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Glossary · 3 · Tasks and minimalism

Task analysis

Also known as: Task analysis (human factors), User task analysis

German: Aufgabenanalyse

In technical communication, usability and human factors, task analysis is the systematic study of how people achieve goals with a product or system — who the users are, which goals they pursue, which tasks and subtasks they perform, under what conditions, with which decisions and handovers — where a task, in the sense of ISO 9241-11:2018, is a set of activities undertaken to achieve a specific goal and the activities can be physical, perceptual and cognitive.

  • Task analysis
  • Tasks
  • Usability

In one sentence

Task analysis studies how people achieve goals with a product: users, goals, tasks, subtasks, conditions, decisions and handovers.

Example

Before writing the cleaning instructions for a filling machine, the team observes operators and maintenance staff, breaks the goal “clean the filler after a product change” into subtasks, records who performs each, which decisions they take, which hazards occur in which step and where one shift hands over to the next.

How it applies

Task analysis is used under the same name by several disciplines for different purposes; the shared core is the description of goals, tasks and the conditions under which they are performed. It is grounded in observation and interviews with the people who do the work, not in the product’s list of functions. The word “task” here differs from the task of PLC programming, which is a unit of program execution.

One task, three lenses

  • Hierarchical task analysis (HTA) breaks a goal into tasks and subtasks and records the plans that say in what order and under which conditions they are carried out. It goes back to John Annett and Keith D. Duncan (1967) and is the method most documentation work starts from: it yields steps and their sequence.
  • Team task analysis (TTA) looks at the handovers, coordination and communication between roles — who passes what to whom, and when.
  • Cognitive task analysis (CTA) looks at the knowledge, judgments and decisions behind the observable steps, such as how an experienced technician recognizes a fault.

In practice, the informal labels “technical”, “collaborative” and “personal” task analysis are sometimes used for these three views; they are alternate wording, not separate methods. Kirwan and Ainsworth’s A Guide to Task Analysis (1992) collects these and further techniques. The context cards Task analysis lenses and Task analysis across documentation disciplines compare them.

Who uses it for what

  • Machine safety: ISO 12100 identifies hazards by considering the tasks people carry out in every phase of the machine’s life cycle, so a task list is an input to hazard identification. ISO 20607 asks the drafters of instruction handbooks to consider the target groups and their tasks.
  • Medical devices: IEC 62366-1 builds usability engineering on use scenarios and hazard-related use scenarios; the FDA’s human factors guidance speaks of critical tasks whose incorrect performance could cause serious harm.
  • Quality management: standard operating procedures and work instructions are written from the tasks of a process.
  • R&D and product lifecycle management: user requirements and task allocation between people and automation rest on an analysis of tasks; see also usability.
  • Training: a training needs analysis compares the tasks with what people already know.
  • Technical writing: IEC/IEEE 82079-1 requires information for use to be based on the target audiences, their tasks and goals. Task analysis selects and orders procedures, which are then written, for example, as DITA tasks.
  • Operators: companies that run machines analyze their own tasks to write internal instructions for their staff.

Task analysis vs. planning tools

A RACI matrix, a work breakdown structure or a Kanban board can use the results of a task analysis — the tasks, their order and the roles — but they assign responsibility or plan and track work. They do not analyze how a task is performed, what users need to know or where errors and hazards arise.

External references

  • Barry Kirwan and Les Ainsworth (eds.), A Guide to Task Analysis (Taylor & Francis, 1992): https://doi.org/10.1201/b16826
  • John Annett and Keith D. Duncan, “Task Analysis and Training Design,” Occupational Psychology 41 (1967), 211–221 (no online version verified)
  • ISO 9241-11:2018, Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Part 11: Usability: Definitions and concepts (ISO)
  • IEC/IEEE 82079-1:2019, Preparation of information for use (instructions for use) of products — Part 1: Principles and general requirements (IEC, ISO)