# What is Task Delegation?

Also called work handoff.

Task delegation is the transfer of responsibility for a piece of work to someone or something else, along with the context, authority, and constraints needed to finish it. A delegation is complete when the receiver knows the intended outcome, what may be decided alone, what needs approval, and when to hand the work back. Incomplete delegation is the usual cause of unusable output.

The elements are the same whether the receiver is a person or an agent: the outcome wanted, the boundaries around it, the inputs available, and the escalation rule. What changes with software is that unstated assumptions are not quietly filled in by common sense. An agent handed a vague instruction produces a confident interpretation of it rather than stopping to ask.

In practice this means writing the delegation down. Most teams find the easiest work to hand over is the work already described in a procedure, and the work that resists delegation is the work whose rules live in one person's head. Making those rules explicit is usually the harder half of the exercise and the half that pays off regardless of who ends up doing the task.

Delegation is not abdication. Responsibility for the outcome stays with the person who delegated it, which is why sampling, review, and a clear escalation path matter more as volume grows. Work that requires reading a room, holding a relationship, or making a call that will have to be defended later is better kept with a person, and saying so is part of delegating well.

Delegating to software depends on standard operating procedures for the how and on agent onboarding for the context. Where the delegated work is a fixed sequence, workflow automation fits better than an agent. Where it requires interpretation, an agent is appropriate, with an approval rule on anything that leaves the company.

## Key points

- Transfers responsibility with context, authority, and limits
- Software does not fill in unstated assumptions
- Accountability stays with the person delegating
- Judgment and relationship work belongs with a person

## In practice

A founder delegates weekly competitor monitoring. The delegation names the outcome, one page every Friday, the sources, five named sites and two newsletters, the boundary, report changes but contact nobody, and the escalation, message her the same day if a competitor announces a pricing change. It is three sentences long, and it is the reason the first report is usable.

## Related terms

- [Standard Operating Procedure](/en/glossary/standard-operating-procedure)
- [Agent Onboarding](/en/glossary/agent-onboarding)
- [AI Employee](/en/glossary/ai-employee)
- [Workflow Automation](/en/glossary/workflow-automation)
- [Coverage](/en/glossary/coverage)

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