6.2 Define Activities
List the specific activities needed to produce each work package.
Planning / Schedule · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map
Why it matters
A work package described only at a high level cannot be scheduled or assigned; naming the actual activities is what makes it plannable.
What done looks like
Every work package has a named list of the activities that will produce it.
First time tip
Name each activity with a verb and an object, like 'draft the layout,' not just a noun. A verb forces you to say what actually gets done.
What you need (Inputs)
- Schedule Management Plan
- Scope Baseline
How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: committed backlog items and definition-of-done items (models/agile.py) — a committed backlog (status ready/in_progress/done) plus a written definition of done is what an agile team baselines scope against - Enterprise Environmental Factors
- Organizational Process Assets
How you do it (Tools & Techniques)
What you get (Outputs)
Worked example
"Repair the water-damaged wall" becomes four activities: open the wall, dry it out, replace the studs and close it up. It has to be four, because the drying happens between two of them and one task could never show that wait.
Common pitfalls
- Leaving a work package as one activity when parts of it happen at different times.
- Naming an activity with a noun, so nobody can tell what work it actually involves.
- Listing activities for the visible work and forgetting inspections and sign-offs.
How driftless helps
- Decomposition can be run here.
- Meetings can be run here.
- Milestone List can be created in the wizard.