Action-item | Meaning and Definition

What is Action-items?

Action items are tasks that need to be completed within a stipulated time. These tasks may be assigned to a specific person or group of people. They may or may not be pre-planned. Usually, an action item results from a group discussion or meeting, where the need to take a particular action is realized. An action item could be a task, activity, or event.

Components of Action items

Action items comprise the following components: –

Issue or Risk: This describes what the issue is which needs resolution. It can also contain details about possible risks.

Description: Description of action items is the section that describes the task’s nature. It can also be brief about the activity or event which needs to be performed.

Person responsible for completing the task: The person or group of people assigned with the responsibility of a particular action item are mentioned in this section.

Requirements: If there are any sort of requirements like the need for special equipment, permissions, materials, or checklists, they are contained in this section.

Urgency: This section will mention how urgent the particular action task is. This helps assign priority, especially when managing multiple tasks.

Status: Status refers to the current status of the task. Assigned, In Progress, and Resolved are examples of how the owner of a particular task can create status updates.

Date of Completion (expected): This section is where the task creator mentions the expected date of completion. This is to help the owner understand the urgency and assign priority to different tasks. 

Date of Completion (actual): This is created by the task owner to indicate when the task was completed. It helps keep a record of how long it took to complete a particular task.

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