What is task analysis?

Task analysis is similar to job analysis, but at a finer-grained level of analysis. In the job analysis, you broke a job down into its individual tasks.  Here, you break down each task into its constituent parts.  You ask questions that are similar to those you asked in job analysis:

• What are the components of each task?

• What is the ranking of each component?

• What is the time contribution of each component?

• What are the critical steps and critical paths?  A “critical step” is a step that cannot be skipped without harming the final outcome because its output serves as necessary input for another step.  A “critical path”, therefore, is a sequence of critical steps; so it follows that a step off the critical path can greatly damage your chances of a successful outcome for your project.