Task Breakdown and Work Allocation

Create a Work Breakdown Structure for this project:

PROJECT: [Name and description]
DELIVERABLES: [What needs to be produced]
TEAM: [Available roles and skills]
TIMELINE: [Overall deadline]

Generate a hierarchical WBS with:

LEVEL 1: Major phases (3-6)
LEVEL 2: Deliverables within each phase (2-5 per phase)
LEVEL 3: Work packages (groups of related tasks)
LEVEL 4: Individual tasks

For each individual task (Level 4):
- Clear, action-oriented description
- Estimated effort (hours)
- Required skill/role
- Dependencies (what must be done first)
- Definition of done (how do we know it's complete)

RULES:
- Every task should take 2-8 hours of effort
- Tasks over 8 hours should be broken down further
- Include tasks people forget: testing, documentation,
  review cycles, deployment, handoffs
- Include buffer/contingency tasks (10-20% of total)

PHASE 1: Discovery & Planning (Week 1-2)
├── 1.1 Audit current site
│   ├── Content inventory (4h, copywriter)
│   ├── Analytics review (3h, PM)
│   ├── Technical audit (4h, developer)
│   └── Competitive analysis (4h, designer)
├── 1.2 Define requirements
│   ├── Stakeholder interviews (6h, PM)
│   ├── User requirements document (4h, PM)
│   └── Technical requirements document (3h, developer)
└── 1.3 Project plan finalization
    ├── Detailed timeline (3h, PM)
    ├── Resource allocation (2h, PM)
    └── Kickoff meeting prep and execution (3h, PM)

PHASE 2: Design (Week 2-4)
├── 2.1 Information architecture
│   ├── Sitemap creation (4h, designer)
│   ├── Navigation structure (3h, designer)
│   └── Stakeholder review and approval (2h, PM)
├── 2.2 Visual design
│   ├── Moodboard and style exploration (4h, designer)
│   ├── Homepage design (8h, designer)
│   ├── Interior page templates (6h, designer)
│   ├── Mobile responsive designs (6h, designer)
│   └── Design review and revisions (4h, designer + PM)
└── 2.3 Content creation
    ├── Homepage copy (4h, copywriter)
    ├── About page copy (3h, copywriter)
    ├── Service pages copy (6h, copywriter)
    └── Copy review and revisions (3h, copywriter + PM)

PHASE 3: Development (Week 4-7)
...

Here's my project WBS:

[PASTE WBS]

Review this breakdown and identify:

1. MISSING TASKS: What common tasks for this type of
   project are not listed?
   Think about:
   - Testing and QA
   - Documentation
   - Training/onboarding
   - Data migration
   - Review and approval cycles
   - Deployment and go-live
   - Post-launch monitoring
   - Rollback planning

2. UNDERESTIMATED TASKS: Which tasks are likely to take
   longer than estimated? Why?

3. MISSING DEPENDENCIES: What task relationships are
   not captured?

4. RISK AREAS: Which tasks have the highest risk of
   delay or failure?

5. FORGOTTEN STAKEHOLDERS: Are there people who need
   to review or approve work that aren't accounted for?

For each task in this WBS, provide three estimates:

OPTIMISTIC: Everything goes perfectly, no interruptions
REALISTIC: Normal conditions, some minor issues
PESSIMISTIC: Significant challenges or rework needed

Present as a table:
| Task | Optimistic | Realistic | Pessimistic | Suggested |

The "Suggested" estimate should be:
(Optimistic + 4*Realistic + Pessimistic) / 6

This is the PERT formula for weighted estimation.

Also flag:
- Tasks where the optimistic-to-pessimistic range is
  very wide (high uncertainty)
- Tasks that are hard to estimate because they depend
  on unknowns

Prioritize these tasks/features using the RICE framework:

TASKS TO PRIORITIZE:
[List tasks or features]

For each task, score:
- REACH: How many users/stakeholders are affected? (number)
- IMPACT: How much will it improve the outcome? (3=massive, 2=high, 1=medium, 0.5=low, 0.25=minimal)
- CONFIDENCE: How confident are we in the estimates? (100%=high, 80%=medium, 50%=low)
- EFFORT: Person-months to complete (or person-days for smaller items)

RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Present as a ranked table with scores and brief
justification for each rating.

Here's my project WBS with task estimates:
[PASTE WBS]

Here's my team:
[List team members with their skills, availability,
and current workload]

Create a task assignment plan:

1. ASSIGNMENT TABLE
   | Task | Assigned To | Reason for Assignment |
   | Start Date | End Date | Dependencies |

2. WORKLOAD ANALYSIS
   For each team member:
   - Total hours assigned
   - Week-by-week utilization (%)
   - Overload periods (>80% utilization)

3. BOTTLENECKS
   - Where is one person a single point of failure?
   - What happens if [person] is unavailable for a week?
   - Which skills have no backup?

4. RECOMMENDATIONS
   - Suggested workload adjustments
   - Tasks that could be parallelized
   - Skills gaps that might need external help

From this task list:
[PASTE TASKS]

Create a dependency map:

1. DEPENDENCY TABLE
   | Task | Depends On | Type | Lag |

   Types:
   - FS: Finish-to-Start (most common)
   - SS: Start-to-Start
   - FF: Finish-to-Finish

2. CRITICAL PATH
   Identify the longest chain of dependent tasks.
   These are the tasks that, if delayed, delay
   the entire project.

3. PARALLEL TRACKS
   Identify tasks that can run simultaneously
   to compress the timeline.

4. RISK DEPENDENCIES
   Which dependencies are most likely to cause delays?
   What can we do to de-risk them?

Convert this WBS into a sprint backlog:

[PASTE WBS]

SPRINT LENGTH: [1 week / 2 weeks]
TEAM VELOCITY: [Story points or hours per sprint]

For each task:
1. Convert to a user story format
   "As a [role], I want to [action] so that [benefit]"
2. Assign story points (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13)
3. Write acceptance criteria (3-5 per story)

Then group into sprint recommendations:
- Sprint 1: [Stories] (total points: X)
- Sprint 2: [Stories] (total points: X)
- ...

Respect dependencies: don't schedule a task in
Sprint 2 if its dependency is also in Sprint 2.