Tasks - what they are, and how to break them down

What is a Task?

A task is a sufficiently defined, complete piece of work that delivers change.

How to Break down Tasks

1. Begin where you are: with a list of tasks, a sketch, or even just an idea.
2. Think through the steps you’d need to take to accomplish that task, and write them down. Don’t worry about completeness or accuracy or depth, each pass just needs to expand, even slightly, on the previous one.
3. For each item on your list, decide if that item is sufficiently defined:
   • Do I understand what change is desired?
   • Do I understand what “done” will look like?
   • Can I define all the steps I would take to get to “done”?
   • Assuming no blockers or dependencies, do I have all the information I need to start this task right now? If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, take that task and recurse - breaking it down further using this algorithm again.
4. Repeat until all tasks are sufficiently broken down.

What Does it Mean for a Task to Be ‘sufficiently Defined’?

A task is sufficiently defined if the person working on the task can answer “yes” to these questions:

• Do I understand what change is desired?
• Do I understand what “done” will look like?
• Can I define all the steps I would take to get to “done”? i.e., could I write down a TODO list for this task, and would it be complete?
• Assuming no blockers or dependencies, do I have all the information I need to start this task right now?