Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

INFO 638Lecture #22 WBS The goal of the project should be accomplished when all tasks in the WBS are completed When major activities are sequential, they typically appear in that order in the WBS – The Gantt chart and PERT chart (we’ll discuss later) are graphic forms of the WBS

INFO 638Lecture #23 Activity Decomposition The key to writing a good WBS is to decompose the project goal into major activities – Then keep breaking those activities down until you get to the smallest level of tasks mentioned earlier – A WBS with too much detail is time consuming to generate and follow …not enough detail, and you miss important tasks

INFO 638Lecture #24 Why Create a WBS? The WBS helps plan out the process needed to accomplish the project It also helps design the architecture of the project It forms the basis for estimating the time and effort needed for the project It establishes a baseline for reporting project status

INFO 638Lecture #25 Generating a WBS There are two basic approaches to generating a WBS – Top-down Start at the project goal, and keep breaking down activities until you get to the smallest task needed – Can use the Team approach (have everyone work on the schedule together) or – The Subteam approach (agree on level 1 activities, then have subteams tackle each activity in detail; then check for duplication and missed tasks)

INFO 638Lecture #26 Generating a WBS – Bottom-up Agree on the top level activities using the top-down approach Then break into teams and brainstorm all the activities you think are within that overall activity Organize the activities, and check for missed tasks and redundancies Often the top-down approach results in a more complete draft WBS

INFO 638Lecture #27 Special Case WBS’s Small projects may want to consider tools to help generate a good WBS, such as mindmapping mindmapping Large projects may need to alter the approach to develop the top two WBS levels as a group, then establish subteams or teams to fill out the details below that

INFO 638Lecture #28 Are we Done Yet? Six criteria can help determine if a WBS is complete – 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 – Bounded – Is each task clearly bounded by start and stop events? What event marks the start and stop of each task?

INFO 638Lecture #29 Are we Done Yet? – Deliverable – Does each activity have a clearly defined deliverable? What output should the activity produce? – Cost and Time Estimate – Is each activity defined in a way that allows a meaningful estimate of its calendar time and cost to completion? Often software cost is largely driven by the labor cost, and hence the amount of effort needed to develop it

INFO 638Lecture #210 Are we Done Yet? – Acceptable Duration Limits – Most activities should be broken down into tasks which are reasonably small Under two weeks is the upper limit There can be exceptions to this rule – 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