Task analysis examines job requirements and compares them to employee knowledge and skills. Task analysis addresses what is done, not what should be done. Jobs are no longer defined by a limited number of tasks, requiring the employee to accomplish a range of tasks that may change over time. Task analysis profiles the individual, what he or she is like, and is capable of doing to be successful on the job and to provide benefit to the company or organization. Knowing this information helps the employer plan benefits, design surveys, communicate effectively with employees, track effectiveness, analyze data, and report progress.
There are various categories of task analysis: task decomposition, knowledge based analysis, and entity-relationship based analysis. Task decomposition focuses on the way a task can be divided into sub-tasks, knowledge based analysis on what needs to be known to accomplish a task, and entity-relationship based analysis on the objects involved and the actions that can be performed with them.
