WBS Structure

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 Let's talk now about a very practical and
• 00:08 useful skill planning technique called the work breakdown structure.
• 00:13 The project management body of knowledge to PMBOk guide to find the work breakdown
• 00:18 structure or WBS as a hierarchical decmposition of the total scope of work to
• 00:23 be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and
• 00:27 create the required deliverables.
• 00:30 What a mouthful.
• 00:32 What that means is that the WBS breaks all the project work down into pieces and
• 00:35 organizes those pieces into some logical fashion.
• 00:39 A key question is how to organize the work.
• 00:42 Well we could organize all the tasks alphabetically, but
• 00:45 that probably won't make the project any easier to manage.
• 00:49 Now a good WBS organizes the work based upon the project
• 00:52 management approach that's being used.
• 00:54 Another key question is, what is the size of a peace of work in the WBS?
• 00:59 This is a judgement call.
• 01:01 For now let's just say, that it's a bite size piece of work and
• 01:04 I'll discuss this more in a few minutes.
• 01:07 So by taking this pieces of project work and
• 01:09 organizing them in some logical manner,
• 01:12 we have a description of everything that must be done on the project.
• 01:16 You may recall that when we put the WBS into spreadsheet and add columns for
• 01:20 start and end dates and resource assignments, we call it a WBS dictionary.
• 01:26 Let's discuss how to organize a WBS.
• 01:28 The WBS should be organized in a manner that is consistent
• 01:32 with the project management methodology that is being used for the project.
• 01:35 In addition, I'd to use the WBS to focus in on areas of high risk,
• 01:40 by making those categories of WBS tasks.
• 01:43 What are some of the ways to organize the WBS?
• 01:46 An obvious way would be that you can organize it by the project objectives
• 01:50 found in the project charter.
• 01:52 Each objective is a WBS category and
• 01:54 all the task needed to complete that objective are in that category.
• 01:58 A very common approach is to organize the WBS by stages or
• 02:02 phases of your project based on your project management methodology.
• 02:06 A classic example of this would be for six sigma project.
• 02:10 You would have five phases, define, measure, analyse, improve and control.
• 02:15 Each of those would be a separate WBS category.
• 02:18 Many times in development projects I have organized the WBS
• 02:22 by major product components such as the hardware, the mechanical parts,
• 02:27 the software or the packaging.
• 02:30 Another approach is by a business process such as market research design and
• 02:35 development, procurement, testing, training.
• 02:38 An approach often use when control is very important is organize by functions or
• 02:43 departments.
• 02:45 Each of which have a project budget that they must manage.
• 02:49 And on large complex projects with activities in multiple locations.
• 02:53 I've often use the approach of organizing a WBS by geographic location.
• 02:58 So there's a category for the activity in Shanghai.
• 03:01 Another for Singapore, and yet another category for Chicago, and
• 03:05 a fourth for London.
• 03:06 This makes it easy for a site manager to manage their portion of the project.
• 03:11 Why do we care about all this?
• 03:13 Well, WBS automatically organizes project information both during planning and
• 03:17 during execution.
• 03:19 It consolidates information within categories and allows us to focus on
• 03:22 just one category or one snapshot of the project, without the need to get details
• 03:27 from all of the different project categories at the same time.
• 03:31 A well constructed WBS makes project management much easier and more accurate.
• 03:37 A poorly constructed WBS just add bureaucratic waste and
• 03:41 nonsense creating confusion.
• 03:43 So the bottom line is organize the project the way you intend it to run the project.
• 03:48 Don't take some WBS format you found online from some company in Seattle or
• 03:52 Bangkok.
• 03:53 They probably manage their company and
• 03:55 projects very differently from how you manage yours.
• 03:58 Recall that we also said,
• 03:59 we had a question of how much detail should be in the WBS?
• 04:03 I said I'd use bit size chunks of information.
• 04:06 Well how big a bit should you take at one time?
• 04:09 The answer to that question is it depends.
• 04:11 It depends upon how you answer several other questions.
• 04:15 Remember that I said the WBS helps us manage risk.
• 04:18 Well I go into more detail in the areas of high risk and
• 04:22 less detail in areas of low risk.
• 04:24 So let's say that the WBS detail is a level which the core team is managing
• 04:28 the project.
• 04:29 Some of the considerations would then be,
• 04:31 a core team member is actually managing that task.
• 04:34 There are estimates for that task, effort, duration and budget.
• 04:38 The relationship or dependencies between that task and other tasks are clear so
• 04:42 that the core team member understands any linkages.
• 04:46 The task deliverable and the definition of done is clear and
• 04:49 understood by all the core team members.
• 04:52 And the roles and responsibilities of court team members and
• 04:55 the other departments with respect to each task is clear.
• 04:58 Too much detail will create extra budget on the court team, and
• 05:02 add unnecessary complexity.
• 05:04 Breaking the project into a hundred of thousands micro-tasks,
• 05:07 just adds a lot of work which may make it harder to manage the project effectively.
• 05:12 But by the same token not enough detail will mask risks and high problems
• 05:16 until it's too late to fix them without a major impact to the project.
• 05:21 So the bottom line is that there is a judgment call based upon risk and
• 05:25 the areas of high risk.
• 05:27 Such as a core estimate or unclear deliverable, or confused rules and
• 05:31 responsibilities.
• 05:32 It requires more detail.
• 05:34 When there is low risk because the question here area easily answered,
• 05:38 less details required.
• 05:40 One other comment, on a small project, with only one or two people, and a dozen,
• 05:44 or so, tasks, you don't even need a WBS.
• 05:47 It's easy to keep track of what's happening on the project.
• 05:51 On a larger project, with hundreds of tasks, dozens of people involved,
• 05:56 a WBS is a critically important tool for a Project Manager, and a Core Team
• 06:00 to keep track of what is actually happening and identify and manage risk.
• 06:06 >> The work breakdown structures are great tool that helps both the project manager
• 06:10 and the core team to keep track of all the work on large complex projects

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.