DEVELOPING PROJECT PLAN-I
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Work Breakdown Structure
How am I gonna eat this?
Obviously
in small
bites.
“BREAKING TASKS INTO BITE SIZED CHUNKS”
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Humans Find It Difficult To Analyse, Plan And
Execute Large, Complex Tasks
Complex Tasks Take A Long Time To Complete
Deadlines That Are A Long Way Away Tend Not To Trigger
Immediate Action
It’s Difficult To Know Where To Start
It’s Difficult To Know How Much More You Have Got To Do
Answer
“Break It Down To “Bite Size” Chunks You Can Deal With”
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
A breakdown of the total project task into
components helps to establish
How work will be done?
How people will be organized?
How resources would be allocated?
How progress would be monitored?
Break down a project only to a level sufficient to produce an
estimate of the required accuracy
Generally WBS includes 6-7 levels. May also vary based on
situation.
WBS should be developed before scheduling & resource
allocation are done
SOURCES OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
BRAINSTORMING
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES
Work Breakdown Structures helps:
Organize the activities required to meet the
objectives of the project.
Defines the relationship of the final deliverable (the
project) to its sub-deliverables, and in turn, their
relationships to work packages
May be organized:
By phase of the project
By component
WORK PACKAGES
Lowest level of WBS is called a Work Package.
If further deconstruction into activities is
possible.
May be assigned as a subproject
May be subdivided into new-WBS structure for
estimating purposes for these work packages
Activities at this level become the basis for time
and duration estimates.
WORK PACKAGES (WP)
It is output-oriented and:
Defines work (what)
Helps identify time to complete a task of WP (how long)
Identifies a time-phased budget to complete a WP (cost)
Identifies resources needed to complete a WP (how much)
Identifies a single person responsible for units of work
(who)
Is it Similar to Sprints in Agile
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
– THE “BITE SIZED” ACTIVITIES
HOW WBS HELPS PROJECT MANAGER
Facilitates evaluation of cost, time, and technical performance of
the organization on a project
Helps in Identifying the relationships between tasks
Provides management with each department level information
appropriate.
Helps in the development of the organization breakdown structure
(OBS), which assigns project responsibilities to organizational
units and individuals
Defines communication channels and assists in coordinating the
various project elements
Increases the probability that every requirement will be accounted
Can be used to track the costs of each element
Can be used to monitor progress by completion of tasks
Though it does not yet incorporate time and precedence info, it
helps in defining and managing the plan, schedule, and budget
SIX CRITERIA CAN HELP DETERMINE
IF A WBS IS COMPLETE
1. Measurable Status – Is each task defined in a way to help monitor its
status toward completion?
Typically requires some kind of measurement to assess percent completion
2. Bounded – Is each task clearly bounded by start and stop events?
What event marks the start and stop of each task?
3. Deliverable – Does each activity have a clearly defined deliverable?
What output should the activity produce?
4. Cost and Time Estimate – Is each activity defined in a way that allows
a meaningful estimate of its calendar time and completion cost ?
Often software cost is largely driven by the labor cost, and hence the amount of
effort needed to develop it
5. Acceptable Duration Limits – Most activities should be broken down
into tasks which are reasonably small
There can be exceptions to this rule
6. Activity Independence – Are the activities defined to be independent
of each other as much as practical?
Avoid activities that are too complex, or the other extreme, micromanaging
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
A good WBS is based upon
A well defined scope for the project
A set of system requirements
A good understanding of the project priorities
The WBS helps you identify and specify all the tasks
associated with the project.
WBS may need to be refined/updated for each project
phase
A complete and well organized WBS will help assure good
schedule and cost estimates
APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING WBS
Guidelines: Some organizations provide guidelines for
preparing WBSs.
Analogy approach: Review WBSs of similar projects
and tailor to your project.
Top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the
project and break them down.
Bottom-up approach: Start with the specific tasks and
roll them up.
Mind-mapping approach: Write tasks in a non-linear,
branching format and then create the WBS structure.
SAMPLE MIND-MAPPING APPROACH
MIND MAP FOR WBS
Investigate Produce
past events ads
TV and Purchase
Interview Research radio ads air time
running
club
members Promotion Monitor
airings
Flyers
Print Design
Mailings
Mail
promo
Distribute
Prepare Acquire
mailing address
To schools To sports lists
retailers
SAMPLE INTRANET WBS
ORGANIZED BY PHASE
PBS FOR SOFTWARE PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT
Coding the WBS
for the Information System
CODING THE WBS
FOR THE INFORMATION SYSTEM
WBS Coding System
Defines:
• Levels and elements of the WBS
• Organization elements
• Work packages
• Budget and cost information
Allows reports to be consolidated at any level in
the organization structure
INTRANET WBS IN TABULAR FORM
1.0 Concept
1.1 Evaluate current systems
1.2 Define requirements
1.2.1 Define user requirements
1.2.2 Define content requirements
1.2.3 Define system requirements
1.2.4 Define server owner requirements
1.3 Define specific functionality
1.4 Define risks and risk management approach
1.5 Develop project plan
1.6 Brief Web development team
2.0 Web Site Design
3.0 Web Site Development
4.0 Roll Out
5.0 Support
INTRANET WBS & GANTT CHART IN
MICROSOFT PROJECT
Integrating the WBS
with Organization
INTEGRATING THE WBS
WITH THE ORGANIZATION
Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)
Depicts how the firm is organized to discharge its
work responsibility for a project
• Provides a framework to summarize organization
work unit performance
• Identifies organization units responsible for work
packages
• Ties the organizational units to cost control
accounts
INTEGRATION OF WBS AND OBS
RESPONSIBILITY MATRICES
Also called a linear responsibility chart
Summarizes the tasks to be accomplished and who
is responsible for what on the project
• Lists project activities and participants
• Clarifies critical interfaces between units and
individuals that need coordination
• Provide an means for all participants to view their
responsibilities and agree on their assignments
• Clarifies the extent or type of authority that can be
exercised by each participant
RESPONSIBILITY MATRIX FOR THE
CONVEYOR BELT PROJECT
RESPONSIBILITY MATRIX FOR A
MARKET RESEARCH PROJECT
COMMON ERRORS WHEN CREATING WBS
Does not include all of the work.
The level of detail is not sufficient to manage the
program.
Important but not readily apparent steps are left
out.
The work is there, but it’s not arranged logically.
THANKYOU
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