The secret of successful project management: break the project into small, meaningful, manageable units of work
The WBS is the tool for breaking down a project into its component parts. The WBS uses outputs from project definition and risk management and identifies the tasks that are the foundation for all subsequent planning. It can be set up in either graphic or outline form. (Graphic – easy to understand; outline – list far more than can be listed using the graphic approach)
Building a WBS helps to:
· Provide a detailed illustration of project scope
· Monitor progress
· Create accurate cost and schedule estimates.
· Build project teams
Summary tasks vs work packages: Summary tasks not are actually executed; they summarize the subordinate work packages. The work packages (the process of deciding who will perform these tasks and how they will arranged provides the structure for the actual work of the project) are actually executed. Summary tasks should be meaningful to some stakeholder. If there are summary tasks that have no audience, erase them. As long as the work packages remain, the scope of the project is the same.
Steps of building a WBS:
Step 1: begin at the top – all deliverables from the SOW appear on the WBS. (The WBS will be linked to the SOW)
Step 2: name all the tasks required to produce deliverables- participative planning not only creates more accurately detailed work breakdowns, it can also encourage higher levels of commitment to the project. (verb + noun)
Step 3: how to organize the WBS-
Work package size: to ensure that the work packages are the correct size, follow these common rules of thumb
· The 8/80 rule – 8 labor hours< any task< 80 labor hours (=10 days< any task< 1 day)
· The reporting period rule – no task should be longer than the distance btwn 2 status points, which means, if we hold weekly status meetings, then no task should be longer than 1 week. [I was unaware of this rule; I may have to make changes on the doc I submitted/shared previously.]
· The “if it’s useful” rule. Whether to break tasks down further, follow the 3 rules:
1) The task is easier to estimate.
2) The task is easier to assign.
3) The task is easier to track.
While working with small increments will produce an enormous amount of detail, it dramatically increases the accuracy of estimating and tracking a project.
Put PM into the WBS: you can benefit by putting PM activities into the WBS. List them under a summary task called “ Project Management”.
Planning for quality: it is cheaper to design a product correctly than to fix it after it is built. We should make sure we catch problems early in the development life cycle. Project management offers the risk management techniques & a process for setting standards for completion of the product.
Completion criteria: (standards for completion of the product)
Completion criteria answer these 2 critical questions about each work package: 1) what does it mean to be complete with this task? 2) How will we know it was done correctly? Determining completion criteria demands that the PM and team look to the best practices in their industry.
In addition to improving quality, completion criteria improve our understanding of each task, which results in more accurate estimates and higher rates of success.
Examples of completion criteria:
· Peer reviews/walk-throughs
Peer reviews à better results in the front end of the development life cycle
Peer reviews à more cost-effective work in the construction phase
· Checklists
· Systematic testing
The acceptance process: begin with the end in mind - Stephen Covery’s ‘7 habits of effective people’
acceptance process – consider early on the process for delivering the final product.
Breaking down large programs: contract à projectsà subprojectsà work packages
WBS Guidelines vary: name all tasks with strong V and N
· The deliverable-oriented WBS: use only N
· Work packages as subprojects or groups of activities
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