Vol.2 Set Clear Condition to Accoplish Each Task

What kinds of item will you set before you start a project?
Scope, schedule, goal, budget, task, activity, members, and etc…..

In this column, I would like to focus especially on the contents of task.

What do you include in a task when you assign it? It must be responsible person, person in charge of activity, working period, man-hour, relationship among other tasks, or prior conditions. There is always a possibility to miss to describe clear conditions to accomplish the task.

In other words, condition is special requirement to complete the task. There is a task required to create visible deliverable. At the same point, activity that is only required to complete some operation is also able to call as a task. When you set the task, you need to consider the accomplishment condition based on the task characteristics. For example, there are “system specification documents,” and “materials for seminar.” For the activity bases task, there are “visiting clients,” and “held an seminar.”

It may sounds obvious to set the accomplishment condition. However, there are many cases that condition is not clear or has not been set. For example, if your project member is discussing whether he/she needs to prepare just only material for seminar without thinking about material review on the due date, it leads impact of delay on the project itself.

If it is a self-contained task, it is enough to set own accomplishment condition. In case there are owners such as clients or your boss, it is important to have common understanding with them. Even if you are satisfied with your work, that is just self-satisfaction without gratification of owner’s wishes. First of all, set and shear the common accomplishment condition before you start the task.

It is also necessary to review the condition whenever the project status has changed. There is no meaning to keep an invalid condition.

Is there any task that has not been set the clear accomplishment condition? Why don’t you take a look your tasks in front of you once again? If there is a task that has no clear condition, I strongly recommend to discuss with your owner not only with verbal communication but also with writing out.

Uyama (EN: Uemura)