Building a Work Breakdown Structure

I will be giving a Blognar on creating a workable plan for the next few weeks, please comment on the subject and make it real for people learning Project Management and Project Scheduling.

Part of thinking like a Project Manager involves knowing where you are going and understanding the life cycle of the project. This blognar shows you how to decompose a project into work packages ─ or discrete pieces of work that team members do. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is one of most difficult things to do correctly in a project (Scope Management knowledge area). Failure to define properly is the biggest cause of project failure. You will learn the 4 subproject structures needed to understand and assign work and task to the WBS, using sticky notes ─ how to check to make sure your breakdown is correct. We will also talk about naming standards for the work packages.

Part 1

The Work Breakdown (WBS) is the tool that we use to decompose complex projects into simple task that have deliverables. The WBS can be divided into 5 plus or minus 2 levels, preferably 3 levels. The problem is exactly how that is done. The answers is carefully, it takes some experience at looking at similar projects or maybe the understanding the following guidelines.(Michael Dobson Practical Project Management)

1. State the project this is level 1. The name should describe the overall intent of the project.
2. Define the subprojects. Keep in mind what the overall intent of the project is and understand the driver of the “Triple Constraints”. Subprojects actually help to define the management structure of your project in addition to defining categories of tasks. Let’s examine the subproject structure.
1. Committee/Functional
2. Chronological/Phased
3. Discipline/Skills
4. Cross-departmental
3. Assign tasks to the WBS
4. Sequencing the tasks

I will talk about each subproject structure in the next Blog.

Dushun Mosley

Real Project Management
dmosley@eduteach.com

Remember Mike

"“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world
filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with
despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust,
we must still dare to believe.” - Michael Jackson"

Project Management Software

We all know that we have to pick the right tool for the right job but do we as Project Managers really know what software best fits our current needs? I know for sure it is not always the software the clients has and I know it is not the most expensive or free-ware on the market. Most of the software out there like MS Project can do the job but it is our experience and knowledge that really makes or breaks a good plan. I would like to hear about the kind of PM software people are using with success (+/- 28%).