Creating a Task
A project task is like a mini-mission within a larger goal.
Think of it as checking off items on your to-do list, but with a specific purpose in mind.
A project may have several tasks.
Some task may be very obvious while others may not be as obvious.
This tasks could be anything from conducting research, physical work like building a wall, writing up a report, or even holding team meetings to discuss progress.
Although we may find ourselves in environments where project may be repeated for example, on an annual basis; it lends itself to the benefit of using information from previous project to inform current and future projects. This means, you can use the items from a budget of a previous project help inform the items that need to be used in a current budget.
While a project may be made up of a number of tasks, it is important for us to know what make up a single task. In the follow sections, we will explore these components by asking the following questions; who will need to do the work of this task? Which resources would you require? What are the time frames? What will it cost? What are the success indicators?
All these question for just a single task will need to be repeated for all the tasks in our project.
We are using the example of building a boundary wall to a property. Our simple question is who is doing work? A simple answer may be ‘the builders’. However, we will soon learn that their are several team members and event stakeholders who must be considered when we unpack the task.
Big Project
Of-course in big projects the implementation of the project may be multi-phased or even multi year in duration. Teams may be decentralised or even outsourced.
Small to Medium Project
So who does the work?
- The bricklayer, yes definitely; they are the skilled artisans. But what about;
- the project manager who oversees the project;
- the administrators, who keeps the records;
- the funders who may be internal or external stakeholders;
- human resources staff who recruits skills labour
- the bookkeeper who maintains financial records and probably executes payments or purchases;
- an architect may be an external service provider etc.
A further consideration is that of resources. Project resources are those components that are necessary for successful project implementation. They include people, equipment, money, time, knowledge – basically, anything that you may require from the project planning to the project delivery phases.
Equipment
A good equipment list or record is essential. The format of such a list may be prescribed by the organisation’s procedures. At a minimum, your equipment checklist should include the following information:
- A description of the equipment.
- The equipment’s model number.
- The equipment’s serial number.
- The equipment’s location.
- The name of the person responsible for the equipment.
Task Costs is the total amount of financial, non-financial and human resources that have to be paid off or given up in order to perform a certain task.
