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Task Accountability is the project management activity associated with ensuring the successful completion of project activities.

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Quick reference

Task Accountability

Task Accountability is the project management activity associated with ensuring the successful completion of project activities.

When to use

Task Accountability is required from all project team members.  When a task is completed, it should be checked by another team member, normally a Core Team member, to ensure successful completion.

Instructions

High-risk tasks are often tracked with detailed “mini-deliverables” to monitor the progress.  Low-risk tasks are often tracked simply by ensuring the required resources are in place and working on the task.

On some projects, technical reviews will also be used to check on the successful completion of the project activities.  These reviews are conducted by an independent team of experts or stakeholders.  These reviews are either major project milestones or Sprint Demos at the end of a Sprint.

When working with vendors or suppliers on unique project tasks, a work authorization process is often used to direct and control the effort at the supplier.  

Task Accountability Steps

  1. Task requirements for quality, schedule, and cost are normally set during project planning and incorporated into the task description.  This may occur at the beginning of the project or at the beginning of the phase in which the task will be accomplished.
  2. The start of the task and completion of the task should be reported at the project pulse meeting.
  3. Following task completion, a Core Team member should meet with the task leader to review the task results and check for completeness.
  4. When required, a Technical Review will be held to check for the completeness of a group of tasks that comprise a technical deliverable on the project.

Hints & tips

  • Establish a standard practice in your project that every task will be reviewed by a Core Team member.  This is not meant to be a personal “performance review,” rather it is a double check of team members to be sure that nothing is accidentally forgotten or overlooked.  
  • Do the Core Team member review as soon as the task is complete because the work is fresh in the task leader’s mind and they can quickly answer questions.
  • If possible, have the Core Team member who will be using the result of the task in their next task conduct the review.
  • When working with suppliers and vendors on unique tasks, the work authorization process will help to keep them in sync with the project.  Otherwise, they may get ahead of the project team and do work that will need to be repeated – and they will charge to do it twice.
  • The level of task risk should determine whether to monitor a task with “mini-deliverables” or “level of effort.”  Risk may be because of technical complexity, organizational complexity, skill or experience of individuals conducting the task, time urgency, or resource scarcity.
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  • 00:04 Hi this is Ray sheen I'd like to introduce our talk about project operations with
  • 00:08 a discussion of project task accountability.
  • 00:11 You need to ensure that the task has been completed correctly on your project.
  • 00:16 As a reminder, the task completion requirements are set at the time
  • 00:20 of the scope planning as part of task descriptions.
  • 00:23 When I'm checking for task completion,
  • 00:26 I want to make sure that I have objective evidence, not just trust me
  • 00:29 on the part of the person doing the work.
  • 00:32 They need to show that the work has been done, and
  • 00:34 that the task completion point has been achieved.
  • 00:37 The result of each task completion should be documented in your project
  • 00:41 management files.
  • 00:42 This becomes part of the project knowledge management system.
  • 00:46 To determine success,
  • 00:47 measure the performance against your project planning baselines.
  • 00:51 The deliverables and
  • 00:52 task completion definitions are used to make sure the scope is complete.
  • 00:56 The timing is normally found on either the scrum board, Gantt chart or
  • 01:00 milestone chart.
  • 01:01 And your budget plan is your budget baseline.
  • 01:05 So, let's talk for a moment about validating task completion.
  • 01:09 The quality requirements for each task are normally found in the WBS task planning,
  • 01:13 or on the description of the story card.
  • 01:16 This is part of the task description for every task.
  • 01:19 When a task is done,
  • 01:20 I usually have an independent review by someone on the project team.
  • 01:24 They check the work to make sure that something wasn't accidentally overlooked.
  • 01:29 This practice is team members watching out for other team members.
  • 01:33 This is normally a quick review, and my preferred team member to
  • 01:36 do this is the person who will be using the results of that task or activity.
  • 01:41 There may also be several times in your project when you have major reviews by
  • 01:45 external reviewers.
  • 01:46 These individuals are typically looking at a set of project deliverables.
  • 01:51 Things like sprint demos, design reviews, test reviews, code reviews, or
  • 01:55 manufacturing reviews.
  • 01:57 These will be a major milestone, or at the end of a sprint.
  • 02:01 The reviewers are experts or stakeholders who are not part of the team
  • 02:05 doing the work.
  • 02:06 Their job is to ensure that everything was done correctly and appropriately.
  • 02:10 While the work is in process, meaning the task is started but not finished.
  • 02:14 It needs to be monitored to ensure that people are completing the work.
  • 02:18 And to avoid surprises along the way.
  • 02:21 There are two techniques you can use.
  • 02:23 One approach is to monitor the work of a task as a series of mini-deliverables, or
  • 02:28 mini tasks.
  • 02:29 Essentially, you take the task and break it up into many little micro tasks.
  • 02:34 Task progress is tracked by checking the completion of each of those micro tasks.
  • 02:39 This creates a very detailed plan, and
  • 02:42 is normally documented with a task list or action item list.
  • 02:46 This gives maximum control to the project leader,
  • 02:49 who is able to check off each of these micro tasks.
  • 02:52 To ensure that the work has been done.
  • 02:55 But this is also a lot of work on the part of the project leader.
  • 02:59 If you think about it,
  • 03:00 this is kind of the approach that's used in Agile Scrum projects.
  • 03:03 The other approach is to delegate the responsibility for
  • 03:06 managing the project task to the individual doing the task.
  • 03:10 The only thing monitored by the project leader,
  • 03:12 is whether they're working at their planned level of effort.
  • 03:15 In this case,
  • 03:16 the person doing the work will handle all of the detailed planning of the task.
  • 03:20 The project leader only has the top level task description for the task,
  • 03:24 and the activities that are to be done.
  • 03:26 The project leader ensures that the appropriate resources have been assigned
  • 03:30 and are working on the task.
  • 03:32 However, the task leader has control of ensuring that all the work is actually
  • 03:37 done correctly, and that adequate progress is being made.
  • 03:40 Where appropriate,
  • 03:41 delegation of responsibility to the task leader makes good sense.
  • 03:45 The workload on the project manager is reduced, and
  • 03:48 decision making is done by those closest to the work.
  • 03:52 How do you decide which approach to use?
  • 03:54 The project and task risk should guide your decision.
  • 03:57 High risk tasks should be managed as a series of micro tasks,
  • 04:01 essentially micromanaging the high risk.
  • 04:04 Low risk tasks, just manage the level of effort.
  • 04:08 The last topic I would like to discuss in this area of task accountability is
  • 04:12 the work authorization process.
  • 04:14 I use this process for suppliers and vendors and sometimes for
  • 04:17 extended team members.
  • 04:19 Who are not a part of the normal core team and
  • 04:21 therefore are a little removed from team decision making.
  • 04:25 This process can be either formal or
  • 04:27 informal depending upon whether it is used with suppliers or vendors.
  • 04:30 Or is being used with internal team members.
  • 04:33 The process gives specific direction and
  • 04:35 describes the level of task accountability.
  • 04:38 The process will specify what activities have been assigned to that supplier,
  • 04:42 vendor or team member.
  • 04:44 Also the date for those activities to complete, the expected quality level for
  • 04:48 each of those task deliverables.
  • 04:50 And how much money or time they're authorized to spend before coming back,
  • 04:54 to the project manager to ask for additional authority.
  • 04:57 Finally, if there are any interim reporting milestones along the way,
  • 05:01 such as weekly phone calls or monthly reviews, these will be identified.
  • 05:06 The work authorization process helps the project leader keep
  • 05:09 track of those who are doing work on the project.
  • 05:11 But where the project leader does not have direct oversight.
  • 05:15 The project leader can ensure that they stay in sync with the rest of the project
  • 05:19 by using this process.
  • 05:21 The Project Leader tracks a task completion to ensure progress is being made.
  • 05:26 Now although team members are accountable for their task completion.
  • 05:29 The project leader needs to know the status to effectively manage
  • 05:33 project execution.

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