Hierarchical task analysis tool

Hierarchical task analysis tool is software which helps in studying any task, making it represented as a leveled sequence of interrelated subtasks or steps that should be completed in order to achieve the required result. As it is obvious from its name, such software refers to a method called “ job research and analysis ” allowing optimizing processes through breaking them down. These techniques are used in many industries; very often they are used in software development to depict and understand how users act while dealing with program’s interface in order to get the required result, or in other words hierarchical task analysis diagram represents what actions a user needs to perform within web-site’s or program’s interface to accomplish some typical task, so then this process can be optimized by reducing the number of steps. As the example we can give you the process of ordering products online through the web-site:

1. User locates a product.
2. User adds product to basket.
3. User enters purchasing details.
4. User enters address where to deliver.
5. User confirms the order.

This template can be elaborated with more steps and details if required, but the point of this analysis is to understand if the process is convenient and short enough to be considered as effective, or it needs some optimization. Such a schema can be managed with a help of hierarchical job research tool that can be used for creating, systematizing and optimizing variety of job research templates which can completely describe some set of activities dedicated to some business object (for example all operations that are available to users at on-line shopping web-site). 

The advantages are simplicity and obviousness of this method, while it can appear a time consuming activity if used with a high degree of details on complex problems. Theoretical details of this method can be found in hierarchical task analysis tutorials , while its practice can be performed with a help of the following software:

VIP Task Manager is software which can help you in optimizing task-oriented processes used in your business practice, for example designing web-sites of software. This software features several user interface modes (Task List, Task Tree and Calendar), so you can select the most suitable for giving the definition to your processes in order to check if they are effective or they heed any kind of optimization.