reverse engineering the acceptance criteria is way too different. Now comes the planning for task execution. If we just start doing the task and believe that it will get completed as scheduled, trust me, it will never happen like that.

The complete task even if it is all clear in front of us still is a vague target unless divided into smaller achievable milestones. So the complete task must be divided into smaller tasks and this becomes our Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Yes we must also make a WBS out of our assigned task, and start tracking the milestones.

(Image courtesy Michael)

When we have smaller task-lets with us to complete it is easier to target the completion. If we make it a point to complete the schedule task-let in its time and it does not get completed we will have to take extra efforts to complete it. But this extra effort will be less as compared to the complete task getting into fire. This extra effort is required only for this chunk of the task and once it is completed the task is again on track. I call this distributing the pressure. So by making a WBS we not only distribute the task into task-lets we also distribute the pressure it may generate at the time of task getting late.

So even if we get a huge burger to eat, the efficient way to finish the burger is to cut it into smaller packets and eat one packet at a time, celebrate the completion of that part and then move on to eat the next one. Eventually the burger will be done, and the task is delivered as it was scheduled.

All are happy :)

with regards
Tushar