Task Analysis (Social Work)
In task-centered social work, task analysis is the qualitative procedure of breaking a client's agreed-upon goal into a sequence of concrete, accomplishable tasks, then examining what helps and hinders the completion of each. Rooted in William Reid and Laura Epstein's task-centered model, it turns a large or vague problem into a chain of small, reviewable actions for the client and worker, and treats the success or failure of each task as data for refining the plan. It is both a planning device and an analytic lens on the change process.
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Sources
- Reid, W. J. (1992). Task Strategies: An Empirical Approach to Clinical Social Work. Columbia University Press. ISBN: 9780231076876
- Reid, W. J., & Epstein, L. (1972). Task-Centered Casework. Columbia University Press. ISBN: 9780231036313
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Task Analysis in Task-Centered Social Work Practice. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/social-work/task-analysis-sw
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