Work Breakdown Structure: Identifying Project Activities and Decomposition, Study notes of Civil Engineering

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(ai Soret e ell a A urduHits aoe ay ods 0 om. etn Siler SOLELY Ge Fe CUES a We tE L en ssleu! Chapter 4 Identifying Project Activities Identifying Project Activities • The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical description of the work that must be done to complete the project as defined in the Project Overview Statement (POS) • Several processes can be used to create this hierarchy, which we discuss in this chapter The Work Breakdown Structure; Activity; • An activity is simply a portion of work Task; • A task is a smaller chunk of work • The terms activity and task have been used interchangeably among project managers and project management software packages • Some would use the convention that activities are made up of tasks, while others would say that tasks are made up of activities Identifying Project Activities The Work Breakdown Structure; Work Package; • A work package is a complete description of how the tasks that make up an activity will actually be done • It includes a description of the what, who, when, and how of the work • Breaking down work into a hierarchy of activities, tasks, and work packages is called decomposition Identifying Project Activities The Work Breakdown Structure; Decomposition; • Decomposition is important to the overall project plan because it allows you to estimate the duration of the project, determine the required resources, and schedule the work • This process of decomposition is parallel to the process • Writing the paper first and extracting the outline from it. That won’t work in project planning. We have to define the work before we set out to do the work. Identifying Project Activities The Work Breakdown Structure; Top-Down Approach; • The top-down approach begins at the goal level and successively partitions work down to lower levels of definition until the participants are satisfied that the work has been sufficiently defined • Activities are defined to this level of detail, project time, cost, and resource requirements are estimated much more accurately. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS ; Team Approach; • In this approach the entire team works on all parts of the WBS • For each Level 1 activity, appoint the most knowledgeable member of the planning team to facilitate the further decomposition of that part of the WBS • This approach allows all members of the planning team to pay particular attention to the WBS as it is developed, noting discrepancies and commenting on them in real time. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS ; Sub-team Approach; • When time is at a premium, the planning facilitator will prefer the sub-team approach and planning teams are divided into many sub-teams • Then follow these steps: • The planning team agrees on the approach to building the first level of the WBS • The planning team creates the Level 1 activities • A subject matter expert leads the team in further decomposition of the WBS for his or her area of expertise • The team suggests decomposition ideas for the expert until each activity within the Level 1 activities meets the WBS completion criteria Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS ; Bottom-Up Approach; Mind mapping • Mind mapping has been popularized by Joyce Wycoff1 and Tony Buzan.2 • The technique is best described as a graphic dump of your brain. • It is a non-sequential approach to recording your thoughts about things that must be done Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS ; Skills Required Role Compatibility Purpose Selection Pragmatism Life of the Team Profile = : Eligibilty and Suitability Importance ~ Organizational Deficiency Lead Time Emotional Intelligence OQwnership Teams: The key to The Role of Purpose Constant Pevelepment successful TOM the Team Learning (US SeAS Goals Flexibility Manager Lead Team TyP€/“_ Self-Directed Internal Self-Designin Leadership aug External TQ Skills Training Team Skills Six Criteria to test WBS; completeness 1. Status/completion is measurable 2. Start/end events are clearly defined 3. Activity has a deliverable 4. Time/cost is easily estimated 5. Activity duration is within acceptable limits 6. Work assignments are independent Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; 3- Deliverable; • The result of completing the work that makes up the activity is the production of a deliverable. • The deliverable is a visible sign that the activity is complete. • This sign could be an approving manager’s signature, a physical product or document, the authorization to proceed to the next activity, or some other sign of completion. Identifying Project Activities Six Criteria to test WBS; completeness 4- Cost/Time Estimate; • Each activity should have an estimated time and cost of completion. • The lowest level of decomposition in the WBS allows you to aggregate to higher levels and estimate the total project cost and the completion date. • This experience at lower levels of definition gives you a stronger base on which to estimate activity cost and duration for similar activities. Identifying Project Activities Six Criteria to test WBS; completeness 5- Acceptable Duration Limit; • While there is no fixed rule for the duration of an activity. • Recommended duration is less than two calendar weeks for the activities as this seems to be a common practice in many organizations. • Even for long projects where contractors may be responsible for major pieces of work, they will generate plans that decompose their work to activities having this activity duration. Identifying Project Activities Six Criteria to test WBS; completeness Approaches; • There is no one correct way to create the WBS. • Hypothetically, if we put each member of the JPP session in a different room and ask that person to develop the project WBS, they might all come back with different versions. • That’s all right—there is no single best answer. • There are three general approaches to building the WBS: Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build Noun-type Approaches; • Noun-type approaches define the deliverable of the project work in terms of the components (physical or functional) that make up the deliverable. • This approach is the one currently recommended by PMI. • There are two noun-type approaches: • Physical decomposition. (breakdown) • Functional decomposition. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build Noun-type Approaches; Physical Decomposition • In projects that involve building products, it is tempting to follow the physical decomposition approach. • Take a mountain bike, for example. • Its physical components include a frame, wheels, suspension, gears, and brakes. • If each component is to be manufactured, this approach might produce a simple WBS. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build Verb-type Approaches; Design-build-test-implement. • The design-build-test-implement approach is commonly used in those projects that involve a methodology. • Application systems development is an obvious situation. • Using our bicycle example again, a variation on the classic waterfall categories could be used. • The categories are design, build, test, and implement. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build Verb-type Approaches; Objectives • The objectives approach is similar to the design-build- test implement approach and is used when progress reports at various stages of project completion are prepared for senior management. • Reporting project completion by objectives gives a good indication of the deliverables that have been produced by the project team. • Objectives will almost always relate to business value and will be well received by senior management and the customer as well. There is a caution, however. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build Organizational Approaches; • Organizational approaches define the deliverable of the project work in terms of the organizational units that will work on the project. • This type of approach includes the department, process, and geographic location approaches. Identifying Project Activities Generating The WBS; Approaches to Build 8 ANDSCA Or  Thanks