When you ask someone to complete a task for you, it depends on how you ask, what you are asking and why you want it.

The delegation of work or assigning tasks and getting them successfully completed is a management practice. When your approach of asking someone to do a task for you is clear, it is more likely that you will get it delivered as you want it and when you want it.

A great approach exists to make sure our task assignment is thorough and our team member has the clear idea of what are the task requirements? 

Having worked directly with the higher level management for few IT projects,  we observed that they have practised and created a better approach of how to assign a task and get it delivered as they wanted it. This might be a well-known practice all over the industries, but to put it simple, it is just a group of 6 letters - CPQQRT.

Most managers actually bear in mind these 6 letters when a task is being assigned to a team member and explain the necessary.

Context - Requirement, why is this task required?  does it have any background or are there any previous efforts which have been put into it, which created the need for this task? Are there any issues which need's to be addressed?

Purpose - Objective & Reason, what is the aim/ objective of this task and reason for doing it. 

"Context actually provides historical information related to issue and explains the current situation, whereas Purpose looks ahead to achieve what is desirable or solve the issue".

Quality - Outcome, what are the required outcomes?  what standards are required to perform the task and what key parameters are to be identified from the outcome to say we got the successful outcome. This is to make sure the outcome has desired standard and form you prefer. 

Quantity - Measure,  it is the physical measure of an outcome. This describes how many and how much measures does an outcome needed to have. Every outcome might not have this kind of measure.

"Quality is about the standard to which the task is completed and Quantity is about the physical measure".

Resources - Parameters, what does a person have to use and complete the assigned task. Is it the technology skill set, equipment, tools, workspace, vehicles, meeting rooms, budget, people for assistance and how much of their time have to be utilised for the task.

Time - (how long: effort & duration) how long does it take to complete a task and what milestones have to be achieved. Communication of their progress is needed all the way through reports or through regular discussions. 

Reference:  How to use CPQQRT