Task states

Tasks exist in 8 states:

  • Unplanned
  • In Planning
  • Planned
  • In Progress
  • In Review
  • Done
  • Cancelled
  • Superseded

These states are used as following:

  1. Any newly created task is Unplanned. A newly created task need only have a definition of completion. It MAY have a customer.
  2. When the customer starts planning a task, they mark it In Planning.
  3. When the customer and performer complete the planning process, the task moves to Planned. These tasks MUST have:
    • A customer (a specific team)
    • A performer (a specific team)
    • An deadline by which the performer promises to complete the task.
    • For tasks with an individual as the performer, an estimated duration of work required in addition to work on any dependencies.
  4. When the performer starts actually working on the task, they move it to In Progress.
  5. When the performer thinks that they have completed the task, they move it to In Review.
  6. The customer then reviews the task. If the task is in fact done, they move the task to Done. If the task is not in fact done, the task moves back to In Planning, and the customer and performer replan it in order to figure out where their understandings differed.
  7. At any point in time, if the customer decides that the task no longer needs to be done, they move it to Cancelled.
  8. At any point in time, if the customer plans a task for which the definition of done entails that this task is also done, but for which this task is not a dependency, they must move it to Superseded.

Note: The customer and performer may sometimes be the same team or person, but they should understand themselves as playing the two roles at different times. In an organization with many teams and individuals, they will usually be different teams.

In a diagram, this state flow looks as following:

flowchart TD
   Unplanned
   InPlanning["In Planning"]
   Planned
   InProgress["In Progress"]
   InReview["In Review"]
   Done
   Cancelled
   Superseded
   AnyState["Any State"]
   Unplanned -->|Customer starts planning| InPlanning
   InPlanning -->|Customer & performer complete planning| Planned
   Planned -->|Performer starts task| InProgress
   InProgress -->|Performer finishes task| InReview
   InReview -->|Customer reviews & approves| Done
   InReview -->|Task not in fact complete| InPlanning
   AnyState -->|Customer decides to cancel task| Cancelled
   AnyState -->|Customer plans superseding task| Superseded
   style Unplanned color:green;
   style InPlanning color:#8B8000;
   style Planned color:orange;
   style InProgress color:red;
   style InReview color:purple;
   style Done color:blue;
   style Cancelled color:black;
   style Superseded color:black;

Next, see Task properties.