Bruno Peeters Technical Blog

Within scrum, the work is divided in tasks. Tasks are in scrum the smallest unit to define work. A task ideally must not get longer than 1 day to get completed. Getting the story to it’s state done, involves at least getting these tasks to done. What is the advantage of defining tasks?

Get a common understanding

When defining tasks, you will make a breakdown of the work that needs to be done. Typically the tasks for a user story will be defined by the team members. Since this requires close collaboration, discussions will start about what needs to be done to meet the definition of done of the user story. In this way you will get all the members on the same page.

Working together

Having the story split up in separate steps, allows multiple team members to work on the same user story. Different team members can pick up different tasks and complete them parallel to each other.

Actions can be adjusted

Since a story itself can take up a whole sprint, defining the story in smaller tasks will allow the team to work step by step to get to the end goal. Since we get quick feedback on one task, this can for example mean that another task isn’t needed anymore at this moment or a more simpler solution can be implemented.

Closing tasks gives productivity a boost

When closing a task, it also gives a good feeling to the one that closes the item. This boosts productivity, since you want to have this feeling again. So you will go in a cadence of closing one task after the other.

Easier to focus on a nearby goal

It also gives you a way of a goal that is nearby and can be achieved in half a day or maximum a day. It is easier for a human to work towards a goal that is close by than work a goal that is far away.

The reasons above certainly are not all the positive reasons why to use tasks within a story. At least it are the benefits I encountered during practicing scrum.