A Good Job Starts with an Effective Task Description

Writing good task descriptions can be tricky. At somoscuatro, we guide our clients to collect, express, and summarise the crucial information needed for us to deliver impactful consulting services and effective solutions. A good task description is vital because:

• It targets the core business issue, eliminating confusion.
• It allows the implementation team to research and recommend actionable and
  pragmatic solutions.
• It lets you save time by preventing miscommunication and ensuring alignment.
• It establishes clear success benchmarks, preventing misunderstandings and
  reducing back-and-forth during the QA phase.

Years of refinement have led us to a template that simplifies the task description process for our clients. We’re thrilled to share it with you in this blog post!

The Sections

A good task description, should contain at least the following sections:

Problem

In this section, we define the business problem our client aims to solve. Identifying the affected parties and the impact on the client’s business is essential. An example of a well-defined problem description could be:

Delivery Pickers currently struggle with managing orders and efficiently loading items for delivery onto the truck. They lack a system to distinguish between items that are ready for delivery and those that are unavailable and thus need to be refunded. Furthermore, they do not know the delivery sequence, which prevents them from strategically loading the truck with the
first orders to be delivered at the front.

In our example, the User Persona (Delivery Pickers) and their challenges (differentiating between ready and unavailable items, and understanding the delivery sequence) are clearly defined. The business goal is now clear: reduce costs by optimising Delivery Pickers’ time. This is achieved by enabling them to load the truck efficiently, with the earliest deliveries positioned for easy access, and by simplifying the refund process for unavailable items.

Details

In this section, we detail additional information that supports the task description. This may include technical requirements and limitations, customer expectations, previous context, and so forth. For the scenario at hand, the details include:

• Delivery Pickers should view only orders labeled as ‘Processing’ with an assigned delivery date.
• Orders must be sorted by delivery date, driver name, and delivery route stop number.
• Delivery Pickers need the ability to issue refunds for items within these orders.
• Delivery Pickers must have the option to mark orders as ready for shipment.
• Delivery Pickers should be able to obtain DDT (Document of Transport) for orders marked as ready to be shipped.

Proposed Solution(s)

In this section, we present potential solutions to the identified problem. For instance, considering our previous example, two solutions might be:

• A. Grant Delivery Picker role users access to the WooCommerce order management system.
• B. Implement a custom password-protected dashboard for users with role Delivery Picker.

While not every scenario will have multiple solutions, when they do, we organise them alphabetically (A, B, C, etc.). This approach streamlines communication, allowing for clear references to each proposed solution during discussions or within task description itself.

Proposed Steps

In this section, we go into the specifics of the execution of the proposed solutions, detailing the necessary steps. This step is super helpful for sparking critical thinking, estimating timelines, and selecting the most efficient resolution when multiple options are available. Given our two potential solutions, we outline corresponding steps for each.

Solution A

1. Establish a custom WordPress role for Delivery Pickers.
2. Restrict the WooCommerce order list for Delivery Pickers to only display relevant orders, as specified in the details section.
3. Limit WooCommerce single order view functionalities for Delivery Pickers to refunding items and marking orders as ready for shipment.
4. Introduce a custom feature for Delivery Pickers to download the DDT for orders prepared for shipment.

Solution B

1. Establish a custom WordPress role for Delivery Pickers.
2. Develop a custom page to list orders in process, accessible solely to Delivery Pickers and Administrators.
3. Develop a custom page for Delivery Pickers and Administrators to view individual order items.
4. Enable Delivery Pickers to issue refunds on the single order custom page.
5. Facilitate marking orders as ready for shipment by Delivery Pickers on both the single order and order list custom pages.
6. Provide a feature for Delivery Pickers to download the DDT for orders flagged as ready for shipment.

Suggested Solution

Upon reviewing the potential solutions, this section presents our recommended choice. It’s crucial to articulate the rationale behind our choice. For instance, in our scenario, we might advocate for option B, detailing the justification in this section:

We suggest solution B because we consider easier to develop the described functionality then removing WooCommerce unwanted functionality from the backend. Also, we consider that the resulting UI would be much simpler and easier to understand by Delivery Pickers, especially considering that they will be mostly using mobile devices to use the dashboard.

Resources

The Resources section serves as a repository for all pertinent links that may be useful, including external documentation, related tasks, design files, assets, and more. For our scenario, the resources section would be:

• Context Task: Generate DDT using Fatture in Cloud API
• Documentation: Fatture in Cloud API

Conclusions

With a comprehensive task description in hand, you’re now equipped to move forward. Utilise our template, tailor it to your project’s requirements, and remember the ultimate objective: to enable your development team to propose effective solutions and minimise the risk of miscommunication.

If you’re looking for guidance or have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Contact us or book a complimentary consultation call. We’re eager to discuss our methodology and how it can be integrated into your project!