Series: Task Management Tips for TeamsPart 2
How to Write Tasks People Understand: Title, Description and Definition of Done
About this series
“Task Management Tips for Teams” is an eight-part series, plus a bonus article, for teams that have just started using a task or project management tool. The tips apply to any industry, and you can read the articles in any order.
- How Should You Group Your Work?
- How to Write Tasks People UnderstandThis article
- How Small Should Tasks Be?
- How to Set Assignees and Due Dates
- How to Reply to Comments
- How Should You Report Progress?
- How to Write When Working with People Outside Your Company
- How to Close Out TasksComing soon
Bonus: “How to Write So Teammates Who Speak Other Languages Understand” (coming soon)
You add a task, and the person who receives it comes back with questions. Or the finished work isn’t what you had in mind. Much of this kind of miscommunication can be prevented by how you write the task.
The cause is usually that assumptions in the requester’s head never make it into words. The more obvious something is to the person asking, the more likely it is to be left out.
Note: this article is written by the developer of GeckoFlag.
The short answer: the title says what to do; the description says why, what and how far
The title is for scanning the list; the description is for the person doing the work. Write each for its own job, and both become shorter and easier to understand.
How to write the title
Write the title so it stands out in the list and shows at a glance what has to happen for the task to be done.
| Not so good | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flyer | Make two draft flyers for the autumn festival | It doesn’t say what to do |
| Book the venue and arrange equipment | Book the venue / Arrange equipment (split into two) | One task contains two actions |
| Check | Check the amounts on the quote | In the list, you can’t tell what is being checked |
| About next week’s meeting, the fixes to the materials the client mentioned, this week if possible | Fix page 3 of the meeting materials | Details go in the description, not the title |
There are four points to keep in mind.
- Start with a verb that says what to do
- One action per task
- Don’t stop at “check” or “fix”: say what to check or what to fix
- Keep it short, and move the details to the description
Four things to put in the description
1Purpose (why you’re doing it)
This is what the person doing the work can fall back on when they aren’t sure what to do. If it says “so that visitors know where the parking lot is,” they can decide the size and position of the map on their own.
2What to do
List the specific steps as bullet points. If there is an order, number them.
3Definition of done (when it counts as finished)
This is the item most often left out, and the most important one. “Make a draft flyer” doesn’t tell you whether a rough draft is enough or whether it means sending the file to the printer. Write something like “Done when two one-sided A4 drafts are uploaded to this task as PDFs.”
4Materials and references
Where the photos to use are stored, the previous flyer, emails from the client, and so on. Nobody has to hunt for them, and you get fewer questions like “Which one should I use?”
Also, if there’s a reason behind the due date, add it (covered in Part 4, “How to Set Assignees and Due Dates”).
An example
Here, during a store renovation, someone is asked to come up with a new shelf layout.
Title: Make layout plans for the new shelves
[Purpose]
After the renovation, we want customers to be able to see all the way from the entrance to the back of the store. Right now the shelves near the entrance are tall, and people don’t notice the products at the back.
[What to do]
- Mark the current shelf positions and heights on the floor plan
- Come up with two layout plans (same number of shelves as now: 8 units)
[Definition of done]
Done when photos of the two layout plans (hand-drawn is fine) are uploaded to this task. A clean copy will be a separate task once a plan is chosen.
[Materials]
- Floor plan of the store: in the “Renovation” folder on the shared drive
- Shelf size chart: attached photo
[Reason for the due date]
We want to show the plans at the November 6 meeting with the contractor.
A template you can use as is
[Purpose]
[What to do]
[Definition of done]
[Materials]
[Reason for the due date]
You don’t need to fill in every item every time. For a small task, “What to do” and “Definition of done” are enough.
Common stumbling blocks
1Not writing down what was agreed verbally
Anyone who wasn’t at the meeting or on the call won’t know what was decided. Add decisions to the description or a comment.
2A description that’s too long
If you write out the whole history, the actual instructions get buried. Keep the history in the comments, and put only “what I need you to do now” in the description.
3Quietly rewriting the description
If the details change partway through and you only edit the description, the person working on it won’t notice. When you make a big change, let them know in a comment as well.
4“Make it look nice,” “as much as possible”
Words whose meaning varies from person to person lead to misunderstandings. Instead of “make it stand out,” write something like “big enough that the store name can be read from a distance”: use numbers or examples.
An example of what can happen
A team asked a partner company to “fix the banner,” and that was all the task said. The banner came back with the whole design changed. All the team had wanted fixed was one date.
If the definition of done had said “Change the date to November 3. Don’t change anything else,” there would have been no back-and-forth.
How to write tasks in GeckoFlag
- Issue titles can be up to 50 characters, which naturally keeps them at a length that’s easy to read in the list
- Descriptions use rich text, so you can use headings, bullet points and links. You can preview the result before posting
- Issue type, priority, assignee, start date and due date each have their own fields. In the description, you only need to write what the fields don’t cover
- Keep your template in the project’s wiki, and members can copy it whenever they need it
You can try the actual screens in the demo.
Summary
Keep the title to a short statement of what to do, and put the purpose, what to do, the definition of done and the materials in the description. Writing the definition of done alone cuts down rework a lot. Next time, we’ll look at how small to break down tasks.
SeriesHow to split work into projects is covered in Part 1, “How Should You Group Your Work?”
SeriesPart 3, “How Small Should Tasks Be?”
RelatedWhy requests made in chat or email get lost is covered in Part 3 of our beginner series “Your First Project Management Tool,” “Why Do Requests in Email and Chat Get Lost?”