TIPS - Setting up and maintaining tasks

  • tasks should always be actions, otherwise they are not tasks
  • a task should not be an administrative activity; every task should be an actionable step towards a deliverable
    • administrative activities could be put into an administrative "bucket" task
  • tasks should be broken down to a level where their duration is more than 8 hours (1 day) but less than 80 hours (2 weeks)
  • do not use start and finish dates for tasks since this will enforce unnecessary constraints in the schedule; use the deadline field to show deadlines for a task
    • update using duration as well; do not update using start and finish fields
  • use summary tasks for phases, deliverables, et cetera
  • to create a milestone, create a task with 0 duration
  • your schedule can have tasks that are either duration or work (effort) within the same schedule
  • ensure that task relationship dependencies are set up appropriately so that there are no orphan tasks for the scheduling calculation
    • avoid start-to-finish relationships, if possible
  • set up the tasks in the schedule based on how the work is going to be done
  • set up tasks individually, based on scope and deliverables
  • level of detail of tasks depends on what project manager can manage and required reports
  • if tasks are related to requirements, could add a field with the requirement #
  • can link tasks or summary tasks to WBS using WBS field
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