WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES

Elisati Hulu

Definition

“a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.

It organizes and defines the total scope of the project.

Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work.

The WBS is decomposed into work packages.’’

Characteristics (1) Is deliverable-oriented Is hierarchical and constructed in such manner that

each level of decomposition includes 100% of the work of its parent element, and

each parent element has at least two child elements Defines the full scope of the project and includes all project

related work elements including all internal,external and interim deliverable

Includes only those elements to be delivered by the project Uses nouns and adjectives to describe the deliverables, not

verbs Employs a coding scheme that clearly depicts the hierarchical

nature of the project Contains at least two levels of decomposition Is created by those performing the work with technical input

from knowledgeable subject matter experts and other project stakeholderss

Characteristics (2)

Includes Project or Program Management at level 2 of the hierarchy

Includes WBS Dictionary that describes and defines the boundaries of the WBS elements

Contains work packages that clearly support the identification of the tasks, activities and milestones that must be performed in order to deliver the work package

Communicates the project scope to all stakeholders

Is updated in accordance with project change management procedures

Examples:

Examples: Simple WBS

Examples: Larger WBS

WBS Decomposition

The logic of WBS decomposition is also something that varies from project to project.

The most common forms of WBS decomposition are breakdowns by the following: Function Role Method Deliverables (components)

WBS representation

tabular

The steps in creating a typical WBS are: Define the project’s end product.

This is usually no more than a title: “House at Avenue Drive” for example. 

It forms the root of the Work Breakdown Structure document.

Define the main deliverables. These are the main components of the project’s end product, for example, for a house,

External construction, Internal construction, and so on. These become sections or ‘main branches’ under the root, defined in the previous step.

The steps in creating a typical WBS are (2) Break down the main

deliverables into their sub-components using as many sub-branches as needed until you have manageable ‘units of work’ which do not need to be subdivided further.

These units of work should be of a size that the project manager can easily handle. For example, something

that a worker or a team of workers can accomplish in a week might represent a unit of work.

Too much subdivision is counter productive as the project manager will then have to get too involved in the project details.

Finally you should have a structure with the root at one end and, furthest from the root, units of work. Taken together, the units of work make up the total work in the project, and there should be no overlap between them. 

Division of work in the WBS: the 100% rule

Entering costs to the WBS

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