A scope definition is necessary to decide what all should and should not be covered with in the project. The work breakdown structure technique is described in the Project Scope Management section of the PMBOK and further elaborated in the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures – Second Edition. This provides a clear line of sight between the work and the goals for the project. The work should be decomposed until it is clear to teams performing the work. It gives a black and white version of the work effort needed and almost as important if the work is not in the work breakdown structure it is not a part of the project. Simply put the work breakdown structure technique divides projects into smaller more manageable chunks that can be more easily estimated and controlled. We can continue decomposing the deliverables until we feel comfortable that we have defined in a way that we can effectively manage and control the project. This is similar to how we learned to outline our writing in our freshman English class. It is important that if decomposing the deliverable that the lower child decomposition represents 100% of the parent. In this case "xyz specification" may be further decomposed into "xyz functional specifications" and "xyz performance specifications". That means that deliverables can be further decomposed into parent and child relationships. A work breakdown structure is complete when all of the deliverables necessary to obtain the project goals are identified.Ī work breakdown structure is a hierarchy. A deliverable can be delegated to a team or leader who can then be responsible for the work product and complete work should be returned when complete. The end product is described as a noun without a verb. What is the difference between "write xyz specifications" and "xyz specifications"? One describes the end product and the other describes a single step to produce it. So what is a deliverable? In a word, it can best be described as a noun. It helps to provide clarity of the scope for the project and "breaks down" the scope into whole work units.Ī work breakdown structure is deliverable-oriented. In many cases, a work breakdown structure is the first transition of organizational goals into real work that people can actually perform. This is a way of describing the work so that the team knows exactly what work is needed in order to meet the goals of the project. The work breakdown structure is a repeatable process that can be used as a template for future projects.įirst, let's start with some basics: The PMBOK® describes the work breakdown structure as "a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the team". In addition, using a work breakdown structure approach summarizes project information to improve the opportunity for use of historical information, which, can aid in both speed and accuracy of future projects. The bottom line is by using a work breakdown structure it reduces the number of surprises and improves the ability to better estimate future projects.Īccording to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), and the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures – Second Edition from the Project Management Institute (PMI), the work breakdown structure can be used to effectively decompose the project scope, to improve estimating, to better control the project execution and to more accurately verify project completion. The work breakdown structure approach allows us to visually see the work that is needed in order to complete a project. The first question that someone should ask is why use a Work Breakdown Structure ( WBS) at all.
0 kommentar(er)
