Task breakdown for projects: easier said than done

The foundation of project management is recording and visualizing the status of each task. When you list the current situation, problems naturally become visible, and you will want to improve them. I recommend leveraging this human instinct.

However, many people find that they cannot define tasks in the first place.
To be more specific, they cannot perform a "task breakdown," which is breaking down large challenges into tasks!?

So, today, let's think about task breakdown.

What conditions must be met to achieve your purpose and goals?

I mentioned this earlier. You might think task breakdown is difficult, but let's break down this "task breakdown" as well. Breakdown is a way of thinking that captures the essence of things.
It is a way of thinking that captures the essence of things.

Look for conditions where, if A, B, and C are all met, the goal is guaranteed to be achieved.
Conditions can be factors, things to do, or anything else.
First, write down the elements necessary to achieve the goal.

Once you have done this to some extent, check again whether the goal can truly be achieved if those elements are met. Is there any case where it cannot? Since this is a world of imagination, there are no absolutes. It is okay if you believe in it yourselves. If you start thinking too strictly, you will never see an end, so it is also important to have the ability to give up and stop at a reasonable point.

Write everything down without omissions or overlaps. In technical terms, this is sometimes called MECE, but what is important is whether you have covered the whole picture. Checking this part is a bit difficult, so I highly recommend that managers or leaders take the initiative to look it over.

Aligning the level of abstraction of conditions

Once you have listed the conditions necessary to achieve the goal, look at them in a list.
Are the levels of abstraction aligned?

For example, what if something like this comes up?

• Acquire 10 new customers per month

• Increase sales by 10%

• Make 100 cold calls every day

The levels don't quite match. It feels like a mix of large goals and small tasks.

If the levels and abstraction are not aligned, you will have trouble with task breakdown later. Large tasks are too heavy to entrust to a single person. They tend to become tasks where you don't know what to do.They tend to become tasks where you don't know what to do.

A major cause of stumbling in project management is leaving these as large tasks and having someone do them. If you do that, you will run into trouble where the deadline arrives and nothing has progressed at all!

The trick to task breakdown is to "break it down to a level that one person can reliably complete"

The purpose of task breakdown is to ensure each member knows exactly what they need to do so they can focus on their work. Therefore, break tasks down to a level that one person can handle.

If a task cannot be done by one person, it should be considered in need of further breakdown.

Even the person in charge should say, "This looks difficult!" at the very beginning if they cannot do it.

The person in charge should also first imagine whether the task assigned to them can be done by them alone. Can they do it, or not? If not, what part seems difficult? Who do they need help from, and in what way? It is best if they can make this judgment at the start!

While there are things you won't know until you try, it is a healthy sign to be able to voice concerns at the initial stage. It helps everyone more if you raise an alert at the beginning rather than saying "I can't do it" after a significant amount of time has passed.

It is also important to have an atmosphere where people can say "This looks difficult" or "I can't do this" at the initial stage. In a positive light, this means that risk management is being practiced.

A project will not succeed if you flatly criticize someone who has gone out of their way to voice a risk. Let's help each other and think of ways to make it possible.

Have you grasped some of the tips for task breakdown?
If you can break down tasks during the P (Plan) stage of PDCA, you can carry out the D (Do) stage without stress and with full effort.

Task breakdown at the P (Plan) stage is also important so that everyone can freely demonstrate their full potential.

Task breakdown is more difficult than task execution. Do not just dump it on the person in charge; supervisors and leaders should get involved, take responsibility for checking, and lead the definition process. Proper task breakdown will greatly boost the success of the project.

This article was written by
Mousou Biz Planning Representative Shigeki Kawahara
https://mousoubiz.com/
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