1hr. 30min.
A3.KCI-2. Structure the Scope (WBS)
The Work Breakdown Structure is a technique for both breaking down and structuring the scope. The determining factors are the way in which we want to see the management and reporting carried out. When organizations have a lot of experience with projects, standards are created with respect to:
The representation.
The depth.
Standard divisions.
Reporting levels (control accounts).
Span of control allowed.
Set of tools.
Numbering (coding).
Standard templates.
Link to ledger accounts.
In this way it is possible to make a connection to the organization’s other administrative systems. There are two quality principles for a good WBS [4] :
The minimum that has to be present.
The demands of the project or the programme manager.
I will discuss a number of minimum requirements for putting together a WBS in more detail.
1) A WBS is a delivery oriented breakdown of the work to be delivered. One of the most common mistakes is including activities in the WBS. When making the WBS, the focus is on what the team delivers during the project, and not on which activities the team has to carry out, that comes later. The elements of the WBS can best be described by adjectives and nouns. The WBS is about the what, and not yet about the how. The descriptions in a WBS never contain verbs.
The WBS can be presented as a diagram, text or as a table. Although in most theoretical examples you will see a graphic representation, you will find that in practice this is difficult with a large WBS, because you will very quickly need to use a large size of paper to print the WBS. Initially, it is preferable to create this on a large sheet of brown paper during a brainstorm session involving the most important parties involved and the staff who will have to deliver the work! Initially, they will carry out a top-down breakdown of the work that the team has to deliver. In a following step, a bottom-up reconstruction can be carried out in order to see to what extent the people carrying out the work have the same picture as the most important stakeholders.
When we split up a part delivery, the "children" taken together form the higher level "parent" and this is repeated up to the top. We call this the 100% rule. In this way we ensure that during the structuring, we do not add any new work to the WBS, enabling us to stay within the scope.
There are three special components which need an extra mention:
Planning packages, a component about which we still have insufficient information to split it up further.
Control accounts, an in-between level, over which we let the sub-project managers (or suppliers) report (usually the level at which we receive invoices or cross-charges).
Work packages, the lowest level at which it is possible to identify the activities to be carried out by the team, and to make realistic estimates.
Please note: the activities do not belong to the WBS.
2) The second quality criterion covers the demands of the project. This is about you structuring the WBS in such a way that you can manage the project adequately. Making it too detailed results in a lot of overhead, for example, when you define work packages with a duration of one day, there is a doubt as to whether this is effective. You would then have to measure the progress virtually to the nearest hour. On the other hand, making it too general provides you with insufficient information to measure the progress. A work package with a duration of six months gives you problems every month in determining what the progress is.
When we are involved with a programme you do not break down to the work package level, as that is carried out in each of the different projects. A programme does contain something similar to work packages, however, and we call these programme packages. Usually these are the main deliverables coming from the underlying projects.
Application
You can convert the above into actions on the project/programme/portfolio for which you are currently responsible, by carrying out the following steps:
Explain why you structure the scope.
Structure the scope with the help of a Work Breakdown Structure.
Explain the different aspects of the WBS.
State the boundaries of the project.
Estimate the level of detail required.
CASE
EXAMPLE A3.2 No activities in the WBS
CORRECT:
Functional Design
Technical Design
Build
Acceptance
INCORRECT:
Make Functional Design
Make Technical Design
Build the System
Accept the System
