Week 8 (Work Breakdown Structure) Flashcards
Work Breakdown Schedule
A way in which a project may be divided by level into discrete groups for programming, cost planning and control purposes.
- a tool for defining the hierarchical breakdown of work required to deliver the products of a project.
- Major categories are broken down into smaller components. These are sub-divided until the lowest required level of detail is established (work package).
WBS
shows the need for a breakdown structure to link the project to the work packages
Deliverable
A deliverable is a tangible or measurable result.
Stakeholders
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables helps to identify the associated stakeholders and involve them in the problem solving and decision-making process. This will help stakeholders to visualize how the project will operate and what the project will look like.
Ownership
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables helps to assign ownership and responsibility for its manufacture at the deliverable level, which is a key project management philosophy.
Build-Method
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables helps the project manager to focus on build-method and the build sequence to the make the deliverables.
Configuration
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables enables the designers to confirm configuration of the deliverables will perform as required both independently and together and will also interlink with existing facilities.
Execution Strategy
Subdividing the project into deliverables help to align the resources (equipment and workforce) who will perform the work with deliverables.
Budget
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables enables a budget to be assigned to make the deliverables. This should help to improve the cost management level of control.
Scope Creep
Subdividing the project into well defined deliverables helps to avoid, or certain limit, undesirable scope creep. It should be easier to confirm if a proposed change will enhance the project’s capabilities or it is just an unnecessary add on.
Transport
Subdividing the project into tangible deliverables helps to align the deliverables with the company’s lifting and transport capabilities and gives early warning of the need for any heavy lefts and abnormal loads.
Work Package
The lowest level of WBS is a work package, which is the work required to make the deliverables. The work package contains a wealth of information.
Ownership
Identifies who is responsible for completing the work package. This is key project management philosophy to assign ownership to all aspects of the project.
Description of Work
The description of work describes the scope of work to be completed or performed and, by implication, the work that is not included.
Number or Code
The work package number or code uniquely identifies the work package. This ensures that there is no confusion between similarly named work packages.
Deliverables
The WBS break down the scope of work into a number of tangible deliverables.
Independent
Where possible, the work packages should be independent of each other so that they can be managed separately.
Specification
The specifications define what the work packages need to achieve and outline the required standard.
Quality Requirements
The quality requirements outline the required condition and acceptance criteria together with the level of inspection and the qualifications of the workforce. This links with the quality control plan and is an auditable item.
Estimate (Manhours)
The estimate man-hours is measure of the work content per work package. If these can be scheduled, they can be rolled up to give the S curve graph, which is used in the earned value technique. Some companies limit work package to a certain number of man-hours.
Duration
The work package might or might not have a duration. If the work package relates to the scope of work that will be worked on and off during the project, then the duration would be meaningless.
Human Resources
Human resources identify all the people (workforce) required to complete the work.
Procurement
The procurement list (bills of material, BOM) identifies all the bought-in items per work package. The procurement list is required to develop a procurement budget and delivery lead times for the procurement schedule.
Equipment
The equipment list identifies all the equipment, machines and plant required to complete the work package. If special equipment is required the project manager should look for beneficial grouping.
