Poor Task Decomposition

Detects when task breakdown creates subtasks that are impossible, circular, vague, too granular, or too broad. Critical for complex multi-step agent workflows.

Examples

• Task decomposed into subtasks with circular dependencies (A needs B, B needs A)
• Subtask says "handle the infrastructure" with no specifics
• Simple "add button" task over-decomposed into 15 steps when 3 would suffice
• Complex system design has only 2 subtasks, each too broad to execute

Detection methods

Dependency Analysis

Detects circular, missing, or impossible dependencies

Granularity Check

Validates task-aware decomposition depth (complex vs simple)

Vagueness Detection

Flags non-actionable steps using indicator words

Complexity Estimation

Identifies subtasks too broad for single execution

Calibration accuracy

From the Pisama calibration set. See detector scoreboard for the full table.

Subtypes

• impossible subtask
• missing dependency
• circular dependency
• duplicate work
• wrong granularity
• vague subtask