Action Items
ACTION ITEMS
If you have ever done chores in your house, written a to-do list, made a list of what to buy at a store when next you visit or made a schedule of assignments to attend to, then you have established an action item subconsciously.
Dealing with issues effectively is a top character that an organisation should possess if they want to thrive. Having a task completed oftentimes seem like a herculean task, most especially higher ranked workers.
This justifies the motive behind splitting big tasks into tiny pieces and allocating them to various divisions and other workers within the organisation.
Employees will need an adequate explanation that will aid them to understand what the tasks require. This description is referred to as the action item of the task.
This article tells you all there is to know about Action Item. But firstly, let’s clarify what an action item really is.
What is an Action Item?
Under project management, an action item is simply defined as a certain task or activity that needs crucial attention. These are the common things one would affix on to-do lists or calendars to help maintain track of what requires to be achieved.
In other words, action items are the volume of efforts or activities required to be carried out to change the status of a project from a to-achieve status to achieved.
Action items, interpret what is needed to attain a mark or deliver a project, make it straightforward to trail the growth of a project, and help generate the strides that make a project gets delivered. Hence, it is recognised as the bedrock of project management.
Action Items give an explicit framework that helps interpret and manage the success of a project as said earlier, this article will give you a full insight into what action items are.
Who makes Action Items?
Action Items are commonly created by project managers and leaders of a team.
People assigned to these functions set tasks and crack them down into schedules that team members can finish and verify. The manager has to recognize who should work on which action item and what team requires numerous team members.
Action items are very important when handling complicated chores in a team atmosphere because they save team members from crossing their boundaries and doing an unwarranted job.
The goal of an Action Item List
A sleek action item list is a decent means of trailing the duties of team members in the course of a project. This makes it simpler to get responses to any problems you might encounter in the prospect of such a project. An action item list will indicate precisely what went right and what went awry in a project, Action Item also tells the amount of feat and resources that specific tasks require.
When to use Action Items
Let’s take for instance, you own a business that produces body and hair creams, and you decide to embark on a project to produce an hair cream that could also serve the purpose of a body cream (vaseline-like)
When should you start using action items? You should start using it as soon as you begin the project. It doesn’t matter if you are in the proposal phase, with action items, you’ll get into the subsequent phase easily, and you’ll be able to work out the next step.
It is also advisable to continue the use of action items all through the project, till its accomplishment.
Action Items backbone are its major field and they massively impact the progress of every project. These fields are carefully explained below;
PRIORITY FIELD
This region in action item signifies the significance and quickness of an action item within the broader region of the project itself.
With the priority field, teams can effortlessly select which or what task to first implement.
The priority field gives an analysis of where every task stands in the larger painting of the project and brings about easily selecting which tasks to carry out.
With this, the project management team can be safe knowing they’re implementing the most reasonable tasks which shifts them nigher to their project goals quickly and logically.
The preference of an action item is mostly resolved during the project planning process.
OWNER FIELD
The owner area helps recognize the team member that established an action item. The recognition of the owner gives clarity to get hold of additional information lest an action item is not well comprehensive for the assigned team member to work on.
DESCRIPTION FIELD
The description/illustration space offers extra thorough data on the action item and its components of importance. The description status shows an image of the what, why, and how of an action item.
Examples of these illustrations are; Whom the action item is designed for, these are the clients/consumers; comprehensive tactics for carrying out the action item and the facts to notice in the course of executing the action item.
The illustration area creates an atmosphere of ease for the project management team to carry out an exemplary job by procuring the fundamental information they require in a place and a concise structure.
STATUS FIELD
This field gives the entire team and stakeholders a simple path of remaining updated on the progress of a project.
These status normally contain selections like, Scheduled, which shows that a particular task has been slated to start; In-Progress, this status signifies an action item that has begun; In-review, represents an action item that has been performed, however, under assessment; Reassigned, this status points out a task that has already been delivered, evaluated and channelled for modification and finally the Completed status which marks action items that are completed.
Action item statuses are an easy way of categorizing tasks according to their progress in the timeline delivery. They make it simple to know the progress of a task with the least of struggle.
DATE CREATED FIELD
The date created area is clearly a hint of when the user creates an action item in the project management application the team decides to use. Having a perception of when an action item was established makes it uncomplicated tracing the action item’s archive if there’s ever a necessity to look into the past.
ASSIGNED DATE FIELD
The date assigned area of an action item signifies the period an action item was allocated to a member of the team. The date assigned value offers an abrupt summary of how long the task has been in development or at a specific phase.
DUE DATE FIELD
The due date value shows the period the holder of an action item specifies when a task should be finished, evaluated, and noted as sealed.
Due dates make it stress-free for the project team or the consignee to work on a plan, so the mission can be finished off in a plausible timespan.
PERCENTAGE COMPLETE FIELD
The percentage/proportion fulfilment area is a spy that reveals the improvement of an action item which is usually established on the extent of the work done on the sub-tasks and project outputs that are anticipated to be completely delivered as soon as the task is complete.
The percentage complete field can be remodelled manually by the consignee as the phases of the chore are finished off. Else, it’s advisable to automatically update the percentage completion value as the project management tool trails the phases that the action item advances through.
This field is a nice path for the team and project manager to follow if they want to keep account of one growth of their work.
COMMENTS FIELD
Just like all comment sections, this area gives a means for shareholders included in a task to divulge insight around the action item while still in the project management tool.
The Comment field presents an approach for team members, stakeholders and the project manager to share ideas, give remarks, and typically, disseminate vital information among each other on their impressions as regards the project.
ATTACHMENT FIELD
This area in the action item grants entry to documents that are linked to the action item. The action item possessor or any suitable shareholder can put these up to the action item’s management committee. The extensions area makes it susceptible for both the project manager and distinctive partners of the team to obtain an understandable image of the action item and render verdicts without needing to call for additional help from other members of the team.
The whole elements in an action item give a fraction of a message into the action item and the imminent project in general. In summary, this gives sufficient information into the action item and makes it simpler for the whole team to carry out their nicest labor with least conflict or waverings.
Decent Procedures for preserving an action item
While you commence writing or preparing your action items, here are 3 rare reasonable procedures to maintain
Start with a verb
Action items that are composed as nouns, odds appear extremely wide, which could get you confused. It is advised to start with action words for a precise notion of what exactly requires to be accomplished.
Be concise
One of the characteristics of action items is to make tasks easier, not sophisticated. If they are too “wordy” or consist of needless information, they can complicate things for the assignee and hinder the progress of the task.
Write for a layman to comprehend
Action items will forever make sense to whoever established them, but it’s good to always examine if they’ll make as much significance to a guest or an outsider.
Action items will make you handle your projects with little or no leads, just get any of the suitable project management tools such as Asana, Monday.com,Kissflow, Projectmanager.com and a lot more.
