task management, work coordination
@gcassel wrote a lot about this topic over in this CTA hackpad: https://cta.hackpad.com/Task-management-functions-YQwSmvYsXVe
Tasks are actually IMO a special case of process. A process may be an indefinitely continuing stream of inputs and outputs, a one-time task, or something in between. The normal use of 'process' IMO implies an ongoing stream of inputs and outputs...
I want to suggest at least one way to think about this in a value flows context: a task is a human work input to a process. More than one person might be working on the same process: thus, more than one task as an input to the same process.
The outputs of that process may be inputs to another process. This is the frame for work coordination. The people working on the next process are calling for the output from this process. And the people who are working on this process are calling for their inputs from the previous process.
So work is properly coordinated P2P, by the people who are working on processes that are parts of a value flow.
This was one of the original insights behind kanbans. The other was pull rather than push. Push means top-down planning by management. Pull means responding to signals from the next process in the flow: ultimately, the processes of end use. I.e. the whole value flow tuned to use value.
If done well, little or no task management should be required. I've seen that happen in manufacturing settings, but not yet in a nouveau P2P setting.