The BORRAT Framework aims to provide comprehensive information to all individuals involved in a task, ensuring that even if they revisit the task weeks later, they will have the necessary background knowledge to recall its purpose and significance.
BACKGROUND
The Background section of the BORRAT Framework provides information that led to the creation of the task. This information should enable anyone new to the task to understand why it is happening.
While not all tasks require a background, it becomes particularly useful when a task extends over some time and involves several smaller tasks. Ultimately, determining whether including background information would benefit the team is up to your discretion.
OBJECTIVE
The Objective section of the BORRAT Framework is concerned with identifying the specific goal the task intends to achieve. It represents the actual thing that we want to accomplish through the task. It is important to have a clear and concise objective that all team members can understand and work towards.
If you create multiple objectives for the same task, it may indicate that the task needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks. This will help ensure that each task has a well-defined objective that can be accomplished effectively.
Your Objective may also include a list of specific deliverables.
REQUIREMENTS
The Requirements section of the BORRAT Framework outlines the necessary conditions or actions that must be met to achieve the task objective. These requirements can include specific methods or approaches that must be taken or resources that must be utilized.
Additionally, some requirements may be non-negotiable and must be followed for various reasons. For instance, a requirement could be that the Product ID must be used as the SKU data.
To make requirements more easily understood, it can be helpful to present them in a list format that is easy to digest.
RESOURCES
The Resources section of the BORRAT Framework focuses on identifying the tools, materials, or other resources pertinent to achieving the task objective. These resources can include mockups, links to external websites, competitor information, or other relevant data sources. By listing all relevant resources in this section, team members can quickly and easily access the information they need without searching through lengthy comment threads or other communication channels.
APPROACH
The Approach section may not be required for every task, but can be included when a particular approach to completing the task is known to be effective. This section allows team members to communicate and share approaches that are likely to be successful with others.
For example, in a task involving migrating products from Pinnacle Cart to WooCommerce, an effective approach might be to use a service like Cart2Cart to migrate the products.
Alternatively, team members could log into the database, download the necessary data, format it appropriately, and then upload it to WooCommerce.
By sharing these approaches, team members can save time and work more efficiently towards accomplishing the task objective.
TIME
The TIME section of the BORRAT Framework is focused on outlining the amount of time that has been allotted to complete the task, as well as an estimate of how many hours it will take to complete. This section is not concerned with the task’s due date, but rather the amount of time that has been allocated for the task to be completed.
For example, if a task is part of a 3-point project, the Timeline section might look like this:
- Matt — 3 Points Keyword Research
- Mike — 2 Points Copywriting
- Maria — 1 Point Layout
Optionally, rough estimates of hours can be added:
- Matt — 6 hours Keyword Research
- Mike — 4 Hours Copywriting
- Maria — 2 Hours Layout
By including these rough time estimates, the person assigned to the task will have a better understanding of how long the task is expected to take.
This helps to prevent any misunderstandings or delays that might occur if a task is mistakenly believed to be a 2-hour task when it actually takes 12 hours to complete.
SUMMARY
BORRAT is a simple and efficient framework for organizing task information. It is not necessary to use all of its sections for every task, as some may require only specific components. When creating a task, it is important to consider the target audience and plan accordingly. For smaller tasks and subtasks, a brief objective and reference to a task with a more detailed BORRAT layout may suffice.