Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure In project management a hierarchical delivery oriented breakdown of project into individual components is called as work breakdown structure (WBS). WBS decomposes project into individual functions, deliverables and work packages that facilitates resource allocation, assignment of responsibilities, and measurement and control of the project. Block Diagram explains the Work Breakdown Structure: Design Principle for WBS: The design principles for WBS are as following: * 100% Rule:The 100% rule principle guides the development, decomposition and evaluation of the WBS. The 100% rule states that the WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope and captures all deliverables of the work to be completed, including project management. * Mutually exclusive elements: In addition to the 100% rule, the individual elements of WBS should be mutually exclusive of each other in their definition, in order to avoid mis-communication between elements and confusion r egarding project cost accounting.WBS dictionary is used for the purpose of avoiding ambiguity and clarifying the distinctions between WBS elements. * Level of detail : Level of detail help in determining the end point for division of work necessary to produce a deliverable defined by the WBS. There are several â€Å"rules of thumb† used for determining duration of an activity necessary to produce a specific deliverable defined by the WBS. * Terminal element: A terminal element is the lowest element in a work breakdown structure that is estimated in terms of resource requirements, budget and duration.Work packages are established at the juncture of WBS elements based on which the project performance is planned and controlled. Steps for Creating a WBS: 1. Define the project’s end product. It forms the root of the Work Breakdown Structure document. 2. Define the main deliverables which are the main components of the project’s end product. These become sections or à ¢â‚¬Ëœmain branches’ under the root, defined in the previous step. 3.Break down the main deliverables into their sub-components using as many sub-branches as needed until you have manageable ‘units of work’ which do not need to be subdivided further. These units of work should be of a size that the project manager can easily handle. WBS for a Software Project Misconception about WBS: ? WBS is not an exhaustive list of work. It is instead a comprehensive classification of project scope. ? WBS is not as project plan as it only specifies what will be done, not how or when. WBS is not an organizational hierarchy, although it may be used when assigning responsibilities. Advantages of WBS: The work breakdown structure is the foundation of project planning, hence it is developed before dependencies are identified and activity durations are estimated The work breakdown structure provides a common framework for the natural development of the overall planning and control o f a contract and is the basis for dividing work into definable increments. A work breakdown structure permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks into their successively higher level â€Å"parent† tasks. Work Breakdown Structure In order to organized processes in an organization there are many ways how to achieve it, there can be either improving the internal human resource management or it can be improving customer management. But doing these has to have some tools to use in order to better implement the processes in a way it could really be followed effectively and efficiently and one of the common tool is WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). Work breakdown structure is a way for each processes be represented by components and how it should be operated in a proper order. In this paper the case to be use is constructing a simple WBS where it could to define the constituent activities for the project, including design, cutting, purchasing, measuring, testing, sewing, marketing and so on, where the marketing department of the company was task to unveil a new line of leather chairs in the company’s 10th year anniversary. In applying WBS, it should apply the different approaches of WBS: top-down, bottom-up, analogy and mind mapping. And lastly, it should answer the questions that are provided in this case. Starting with the first approach, using the most common top-down approach, below you can see the generated component identified for this case. (See Figure 1). Figure 1. Top-Down Approach In the given top down approach above, you can see that it shows a detailed representation of high level components in the second row down to its sub level components in each at the third row. Counterpart presentation to this is the bottom up approach. (See Figure 2). Figure 1. Bottom up Approach For the third approach, which is analogy approach of WBS, it is where each component are presented whether through the help of a bottom up or top down diagram identifying the component or components that need deep analysis and study in order to achieve effective process. Analyzing the case in this paper a more focus on study components includes: building design component and product marketing. This means the success for this project is to have better and effective design. Design that well fit to its desired customers, but, this alone would not be the only one, it should also has top provide an effective marketing plan for this product to be viable in the market which will be the greatest gauge of success for this project. Lastly, in terms of mind mapping, this approach deals with two separate main tasks which need to be identified by managers on the list of components. The two tasks are known as: Mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Following the example in Figure 2, the exclusive components includes: Construction and Budget allocation, these components are considered to be exclusive and does not need to interact with other components. While the components that are identified exhaustive or needs more focus and details are: Building design, purchasing raw materials and product marketing. These components needs extra care and details to succeed in effectively performing these tasks. In answering the questions involved in this case, starting with what approach made more sense, this is actually mind mapping approach, because what makes this more effective is that it segregates tasks that needs better attention and more details and also identifying exclusive ones which can work its own separately. This approach helps managers easily identify the critical path of the projects. Also, these approaches also identifies to be the more challenging of all since managers need to be critical in identifying these tasks and further identify what better actions need to take and even what risks it may have in order to implement each and every components. I personally prefer mind mapping because it helps managers or anyone to be more analytic in identifying each components needed for any projects. Lastly, WBS is a success to any project because it helps managers specifically in performing the processes needed for any projects and from that point it could simply identify what critical areas need to have extra attention in order to achieve effective and efficient results for the project. (Baliton, L. , n. d. )