Confused between “Project Activity” and “To do” List? Here is the solution

I have seen many project managers use “To do” list in their project plan activities or tasks, and often inter use these two terms…

Here is a quick clarification between the two.

Project Activity or Task

A project plan activity is normally derived from the work packages (the smallest unit in work breakdown structure that can be tracked managed and linked to the control accounts). So, once the project scope is baselined, the work break down structure is ready along with the work packages. 

During scheduling the project manager would normally sub-divide these work packages into smaller activities that can be assigned to individual resources or teams to get the work done. This is referred to as the Activity. So, the activity list is then sequenced, loaded with resource, estimated and finally becomes part of the schedule baseline. On top of it, the cost estimates are loaded to come up with the cost baseline.

So, in other words, the activity is part of the formal project plan.

To Do List

A To Do list is more of an informal list of things to do. Each member of the project team including the manager can maintain his or her own list of To do’s that helps in completing the activities and thereby completing the whole project as such. 

So what does a “To do” list contain? It can contain additional things that might be required to do so as to say, complete a task/ activity in the project plan. It can include things like:

Preparation for appraisal

Admin related work required to complete part of the work or task at hand

Talking to senior managers offline to gain experience on tackling a situation

Learning a new technique to manage resource conflicts etc…