zakiwarfel.com

[...] The Task Analysis Grid is an interesting alternative to the standard requirements doc. I think I may give it a whirl at my next opportunity. As noted on the site, it’s a “single document allows anyone looking at it to see the entire scope of a project, figure out what’s in this release (1) as well as what we’re planning for future releases (2, 3, and 4). It’s an extremely effective artifact for getting everyone on the same page.” The numbers (1 – 4) map to priority levels assigned to each requirement. [...]

Wow, this is great, kind of reminds me of PostIt Note or Index Card methods, but in a well formed document. I’ll definitely be thinking of this for the next time I have to write up some analysis.

The Task Analysis Grid offers an interesting juxtaposition between two integral components of product development which I feel are mostly under-served: understanding the user & communicating design rationale for one, and (as you mentioned) outlining a product plan that doesn’t take 60 pages to explain, at the expense of readibility and comprehension. I may explore a variant of this in my own work. Nice job!

Very interesting approach, Todd. It certainly makes sense. How do you folks create this kind of presentation? I’m hoping it’s not a manual process.

Right now, it’s a semi-manual process. The final presentation file is done in Illustrator. We do have a template, which makes it faster. The information is typically collected in Excel, then copied over to Illustrator for final presentation. The final artifact prints out about 3ft x 10ft. So, it’s a large format print.

[...] Here’s a great visual way of documenting client requirements for new website projects by Todd Warfel. I’m going to try this on my next project! [...]

[...] Todd Warfel’s task analysis grid looks like a nifty addition to the toolbox. [...]

Nice share, thank you. I like the way you’ve compressed all this data into one file. I have tested it within my own team and for an overview it works great, but still needs some tweaking. Good work!

I tried to introduce something like this at the last place I worked, but it met with a lot of resistance – standard documents and all that.

I seemed to be the only one who didn’t get invited to the meetings and then complained that unless you were at ALL the meetings, the standard requirements documents told you next to nothing about the requirements.

A screenshot would be nice, vs having to open a 1.5mb pdf file.

This is an interesting concept, however. I could see this becoming widely used if it were given a web based interface for people to access and modify from anywhere inside each company/team.

Use-Cases at a Glance: Task Grids…

Todd Warfel presents a stylish way to pack use-cases and their prioritization onto a single page: the Task Analysis Grid. It's basically a landscape-oriented document where the time axis runs from left  to right, so  use-cases in the columns to t…

Is this the same as a Work Breakdown Structure?

Is this the same as a Work Breakdown Structure?

I’m not sure what that is. Can you give me a description of what a Work Breakdown Structure is?

Really Nice!
Anyone have the skill to put something similar together in Word ?

Very cool! Couldn’t you just build this in Excel — I realize it’s not a cool as Illustrator, but it could be quicker.

We do use Excel from time to time to start recording the information. But the final deliverable product is done in Illustrator, as it presents and prints better.

Jasono,

What makes the Task Analysis Grid work so well with clients is the presentation quality. The Grid is usually about 6 ft wide, and at that size and quality, members of the cleint team actually interact with it.

I think the size of it is a big reason why they respond so well to it, but the most important aspect is that it looks at it from a user goal standpoint with tasks and sub tasks instead of a list of requirements that are completely disconnected from the end user needs.

[...] Weniger mit dem Designprozess verbunden, dafür eine hilfreiche Vorlage für Spezifikationen ist das einseitige Task Analysis Grid von Comcast. [...]

[...] toddwarfel.com » Blog Archive » The Task Analysis Grid This is a great way to document interactions. I like the way Todd has condensed all the necessary information into a one page deliverable. This diagram can looks to be very effective in communicating what needs to be built to both stakeholders and design (tags: design documentation diagram task interaction interactionDesign) [...]

It certainly looks good — and when dealing very visual customers I think it would work a treat.

The trick would be picking the right degree of granularity for the scenarios…and keeping the layout simple.

Thanks for sharing

I like the simple visualization, but the poster format would be way too huge for us. This poster as it is pretty massive size already, and we have about 10 times the number of requirements listed here. Using a simple a4-per requirement format and just hanging them on a wall would trigger the same effect I think. Still a great idea to use pretty pictures and colors to spice things up a bit.

Great idea. currently modifying the grid to house technical specs. But as Peter H. noted technical specs tend to be long winded and complex. We’ll see how well this format works for it.

[...] Few people are as full of surprises as Todd Warfel, who brings us this ingenious 3-foot wide communication tool: One of the greatest challenges we face in the design field is communicating design decisions to other stakeholders (e.g. Business unit, Marketing, Engineering). We’re often forced to attempt this through a requirements document. Personally, I’ve yet to come across a requirements document that is usable and doesn’t take a couple of days to get everyone on the same page. So, we use something different – a task analysis grid. [...]

I have had great experiences working with groups and using mindjet’s mindmanager (a mindmapping program) and a projector so I can add, delete, modifiy on the fly as I get input from a group. I think the task analysis grid could be used in the same way if the program used to create it was easy to change on the fly. Don’t have to do the big print, just throw it up on the screen or the wall.

Don’t have to do the big print, just throw it up on the screen or the wall.

When I find a projector that will project a 3′ x 10′ image that’s readable, then I’ll use it. We’ve tried projecting this on the wall, unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same effect. And our clients like the fact that they can write on it and participate in the process.

[...] I really like this clever requirement documentation idea. [...]

What kind of ’secrets’? Like who that pretty girl is?

[...] Dann Saffer offers some new items for the interaction design toolbox. The most interesting to me is Todd Warfel’s task analysis grid, a “single document (that) allows anyone looking at it to see the entire scope of a project, figure out what’s in this release (1) as well as what we’re planning for future releases (2, 3, and 4).” [...]

I always have deliverables in list form or in chart form in Excel or Visio. This is just another sensible way to really see interdependencies in the overall scale.
Nice work!

[...] The Task Analysis Grid One of the greatest challenges we face in the design field is communicating design decisions to other stakeholders (e.g. Business unit, Marketing, Engineering). We’re often forced to attempt this through a requirements document. Personally, I’ve yet to come across a requirements document that is usable and doesn’t take a couple of days to get everyone on the same page. So, we use something different – a task analysis grid (1.5MB PDF). [...]

What is a Work Breakdown Structure?

http://www.hyperthot.com/pm_wbs.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structure

Not sure if andrew was talking about one of those

[...] Having done a few hundred card sorts in my day, I cannot express enough the value of this simple exercise. The key to Maeda’s SLIP principle, however, is the prioritization. This is something that is absent in most card sorting exercises. To a business, prioritization is invaluable. That’s one of the things that has made the Task Analysis Grid so popular. [...]

I realize you are not necessarily creating a visual use case, though much of the document resembles one. But seems to me like there would be occasion to show alternate tasks (“Jenny add the caller to her address book” or “Jenny deletes the caller from her address book”). Have you developed a way to indicate these?

[...] Wow, the task analysis grid has been a big hit. I’ve been getting around 50 downloads a day of the PDF. Well, here’s an excel template for doing your own task analysis grid. [...]

[...] Dec 8th Task Analysis Grid sample [...]

[...] The Task Analysis Grid [...]

[...] a couple months ago I came across Todd Warfel’s Task Analysis Grid, which he shares the template for on his site. It uses scenarios, tasks, and subtasks to outline [...]

I like this very much. The heck with visual people only! I handle production efficiency in a company in 32 countries and this is the most sensible thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’m currently working this up in Rails format to be web based and then I’ll mandate it across the board.

Posted above was a thing about meetings, only valuable with documentation if your were present – I agree.

I’ve just started a project with a group in 3 states, 15 departments and 35+ people. The word/excel documents going back and forth are a pain to keep on top of, this simplified the entire process and everyone could see at a glance.

Oh and in a conference room, we project it onto a whiteboard for markup, which isone of those ones that transfers it all to the screen oon my laptop. technology is beautiful… sometimes.

Nice to see refreshing and useful ideas.

Thanks, Jason. I’d love to see your version in Rails when you get it running.

[...] new design document The Task Analysis Grid is a very interesting way to document requirements and design decisions. It can communicate [...]

Todd, how does this work in a situation where you have several user groups, profiles, personas, etc. with a variety of tasks?

In the case where we’ve had multiple personas, there’s a row titled Extends To. The scenarios are written based on one of the personas and the Extends To row includes the other personas/groups that that particular task and sub-tasks extends to.

As you may expect, not all tasks extend to all personas.

Hey Todd, I love the idea you have put together here. Obviously by your comments you still use personas in conjunction with the grid as well.

How well does this work if you have say 5 segmented personas, in addition to 3-4 primary tasks? In your example, the problem or task is checking voicemail. It’s all pretty stable and succinct.

But what if you had 4 personas, and the system was not only checking voicemail, but sharing online photos, text messaging and checking e-mail as well. Would you do multiple grids, or could it all be set on one grid? Seems like that extends row might get a little jumbled, but I’m not sure, having a hard time seeing it. (Maybe you have an example using multiple personas?)

I’m assuming you are doing this in early stages of planning, and that the personas would come first, along with any problem statements, task definition and use cases – or do you have a different order?

Thanks so much for sharing this, if I can get my head around how exactly to work this, I’d love to include it in our process.

Tom

It kind of depends. Typically, we’ll do one grid per set of tasks. So, in the case you mention, one for checking voicemail, one for email, one for editing web pages.

This document is part of our research phase. So, these are typically developed in conjunction with the personas as they kind of rely on each other. In the case where one is developed before the other, we’ll go back in and evolve each of them.

[...] http://toddwarfel.com/?p=16 [...]

[...] Task analysis grid using an Excel spreadsheet: http://toddwarfel.com/?p=16. [...]

A task analysis grid i believe is based on the work of Indie Young (co-founder of Adaptive Path) who uses a mental model and content model to articulate achieving user needs. She recently published about the approach which includes this tool, called Mental Models . See: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/

Actually Ellen, it’s not based on Indie’s work. We developed this grid long before Indie’s work. However, it could be a useful artifact that would work well with the stuff Indie has been working on. Oh, and as for her book, I highly recommend it.

[...] The Task Analysis Grid – http://toddwarfel.com/archives/the-task-analysis-grid/ [...]

[...] have been gaining popularity lately thanks to InfoQ, initially brought forward by Jeff Patton and Todd Warfel through his Task Analysis grid. Whereas a classical backlog is a 1-dimensional list of stories, storymaps help you organise them [...]

[...] the task analysis grid has been a big hit. I’ve been getting around 50 downloads a day of the PDF. Well, [...]

[...] Dec 8th Task Analysis Grid sample [...]