Typical prevailing task analysis really is skill analysis whose product is a set of generic tasks considered to exhaust or sufficiently sample a skill domain. This approach yields tasks as the base entities of analysis; any understanding of interrelations of structures in the skill architecture in consequence must occur--if at all--above the level of the task. Taking table-using skill as the illustrative domain, this paper presents a view of task analysis and synthesis as dependent on workspace characteristics and grounding on base operations. An assumption anchoring the presentation is that the approach provides a better focus for instructional effectiveness-efficiency issues and solutions than does the more molar approach wherein tasks are the base entities of analysis. (Author)