Task
A task is a defined unit of work intended to produce an outcome. It can be assigned to a person and bounded by a duration or deadline.
Deliverable: A tangible or verifiable output produced by work, such as a document, feature, or report. A deliverable makes a task’s expected outcome concrete and checkable.
Effort estimation: The process of estimating the labor needed to complete a unit of work. Effort estimates help determine a task’s staffing and schedule.
Project management: The practice of planning, coordinating, and controlling work to achieve defined project objectives. Tasks are the units project managers sequence, assign, and monitor.
Project: A temporary, organized endeavor undertaken to produce a distinct outcome. A project groups related tasks under a broader objective and time frame.
Work breakdown structure: A hierarchical decomposition of a project’s scope into smaller, manageable components. It turns broad project scope into tasks that can be estimated and assigned.
Critical path method: A scheduling technique that identifies the longest dependency chain determining a project’s minimum duration. Tasks on the critical path have no scheduling slack without delaying the project.
Agile software development: An iterative approach to software development based on short cycles, feedback, and adaptation. Agile teams break planned outcomes into work items completed across iterations.
Process: A repeatable sequence of activities that transforms inputs into outputs. Unlike a task, a process describes recurring work rather than one defined unit.
Task dependency: A constraint in which the timing or completion of one task depends on another. Dependencies determine when a task can start and which work must precede it.
Kanban: A method for visualizing work, limiting work in progress, and managing flow. Kanban boards show task status and expose bottlenecks in progress.