Activity

An Activity is one bounded unit of Work in a Network of Commitments: a piece of doing that an Actor commits to and keeps, and that moves Throughput toward The Goal. It is the smallest committed step in the LIØNSBERG Integrated Delivery System.

An Activity is a Commitment before it is a task: it is completed only when someone makes and keeps a commitment to do it (Making And Securing Commitments). If it helps Us All realize The Goal, it produces Value; if it serves nothing above it, it is Waste.

What every Activity carries

• Its card. Every Activity has one Work Card, which is how it is seen, sorted and kept.
• Its links. At least one Predecessor and at least one Successor. An Activity with no links is not yet part of the plan.
• Its size. A duration of no more than five days of ten-hour work: fifty hours. Anything larger is broken into several linked Activities. Small Activities keep the network honest: progress shows, handoffs are visible, and a slip is caught in days rather than weeks.
• Its owner. The person or Cell whose word it is, and who hands it on ready and acceptable (Handoff Points).
• What it serves. A Milestone, a Quest, or a larger Activity above it.
• Its status. Where it stands, and once known, when it actually started and finished.

Where Activities come from

The Work Breakdown Structure breaks the work down from The 12 Pillars of LIØNSBERG to the Activities that do it. Pull Planning orders them backward from the Milestones, and the linked whole gives the Critical Path. The Activities of one branch of the breakdown, carried in order, make a Work Stream. A Quest runs no longer than ninety days; an Activity is its smallest committed step. A Milestone is an Activity of zero duration: a marker, not a stretch of work. See 11.57 A Logical Network of Commitments.

See also: Work Card, Work Stream, Network of Commitments, Predecessor, Successor, Critical Path, Work Breakdown Structure, Pull Planning, LIØNSBERG Integrated Delivery System