Work breakdown structure for project management
Abstract:
Work breakdown structure, as the wording suggests, refers to the tool utilised to break larger work into smaller tasks. This is a common productivity technique related to project management, seeking to make the work and complexity af the task more manageable and approachable. It is defined by The Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) as a “deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team.”. The work breakdown structure is seen as one of the most vital tools to utilise the work breakdown technique as well as project management document. It integrates both scope, cost and schedule baseline for the project, ensuring that these are in line with the project plan.
Contents |
Big Idea
Use of the Work Breakdown structure: The work breakdown structure serves to cater many project management disciplines. Initially, it serves as a planning tool to help the project team plan, define and organize scope with deliverables. The Work breakdown own structure is usually also used as the primary source of schedule and cost estimate activities. Moreover, it is used as a description of all the work related to a project and a tool for monitoring and controlling these, which serves as its biggest contribution to project managers.
In general it is possible to distingue between three types of work breakdown structures:
1) Deliverable-based work break down structure
Deliverable-based work breakdown structures is the most common approach, and often the preferred way to initiate the phase of defining how to achieve succes in a project or program.
The key idea behind deliverable-based structure is greatly related to the overall approach of decomposing extremely complex tasks and projects into less complicated smaller fragments, the difference for the approach compared to the other two outlined methods (outlined below) is that with deliverable-based structure you focus on breaking the task down into smaller agreed deliverables.
In order to explain the method in full, it is important to define what a deliverable is. A deliverable can be a temporary mean or tool needed to fulfill a project or final element produced in order to successfully complete the project. For example, an IT contractor might develop prototypes and budget estimates as so-called interim deliverables for the customer to evaluate, however these are not the deliverables that would be a part of the final solution and serve as a satisfying project-delivery. The final deliverables would be relevant platforms and applications performing the tasks desired by the user.
Operating a deliverable-based approach means one’s breakdown structures are formulated as tangible components such as physical objects that can be produced or gathered or delivered, etc. In the theory the methodology is thus often referred to as the approach where you phrase your components in nouns.
When creating a deliverable based WBS several criteria can be used for developing the plan in order to meet specific requirements from the project. For example, a craftsman who is building a house might decide to break down the project into elements reflecting rooms in the house, levels above the ground, building elements such as concrete or wood, etc. The deliverables for this should then clearly be stated as: “cast concrete for foundation”, “windows in place” or “roof rafters erected”.
2) Phase-based work break down structure
Phase based work break down structure is opposed to the deliverable based work breakdown structure not necessarily bound to specific deliverables to be in place in order to complete the subtask. The phase-based work break down structure will more likely have some ....
Stage gate model .....
3) Responsibility based structure
Resposib
100% Rule
A critical rule associated with all levels of a work breakdown structure, regardless of its type, is the 100% Rule. The aim of this rule is to achieve the effective creation of the WBS and to assess its disintegration. The exact definition of the 100% rule “The next decomposition of a WBS element (“child” level) must represent 100 percent of the work applicable to the next higher (“parent”) element.
The levels of a work break down structure
A work breakdown structure is usually developed in a structured way imitating the shape of an inverted tree. It is organized based on objectives, looking like an organizational chart, that can help the project team and lead in visualizing the entire project with its main components. The hierarchy of the work in the project is broke down vertically, moving from the goal of the project in the top to the tasks and their subtasks on the bottom. When estimating the project schedule and deadlines, the decomposition framework provides a good level of confidence, as it shows all the work to be accomplished – or the 100% of the work in the project. Level 1 Breaking the structure into levels the first level can be said to hold the project’s ultimate goal. This level comprises the full scope of the work which will be necessary to produce and deliver a product or project. It includes all direct and indirect work. It is always a single WBS element. It can be composed of a name and a WBS identifier, to help differentiate it from other WBSs in a program or portfolio of projects. The numbering of level 1 affects the numbering down through the tree accordingly. Level 2 The second level contains the project objectives or the outcomes of the project delivery. The second level is the first level of decomposition and is a high-level breakdown of the scope into key areas. In producing a product this will hold the basic components of the product including the project management and integration of parts. Include an annotated Example of a WBS This WBS example is based on an organization building and delivering a product to a customer’s specifications. The levels hold together the 100% of the entire workload present in the project. Level 3 The third level decomposes the key areas of level 2 into its essential parts. This contains the project deliverables and starts to target specific and tangible outputs of the project of production phase. In creating a product this would include all the output parts need to be made in order to make the product. Level 4 Based on the projects scope and level of complexity, it can for some projects be relevant to include a fourth level. The fourth level describes the activities and contains the specific tasks to be carried out. Depending on the project complexness this level might be holding a lot of tasks which, in the same manner each represents 100% of each exclusive area from level 3. An example of this can be product tests related to the quality control deliverable.
Application
‘’'Creating a Work breakdown structure’’’
When creating a work break down structure.....
Know your project scope.....
Identify Key Deliverables.....
Determine Work Packages.....
Use the Right Format.....
In order for the WBS to become as relevant and tangible for the project team as possible, it is crucial to base the WBS on input from the team members. Creating the WBS with very little input from the other members of the team, may lead to the team being reluctant in buing in or supporting the WBS. Though it might be time consuming, engaging the team will be beneficial and pay off in the long run. Furthermore, it will rely on more people’s experience making it more thorough. [5]
Limitations
According to the PMBOK some of the common things that can go wrong during the project, regardless of the project managers planning and execution of work. However, some of these failures can be linked to the development of the WBS or lack hereof. Experienced project managers know that there are many things that can go wrong in projects regardless of how successful the project managers are in the planning and execution of their work, and failures and schedule delays amongst others are often related to a poorly developed WBS. Things as unclear work assignments, goals, objectives, or deliverables is said to be linked to poorly structured WBS but could also expose the limitations of using work break down structures. As said to be holding 100% of the work whilst clearly stating the scope and objectives of each task, the complexness of each task or deliverable can’t always be predicted beforehand. The development of an WBS aiming to hold all necessary information about the scope and the outcomes of the project might be a task which is too complex in itself and too time consuming in order to be manageable. In this way the WBS has clear limitations and might not be holding all the information needed to oversee the project.
Furthermore, relying on a WBS being a complete plan of all work to be done, whilst this is the purpose of it, might lead to problems, if the project manager is not critical about the fact, that the WBS might not hold all the information on the detailing and requirements of the task to be carried out. Frequently updating and reflecting upon the present WBS should be practiced in order to keep the WBS relevant and reliable. Another side effect of not continuously updating the WBS might on the contrary be that the project manager or project team members are be too reluctant on relying on the WBS. Keeping information and tracking tasks and deliverables by themselves will undermine the idea and outcome of the WBS.
The PMBOK defines the following as frequently arising negative outcomes of not updating and keeping the WBS relevant. - Incomplete project definition leading to ongoing project extensions - Unclear work assignments, goals, objectives, or deliverables - Scope creep or unmanageable, frequently changing scope - Budget overrun - Missed deadlines on scheduled deliverables, or timeline slippage - Unusable new product or feature - Failure to deliver on some elements of project scope.
References:
Annotated bibliography:
Project Management Institute. “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)”- Fifth Edition, 2013. The PMBOK Guide is the most referenced source in respect to literature regarding project management. This holds valuable information about properly managing projects as well as analysing key concepts crucial to project manangement. Furthermore it gives a thorough overview and information on project scope definition processes through the use of Work Breakdown Structures. Additionally Work Breakdown structure construction tools and methods are presented and thoroughly explained.
Project Management Institute. “Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures”- Second Edition, 2011. This book deep dives into the features of and requirements to the WBS, heightening the quality and work efficiency, when implemented in actual projects. Based on three key components being the process of constructing the original WBS format, the further development procedure and the process of its effective implementation, this book helps the reader understand the WBS in a real-life perspective.
Eric S. Norman, Shelly A. Brotherton, Robert T. Fried. “Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management Excellence”- John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Deeply analysing the process of developing and implementing Work Breakdown Structures in a project rather than product setting, this book help the project, program or portfolio manager in comprehending how Work breakdown structures work.
[1]The Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) https://www.pm4dev.com/pm4dev-blog/entry/the-work-breakdown-structure-wbs.html [2]Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures Second Edition https://app-knovel-com.proxy.findit.dtu.dk/web/view/khtml/show.v/rcid:kpPSWBSE0U/cid:kt00BRGPT2/viewerType:khtml/?page=last&view=collapsed&zoom=1 [3]https://www.workbreakdownstructure.com [4]https://blog.taskque.com/work-breakdown-structure/ [5] https://content.wisestep.com/work-breakdown-structure-advantages-disadvantages/
