Chapter 4
Step 4: The WBS
The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a breakdown of the tasks that your project must accomplish to meet the objectives of your customer. The level that you break the tasks down to is a subject for debate. You'll find that there are two arguments among project managers that prevail regarding the work breakdown structure. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
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Managers who take this stance don't see the value of the WBS. I've found that these managers usually exert very little control over their projects. They are unable to provide realistic progress status reports, and they are unsure of what individual team members are working on at any given time. Their projects very often end up in the failed project category. How can you manage your project if you don't know what tasks to assign to your team?
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I've noticed that managers who hold this opinion about the WBS very often believe in the micro-management of projects. They look for work units that are tracked by the hour and sometimes the half hour or even less. But projects that run at high-speed cannot be successful if they are micro-managed. Yes, they must be controlled, but if the project manager spends his or her time checking up on every tiny detail of each task, the project will never achieve top speed.
Your objective for the WBS development is to find the middle ground. You need a WBS that is detailed enough to provide you with management control, but you don't need to spend endless time and effort on its construction and follow-on management. You must delegate the WBS construction to the team members you've assigned as planning session leaders. Then you'll provide them with leadership to develop exactly the type of WBS that you require. If you use vendors or contractors to complete specific tasks, make the WBS construction that covers their work one of the tasks they must complete as part of your contract with them.
As the manager of a fast-paced project, you depend on speed. The level of task detail that you attempt to manage will impact your speed, so select a level that is based on a weekly reporting structure. This means that, for tracking purposes, you'll only look at tasks that are broken into one-week work units. This way, each week you'll have a full picture of the project status.
With this in place, you still have control of tasks that need to be tracked more closely. Throughout the week, even on a daily basis, the weekly report provides you with the information you need to monitor those tasks that are critical, or those that have slipped behind schedule. You do not need tasks broken down to the hourly or daily task level to do this. That is too much detail to manage on a high-speed project.
After you've developed your WBS, use it to advance your project on several fronts. This is where you recover your investment in time and effort. The WBS delivers a payoff by providing three important functions in your project.
The WBS is usually represented in chart form, but if something else works better for your team feel free to use it. Other formats are acceptable, as long as the tasks are organized in a top-down fashion and the sub-tasks add up to complete the summary task. See Figure 6.1 for a WBS developed in chart form. A summary task is numbered 4.0, and one of the sub-tasks is numbered 4.1.2.
Figure 6.1. WBS chart
Step 5: Team Finalization
Finalizing your team involves a set of simple but important tasks for you, the project manager. If you have a large team (more than 25-30 members) you'll want to build an organizational chart that identifies all of your team members. The organizational chart may show how individual team members report to team leaders and/or experts that help lead the project. Disseminate this information among the team members.
This is also the time for you to make introductions among all team members. You may need to assign workspace and provide required basic information and tools—everything from telephones to directions for locating break areas. The housekeeping phase assists team members to get settled into the project environment as quickly as possible.
- The WBS organizes all of your project tasks in a manageable group of work units so that you can estimate time and costs more accurately.
- When you have tasks broken down into manageable work units, you also have a clearer reference for the skills that are needed to perform them.
- Your WBS functions as a project management control device. When you know the estimated time and cost of each task, you then have a target you can track against actual time and cost.
