Working with Sub-tasks
Sub-tasks are only useful if the list reflects reality. That takes a small amount of discipline.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Sub-tasks — checklist items against a record
Architect Panel → Automation:
- Worklist — your outstanding work across every record
Work from the worklist
Not from the record. The worklist gathers what is assigned to you across every record, which is how somebody actually works — by what is due, not by opening cases one at a time.
Complete them at the time
Not at the end of the week. A list completed retrospectively is a list that was never used, and the completion dates are fiction — which matters if anybody ever relies on them.
Reassign rather than leaving
Somebody on leave with eleven open sub-tasks is eleven pieces of work nobody is doing. Reassigning to a team is usually the right move, and it should be routine rather than an escalation.
Chase by due date
Overdue sub-tasks are the operational picture. A weekly look at what is overdue, by team, finds both the work that has stalled and the process steps that are consistently unrealistic.
Watch what is always late
If one generated sub-task is overdue on most records, the due period is wrong or the step does not fit how people actually work. That is a process finding, not a performance one.
Cancel what is not needed
Generated sub-tasks sometimes do not apply. Cancelling with a reason is honest; completing something that was never done is not, and it corrupts everything you might later report.
Do not generate too many
A process producing fifteen sub-tasks per record produces a list people stop reading. Generate the steps that genuinely need tracking and leave the rest to the person doing the work.
Report on the shape, not the count
How long each type of sub-task takes, which stall, which are always late. The total number outstanding is a number that goes up and down; the pattern tells you what to change.
Review the generated set periodically
Processes change and the sub-tasks generated for them frequently do not. A step nobody does any more still appears, gets completed without being done, and quietly makes the data meaningless.
Worked example
A team works from the worklist and reviews overdue sub-tasks weekly. One generated step was overdue on most cases; investigation showed it depended on information that only arrives later, so the due period was changed and the step moved after the one it depended on.
Recommendations
- Work from the worklist, not record by record.
- Complete at the time, or the dates are fiction.
- Cancel with a reason rather than falsely completing.
- Investigate what is always late as a process problem.