TargetNavigator - in pursuit of a smile: Task life cycle

It is rather obvious to everyone that the way a task is carried out substantively depends on its nature. Nevertheless, from a workflow point of view, the handling of tasks to be performed can follow a similar or even identical pattern, despite differences in their essential scope (i.e. in the purpose of the task). In fact, there may be more such patterns, as each user of the task management process has the opportunity to customise its individual elements. In this post, we will try to introduce and describe the basic task flow pattern used in TargetNavigator.

In one of our first posts, we wrote about a simple Kanban board where tasks could be at one of three basic stages : To-Do, Doing/In Progress or Done. This simple classification can serve its purpose well. However, it can be extended to more accurately represent the status of issues.

In TargetNavigator Basic, we have introduced a slightly larger number of stages. We therefore distinguish between the following 6 stages:

1. Incoming task.
2. ToBeDone - in queue, not started.
3. In progress - started task.
4. Today - task for to be performed today
5. Waiting - pending for some reason.
6. Done - completed.

The first state of the to-do case is called the Incoming Task. This is the point in time when the matter will see the light of day. The source of Incoming Tasks can be:
- our inner needs, desires, intentions and/or plans,
- commitments, obligations, expectations of us from our environment,
- various events, such as incidents or opportunities.

As long as we do not write such an upcoming thing on a card as we described in the previous post, it will exist outside the TargetNavigator system. With regard to such an instance, we can perform one of 3 sequences of actions:

a. decide that we will proceed with the case and record it on the card. At this point it will be able to be moved to the ToBeDone stage.
b. write it on the card to decide at a future moment whether to pursue it or not. As long as the decision has not been made, the case will still have the status ‘Incoming’ and will be placed in "backlog".
c. Reject it, without saving. No problem !

Things that are in the state of Incoming, in TargetNavigator, are placed in an area outside the largest circle or on another tab. In some task management methodologies, such an area is called a backlog.

We call the next, second stage of task completion To-Do or ToBeDone. All cases in this stage are those for which we have made a decision that we will complete them. It does not matter much whether this decision was made on reflection or perhaps instinctively or under other circumstances. In other words, in this phase, tasks have a ToBeDone status and this will remain unchanged until we start implementing the task. Sometimes it can take a long time before a task is started.

Tasks that we decide to start directly will first be moved to the Today status, as this indicates a specific moment (day) when we will start them.

Then, at the end of the task work session of the day, the following situations may arise:

Tasks that we delegate to be completed. Then the card of such a task goes into a waiting state. It will remain there until feedback arrives from the person to whom the task has been delegated. A delegated task can be marked with a dedicated marker, or an appropriate note on the card.
In the course of working on a task, it may become apparent that it requires some part of the work to be done by another person, for example, providing us with data or other materials. If the feedback does not arrive quickly enough, so that we are unable to complete the task during the current work session, we will also move it to the ‘ Waiting’ phase. We can place a suitable indication on the card or mark the card with a marker.
It may happen that a task is so extensive that we are unable to complete it on a given day. In this case, it should be moved back to ‘In progress’ and then, at some time later, selected again for ‘Today’ tasks.
There will also be some tasks that we believe have been completed during the current work session, but we will need the approval of someone else to recognise that they are really complete. In this situation, the task will be moved to the ‘ Waiting’ state. In this case, it will be pending for approval. You can then write ‘in acceptance’ on the task card or mark it with some further conventional marker.
And finally: a task that we start and manage to complete on the same day can sometimes be moved to the target Done state. These will be, for example, tasks that we carry out for ourselves, and we are therefore entitled to consider that we are satisfied with the quality of the task's outcome and consider it as completed.

The Done stage is the last in the task performance cycle. Completed tasks will be taken off the TargetNavigator board during the retrospective session. We will write about these in future.

Below is a graphical representation of an example of a task's journey through the various stages.

First, task X was placed in the backlog. Then the user decided that the task would be executed (1).

After a waiting period, the task was started (2).

As it was not possible to complete it in one session, the task returned to the ‘In Progress’ stage (3).

On another day, the user continued working on the task again(4).

And since its further execution required external data, the user moved it to the ‘In Pending’ state and marked it with the flag waiting for an external batch(5).

Once the required materials arrived, the user again tackled the task(6).

This time he completed all the work needed and sent the results for approval. This can be seen at step (7), when the job was moved to the waiting state and marked with the marker ‘In acceptance’.

When the message arrived that the work had been accepted, the user moved the task to the ‘Done’ stage(8).

We also provide examples of the task markers of Waiting, sourced from the internet. The user can, of course, choose other ones to suit his or her preferences.