Department of Business Management

and Entrepreneurship

WORK BREAKDOWN
GEME 321 STTRUCTURE
LECTURE 4
 POSITIONING the WBS

• At conception/initiation stage of PLC, a project

charter is approved- “formal agreement between the
customer and the contractor”
• Project charter - contains details of project- What
is to be accomplished & how it will be accomplished
• Charter authorizes the PM to start the Project
• After approval, project goes detailed planning phase
• Detailed project requirements are documented in the
project Statement of work- Define & Planning Stages
• SOW narrates products/ services/ results to be
delivered by the project and includes Scope statement;
Deliverables; Objectives; Stakeholder analysis etc.
 DEFINING WBS

• Info from Scope statement & list of requirements is

used to create a Work Breakdown Structure
• A WBS organizes & defines project’s total scope of
work – Purpose
• Involves breaking down total scope of work
hierarchically, increasing in detail as you go down
through the WBS levels
• It defines and details all the work that needs to be
done to accomplish project objectives and meet
required deliverables.
• PM is responsible for creating WBS for their assigned
projects, with input from other team members.
 Components of a WBS
• Level 1 of the WBS describes the project name
reflective of the project’s main objective e.g.
• Level 2: main objectives are broken down into logical
clusters by identifying the major project elements/
major deliverables
• Deliverable: Quantifiable outcome/result of a
task/activity- what you create/produce- to meet
project objectives
• Level 2: this level could also be organised by
product/project life cycle phases
• Level 3: Major deliverables are further decomposed
into smaller clusters- deliverables
 Components of a WBS

• Deliverables are decomposed further to several levels

• Smallest work component that no further
decomposition is possible OR lowest-level deliverable
of a WBS branch is a Work Package
• WP is a group of related tasks within a project
• Multiple related WPs form a Summary Activity.
• Summary activity - summarizes what is achievable
if all the work components within it are completed.
E.g. WBS comps 1.1 and 1.2 are WPs that when
completed the summary activity “Prepare site” is
achieved.
 COMPONENTS OF A WBS

Project Title-
objective

Major Major Major

Deliverable Deliverable Deliverable
Delivera
Deliverabl Deliverable D’ble Deliverable D’ble
Deliver ble
e
able
WP WP WP
 REPRESENTING the WBS
Two main ways of presenting a WBS- both show the hierarchical
decomposition of the total scope of work:
i. Graphical format
Build Wooden Deck

Clear
Prepare site Purchase Materials Construct Deck
site

Dig
Buy footin Build
Level Source Lay Seal
Remove wooden gs frame
site quotat wood wood
litter boards
ions
 Approaches in Developing WBS
ii. List format
❑ BUILD WOODEN DECK
1.Prepare the site
1.1. Remove litter
1.2 level the site
2. Purchase material
2.1 Source quotations
2.2 Buy wooden boards
3. Construct Deck
3.1 Dig Footings
3.2 Build frame
3.3 Lay the wood
3.4. Seal the wood
4. Clear site
 Guidelines for Creating a WBS
1. Identify and analyse outputs/major project elements-
from Scope statement- major deliverables
2. Decomposition- breakdown top-tier project elements
into smaller components parts.
i. To move down you should answer “what should
be done to complete this task?”e.g. What should
be done to clear site (task)?- Remove litter, Level
site
ii. 100% rule- adding up all work packages into
summary activities, and when summary activities
are all incorporated, the WBS should = work to be
done to meet deliverables.
• WPs should also not add up to >100% of the scope
of summary activities- shows off scope work
 Decomposition continued
iii. WBS Components of the WBS are not necessarily
decomposed to same degree
iv. WBS components must always be broken down
into at least 2 or more subcomponents.
• Avoid “single-child” WPs- i.e. one WP under
one summary activity: Sum Activity = WP
• Shows excessive decomposition,
micromanaging team members.
v. Names of WBS components- clear, unambiguous
indicating outcome/action to be performed
• “single verb-noun” naming rule e.g. Prepare Site;
Purchase Materials VS Site, Materials– vague
• Verb = work to be done, noun = the deliverable.
 Decomposition continued
vi. WP must not be too large /require lots of time to
complete
a. “8-80”rule- level of work should not be less than
8 hours (1 day) & not more than 80 hrs (10 days).
b. WP completion time mustn’t be longer than a
single reporting period e.g. team meets
weekly/monthly- so should WPs -monitoring easy
viii.WP completion criteria : clear, measurable & defined
by deliverables- provide std for measuring
completion
 Guidelines for Creating WBS
3. Allocate unique codes to each WBS component
e.g. 1, 1.1, 1.2. … = WBS ID
• Easy to identify and manage components
4. Create a WBS Dictionary – provides info on WBS
components:
▪ Description of work - deliverable/task
▪ Details of who is responsible (person/orgn/
contractor) for delivery; Completion criteria
▪ Costs, and Resources to be used and or skills
required
▪ List of schedule milestones
▪ Quality requirements; Cross references to
related activities
 Example….WBS Dictionary
Level WBS Task (element Description Work product Owners Estimated level
Code name) of Effort
1 1 Prepare site All the work necessary to Site prepared Project 40 hours
clear the site in preparation and ready for manager
for construction construction
2 1.1 Remove litter All work required to remove Clear site Team leader 6 hours
litter from site ready for
construction

3 1.1.1 Sort litter for Separate recyclable litter Recycled

recycling and pack away material

3 1.1.2 Transport to All work require to get litter Cleared site

Dumpsite to dumpsite
1 2 Purchase All work necessary to Procured
material procure building material wood on site
2 2.1 Source Get quotes from different Quotations
Quotations vendors for all required
material
2 3.2 Build frame All procedures for building completed
frame frame
1 4 Clear site All procedures for clearing Cleared site
the site with no
rubbles or
litter
 Benefits of WBS

1. Provides detailed breakdown of the total scope of

the project to stakeholders
2. Decomposition results in smaller sized work
components that are easy to manage:
i. Makes it easier to assign responsibilities- its
clear what is to be done and by who
ii. Facilitates resource allocation- each activity gets
to be costed for labour and other resources
iii. Helps identify components of the project which
can be sub-contracted
iv. Foundation of control processes within the
project
 Benefits of WBS

3. Helps in identifying risks- during WBS creation the

team may identify less defined areas, posing risk
4. Basis for developing project schedule & budget- By
allocating time & cost estimates to specific WBS
sections
5. Basis for communication plan - the project manager
can identify communication points - Helps to ease
communication with all stakeholders
6. Increased confidence that 100% of the work is
identified and gets done
7. Facilitates dialogue as PM and the team go through
WBS creation steps – helps clarify issues early on
 Conclusion

• Statement of
Work: Scope
Process • Scope Baseline:
statement etc. WBS, WBS
• Decomposition Dictionary,
• Requirements Scope statement
list.
Inputs Outputs
 WBS: PHASE-BASED APPROACH

Work can be broken down according to the life cycle components/ phases of
the project- phase based decomposition

Brainstorm Ideas
Concept
Generation
Identify needs

Competitor
analysis

Markert Research Customer analysis

Develop Beauty Soap

Product Analysis

Ingredient
Formula selection
Development Create specific
recipe
Prototyping
Laboratory testing
Production Scaling Product Testing
Customer testing

Packaging design Distribution

Launch
Product
Pricing
marketing

Promotion