Break a large task down so that each part is a piece of work one person can finish and close on their own, with its own owner and estimate. The point is not a longer list. The point is being able to see where the work stands and where it gets stuck.
The method is simple. First describe the end result, then the intermediate results it depends on, and finally the order they come in. We go through it step by step below.
How can you tell a task is too big?
A few signs clearly point to breaking it down.
- The estimated effort adds up to several days of work.
- The task has been “In progress” for weeks and nobody can say how much is left.
- The description is really a list of separate steps.
- Several people are working on it, each on a different part.
- One part of the task is waiting on something, while the rest is not.
The last sign matters most. If half of a task can start now but the other half is waiting on an outside decision, handling them as one item hides the wait. The task shows “In progress” while half of the work is standing still.
How do you break it down step by step?
- Describe the end result. In one sentence, state what will exist when the whole thing is finished. This stays as the goal of the original task.
- List the intermediate results. Write down results, not activities. “Work on the copy” is an activity. “Approved copy” is a result. With a result, you can tell whether it exists or not.
- Give each one an owner and an estimate. If you cannot assign a single owner to a part, break it down further.
- Work out the order. Check which part waits on which. Anything that waits on nothing can start right away, even in parallel.
- Check the size. If a part still takes several days, split it again. If it only takes a few minutes, merge it with its neighbour.
What makes each part clear enough to stand on its own is covered in our article on what a well-structured task looks like.
An example
Take a typical task called “Introduce a new price list”. Handled as a single item, it can sit at “In progress” for weeks. Broken down, it looks like this.
- Collect prices from supplier quotes
- Get the new prices approved by the manager, which waits on the previous step
- Create the price list document, which waits on the approval
- Update prices on the website, which also waits on the approval
- Notify customers, which waits on both the document and the website
Now it is obvious that approval is the bottleneck. Until it happens, three other parts are stuck. It is also clear that the document and the website update can run in parallel, handled by two different people.
When should you stop breaking it down?
There is a point where breaking work down costs more than it gives. If every small step is its own task, the list gets noisy, updating statuses takes longer than the work itself, and the important things get lost.
Three questions help you decide when a step deserves its own task. Can it be closed on its own? Is it done by a different person, or at a different time? Could anyone be waiting on it? If the answer to all three is no, leave the step in the task description.
How do the parts stay connected?
After the breakdown, the parts live on as separate tasks in the same project. Dependencies hold them together. If you record that the approval blocks the price list document, the document’s owner sees what they are waiting for, and the manager sees where the chain is stuck.
In MyPro Sync, a task can be marked as blocking another. The blocked task is flagged automatically until the obstacle is cleared. Besides the list and the Kanban board, the parts also appear on the Gantt timeline, where estimated hours set the length of each bar, and the dependency graph shows the whole chain. We explain what a waiting task means and how to handle it in our article on blocked tasks.
If the large task is really a full project, with goals, milestones and a schedule spanning several weeks, then breaking it down is project planning. Our project planning guide is a good place to start.
Where should you start?
Find the task that has been “In progress” the longest on your team. Chances are it is too big. Break it down with the five steps above, and record the dependencies between the parts. After a week you will see which part moved and which one waited the whole time. That tells you more about the state of the work than any status report.