I’ve been hearing this for many years in businessspeak. Most people would use the word “part” in the same context, but for some reason “piece” is used to describe project tasks or organizations, or possibly some sort of technical design.
One of the definitions of “piece” is synonymous with “portion” or “part”, so I’m not sure how it can sound off.
Reference isn’t the only thing that goes into whether a construction’s use is fitting. For example if I only used the phrase “human male” when others would say “guy” then my sentences would send to sound strange.
sounds perfectly cromulent to me, both with “on” and “with”. pretty standard terminology when I’m involved in a project on a team and different people are responsible for different pieces of it.
It’s fine. Piece is a synonym for part in this case. It’s very useful in the changing world to describe a news story that may be presented in many different forms such as video, written on paper, or displayed on a web site, possibly with multi-media. Calling it a ‘piece’ identifies it even though different people may encounter it different forms.
I’ve heard this same usage and also been bothered by it. I associate it with business guys–it seems like “who moved my parachute-colored cheese” talk to me. I had the same reaction you seem to have had–it’s weird but not un-understandable, so you roll with it and file a little “wtf” in the back of your mind. Sorry, I’ve got no origin or explanation for you.