And a Task Is More Than Just a Short Note
Task management may seem just another buzzword but any team lead will lecture you with a willingness on its importance. Without task management, a lot of projects would end up in a mess.
Tasks Have a Life Cycle
Indeed, not every task per se requires task management. For instance, homework simply needs to be done by a certain pupil, or rarely a group of pupils. In the business environment, though, tasks have a life cycle. Depending on the project, the life cycle may include different stages that are necessary due to its technical nature.
As an example, a typical task in the software development industry would go through development, quality assurance, testing, and deployment stages. In procurement, tasks may need to go through different stages of an approval process to count as completed.
Task management suggests that there is a person responsible for the task progress. This person is not the assignee of the task but a manager who plans and monitors task execution.
Tasks Need Clear Objectives
Another important difference between simple todos and tasks is that tasks must have an objective. They have to solve a certain problem. Although a todo can also deal with a problem, tasks, when executed, must have an impact on the organization you are working for.
Setting a clear task’s objectives is not as easy as you may think. Especially, in high tech industries, a task can be defined as a problem solution that is visible to the end consumer or as a technical solution visible only for engineers. Which one do you prefer?
What Does Task Management Include?
Defining objectives is just a first step in the task management process. Once you know what should be done, you can prioritize your tasks. Tasks must be finished in a certain order if there are any dependencies between them or if you do not have enough resources to complete all tasks at once.
Resource allocation is another important step of task management. In a team, you need to make sure that every task can be assigned to a person with relevant skills and capacities.
Eventually, you can start creating deadlines for your tasks, keeping in mind your objectives, available resources, and priorities.
Task Management Software
Life cycles and task management steps cannot be easily documented on a paper as a todo list.
Task management software allows you to create digital tasks, link them to users, set deadlines, and track progress.
Most of the time, the main tasks of the task management software are to notify you in case of missed deadlines and to enable collaboration on tasks. At dadan, we love task management software such as Asana, Trello, and Jira.
Task Management for Distributed Teams
For some tasks, a few lines of text can suffice as an explanation of what should be done. But some tasks need to be explained in person or in a context by sharing additional information and documents.
As soon as synchronous communication is not possible – as in the case of distributed teams – clarifying a task’s objectives may become difficult and lead to misunderstandings, and, consequently, to the wrong results.
Video Messaging With Dadan for Better Task Management
Video messages help to synchronize everyone’s understanding of the goals. Screen and webcam recording tools, such as dadan, allow you to create video messages, in which the viewer can see you, your screen, and any supporting visual information that you want to share.
With dadan, you can create such a recording right from a task in one of the following task management tools:
- Asana
- Jira
- Trello
Simply add an integration following the instructions in our Help Center, and you will see a dadan button in the task manager user interface, on every newly created task.
We are constantly working on adding other popular business integrations. Stay tuned and read updates on our blog.
Try out Dadan for free and decide later if you want to upgrade it to the power use plan.
