Tasks are basic units of work that the project manager plans, schedules, and monitors — so they should be relatively small and manageable.
In addition to tasks, every project has events, or milestones. An event or milestone is a recognizable reference point that you can use to monitor progress. For example, an event might be the start of user training, the conversion of system data, or the completion of interviews. A milestone such as Complete 50 percent of program testing would not be useful information unless you could determine exactly when that event will occur.
Figure 3-8 shows tasks and events that might be involved in the creation, distribution, and tabulation of a questionnaire. Notice that the beginning and end of each task is marked by a recognizable event. If you tried to manage a project as one large task, it would be impossible. Instead, you break the project down into smaller tasks, creating a work breakdown structure (WBS). The first step in creating a WBS is to list all the tasks.