Task analysis
From ICT research methods
Contents
Why?
Understand the structure, flow or other aspects of a certain task. Task analysis focuses on what end users actually do to achieve their goals.
How?
You can collect information about the task using observations, interviews, formal task descriptions or manuals. These tasks can be (re)structured using decomposition, resulting in a hierarchical task analysis. Use standardised models to describe tasks. An activity diagram is a typical visual representation of the flow of an activity model.
Ingredients
- A willingness to understand how a task is performed.
- A focus on the actual, rather than the imagined, actions of users.
- Knowledge of models to store and analyse the tasks.
In practice
Task analysis is typically performed for the UI part of an application. Capture all actions that a user performs with the system. The tasks can be represented using activity diagrams, use cases or scenarios.
